Bibliographical Note
Despite a measure of War Department standardization during World War II, little consistency was found in the zone of interior or theater of operations records relating to the Chemical Warfare Service in World War II. Sources of great importance for one overseas area would prove useless or nonexistent for another. Consequently, while administration and organization records proved most fruitful, portions of this work depend heavily on historical reports, monographs, studies, secondary works, and interviews.
The following is a listing of the archives with an indication of the collections used:
Military Branch, Federal Records Center, General Services Administration, Region No. 3, Alexandria, Virginia—Files of the Office, Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service. These files are cited by using the prefix CWS in the file number. CWS 314.7 and CWS 319.1, properly a part of this collection, are temporarily in the custody of the Office of the Historian, U.S. Army Edgewood Arsenal (formerly U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Office) , and will be transferred to official archives.
Office of Military Archives, National Archives and Records Service—Files of Operations Division and G-4 Division, WDGS; files of Army Service Forces; overseas unit and organization historical files. File number citations for WDGS records are prefixed by the abbreviated designation of the specific staff division; those for Army Service Forces by the letters, SOS or ASF. Although the War Department Adjutant General’s Office was a part of the ASF organization, references to the files for that office are cited with the prefix AG. Overseas unit and organization historical files are not arranged by the normal Army decimal file system, but are cited by the abbreviated unit or organization designation.
Kansas City Records Center—Unit and organization administrative, decimal files. These records are identified in citations by abbreviated unit or organization designation and the decimal file number. They can be distinguished from unit and organization historical files in Office of Military Archives, National Archives, by the presence of the
decimal file number. Several forays were made into the Kansas City collection; the most notable find there were the records of the Chemical Section, Headquarters, North African—Mediterranean Theater of Operations.
Archives of the Air University—Army Air Forces unit and organization records, including administrative, decimal files, and draft histories. Citation is in the same form as those for ground, service, and headquarters organizations and units.
The Marine Corps Archives—Marine Corps unit and organization reports. Citation is in same form as Air Forces and ground units and organizations.
A number of monographs, studies, technical reports, draft histories, and published histories proved to be invaluable for background material, for basic information, and for clues to the location of archival sources. Some of these monographs and studies were prepared by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Office and are now available in the Office, Chief of Military History. Among these, particular note should be made of the World War II series, especially Dr. Paul W. Pritchard’s Smoke Generator Operations in Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations (Study No.); History of German Chemical Warfare in World War II, Part I, Military Aspects, by Generalleutnant Herman Ochsner (Study No. 2); and Lt. Col. Leonard L. McKinney’s two studies, Portable Flame Thrower Operations in World War II (Study No. 4) and Mechanized Flame Thrower Operations in World War II (Study No. 5) . Particularly useful among the draft or partially completed Chemical Corps studies are: Paul W. Pritchard, Ben R. Baldwin, and Alfred J. Bingham, Readiness for Gas Warfare in Theaters of Operations, and Ben R. Baldwin, Operational History of the Chemical Battalions and the 4.2-inch Mortar in World War II, Parts I and II, the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. Rexmond C. Cochrane’s series of monographs on gas warfare in World War I were also used.
The Office, Chief of Military History, provided several other groups of studies and histories. The Army Service Forces monographs on logistical problems were of great assistance as was the History of Allied Force Headquarters. The histories and after action reports of a number of organizations and units from army groups to chemical mortar battalions and even service units were extensively used. In the
group was also the Logistical History of the North African Theater of Operations—Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The unpublished group included draft histories of communications zone, base section, and base organization, especially for the North African—Medi-terranean theater and the Southwest Pacific area. The prize of the unpublished group, from the CWS point of view, is the History of the Chemical Section, U.S. Army Forces Middle Pacific and Predecessor Commands. This history provides considerably more information on that area than does any other source, and, except for gaps in treating preparedness, it is amazingly comprehensive.
