Foreword
Rather belatedly, the United States Army in preparing for World War II investigated on an intensive and very large scale the chemical munitions that might be necessary or useful in fighting the Axis powers. This effort required the collaboration of a host of civilian scientists and research centers as well as a great expansion of the laboratories and proving grounds of the Chemical Warfare Service itself. A similar development, recounted at the beginning of this work, came too late to influence the outcome of World War I. In World War II, on the other hand, the Army not only prepared against gas warfare sufficiently well to discourage its employment by the enemy, but also developed a number of new chemical weapons that contributed materially to victory. The authors add perspective and interest to their story by telling very briefly about corresponding German and Japanese activity.
The manufacture of chemical munitions in quantity was possible only through a rapid expansion of private industry to support and supplement the work of Army arsenals. Both necessity and choice led the Chemical Warfare Service to make widespread use of small industrial concerns throughout the United States, and the account of production in this work is especially pertinent to a consideration of the problems involved in military contracting with small business on a big scale. In this and other respects, From Laboratory to Field complements other volumes in the Army series dealing with problems of military procurement. Readers generally as well as members of the Chemical Corps particularly should find it instructive.
Warren H. Hoover
Colonel, U.S.A.
Acting Chief of Military History
Washington, D.C.
9 June 1959
The Authors
Dr. Leo P. Brophy holds an A.B. degree from Franklin and Marshall College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Fordham University. After teaching history and sociology at Fordham and Seton Hall Universities, he joined the staff of the Chemical Corps Historical Office in 1945. He has specialized in administrative and logistic history. Since 1953 Dr. Brophy has served as Chief of the Chemical Corps Historical Office. He is coauthor of The Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War.
Dr. Wyndham D. Miles has an M.S. degree in organic chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in History of Science from Harvard. After working in industry as a research chemist, and teaching chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University, he joined the staff of the Chemical Corps Historical Office in 1953.
Dr. Rexmond C. Cochrane obtained a Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University and was a member of the Chemical Corps Historical Office from 1945 until 1948. After teaching at Indiana University and the University of Virginia, he returned to the Historical Office as a consultant historian. He is at present a Research Associate in the Department of History, University of Maryland.