The CWS technical reports, along with many evaluations of munitions and plans, both for the United States and its Allies, were deposited in the Technical Library, Army Chemical Center, Md., and have been identified and described in From Laboratory to Field.1 The best World War I source, pending the preparation of an official volume on gas warfare in World War I, is the draft History of the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces. Copies of this study are available in the Technical Library and in the Office of the Historian, U.S. Army Edgewood Arsenal. Finally, as regards monographs and studies, special note should be made of the excellent Marine Corps series on operations in the Pacific. Also worthy of special note is the American Forces in Action series, which has been useful although documented and more complete accounts have in most instances appeared in the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR IL The volumes published in this series have proved invaluable, and the following have been particularly important:
Roy E. Appleman, James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugelar, and John Stevens, Okinawa: The Last Battle (Washington, 1948) .
Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit (Washington, 1961).
Joseph Bykofsky and Harold Larson, The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas (Washington, 1957) .
Ray S. Cline, Washington Command Post: The Operations Division (Washington, 195) .
Philip A. Crowl, Campaign in the Marianas (Washington, 1960) .
Philip A. Crowl and Edmund G. Love, Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls (Washington, 1955) .
Gordon A. Harrison, Cross-Channel Attack (Washington, 1951) .
George F. Howe, Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West (Washington, 1957) .
Richard M. Leighton and Robert W. Coakley, Global Logistics and Strategy, 1940–1943 (Washington, 1955).
Charles B. MacDonald, The Siegfried Line Campaign (Washington, 1963).
Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1942–1943 (Washington, 1953) .
Maurice Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944 (Washington, 1959) .
John Miller, Jr., CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul (Washington, 1959) .
John Miller, Jr., Guadalcanal: The First Offensive (Washington, 1949).
John D. Millett, The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces (Washington, 1954) .
Samuel Milner, Victory in Papua (Washington, 1957) .
Louis Morton, The Fall of the Philippines (Washington, 1953).
Forrest C. Pogue, The Supreme Command (Washington, 1954).
Roland G. Ruppenthal, Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume I (Washington, 1953).
Roland G. Ruppenthal, Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II (Washington, 1959)
Robert Ross Smith, The Approach to the Philippines (Washington, 1953)
Robert Ross Smith, Triumph in the Philippines (Washington, 1963).
Alvin P. Stauffer, The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War Against Japan (Washington, 1956).
In addition to these published works, the authors also consulted Robert W. Coakley and Richard M. Leighton, Global Logistics and Strategy, 1944–1945, a volume in the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II.
Other secondary works consulted were:
Horatio Bond, ed., Fire and the Air War (Boston: National Fire Protection Assn., 195) .
General Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story (New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 195) .
Wesley Frank Craven and James L. Cate, eds., “The Army Air Forces in World War II,” especially vol. II, Europe: TORCH to POINTBLANK, August 1942 to December 1943 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949); vol. III, Europe: ARGUMENT to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951); vol. V, The Pacific: MATTERHORN to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953)
General Walter Krueger, From Down Under to Nippon (Washington: Combat Forces Press, 1953) .
Harold Riegelman, Caves of Biak (New York: Dial, 1955).
C. H. Foulkes, “Gas!” The Story of the Special Brigade (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1934)
Amos A. Fries and Clarence J. West, Chemical Warfare (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1921).
Rudolph Hanslian et al., (3rd ed., Berlin: Mittler, 1939)
Victor Lefebure, The Riddle of the Rhine (New York: The Chemical Foundation, 1923) .
Alden H. Waitt, Gas Warfare (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942) .
Henri le Wita, Autour de la Guerre Chimique (Paris: Tallandier, 1928) .
The authors, with the assistance of other members of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Office staff, interviewed or corresponded with as many overseas CWS officers as could be contacted. While the quality of these interviews varied greatly from individual to individual, most were very helpful. Those which have been cited, and many others used to provide general background material, are presently filed in the Office of the Historian, U.S. Army Edgewood Arsenal. Copies will be included in the permanent historical files when those files are transferred to official archives.