Why Didn't Hitler Use His Nerve Gas?

The Wolf's Lair, 15 May 1943. A chemist named Otto Ambros briefs Hitler on poison gas. Germany has something no Allied country has: tabun, a nerve agent. It will make around twelve thousand tons of it. "In this we have a monopoly," Hitler says. Ambros, by his own account, tells him the enemy probably has it too. Germany never fires it at an enemy. So why didn't Hitler use his nerve gas? Was it his own memory of being gassed in 1918, fear of Allied bombers over German cities, or a bluff the Allies never knew they were running? And why was the leader who put a gas attack on paper in the summer of 1944 Winston Churchill? We follow both sides through fourteen decisions: the 1925 Geneva Protocol and its catch, Britain's 1940 plans for the invasion beaches, Stimson's "keep our mouths tight shut", Churchill's 1942 broadcast, the tabun factory at Dyhernfurth, the Wolf's Lair meeting, a prisoner's report from Tunisia that went into a drawer, Roosevelt's "categorically", the Bari disaster, Germany's one-in-three gas masks, D-Day, Churchill's July 1944 minute and his Chiefs of Staff's answer, and Speer's claims at Nuremberg. Nazi Germany never started gas warfare against an army that could shoot back. The same regime murdered millions of people with poison gas in its camps. This video is about the battlefield decision, and why it was never mercy. Was it 1918, the bombers, the bluff, or was gas just never worth it? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Monopoly 2:01 Two Days Before Christmas 3:06 Glowing Coals 4:10 A Promise by Swiss Post 5:01 The Beaches 6:11 Keep Our Mouths Tight Shut 7:08 Knowing Our Hun 8:39 A Factory on the Oder 9:46 What Is the Other Side Doing? 11:09 Astounding Properties 11:50 Categorically 12:42 Dermatitis, Not Yet Diagnosed 14:01 One German in Three 15:19 Six Months 16:31 Here's Where It Gets Complicated 17:58 The Parsons and the Warriors 18:55 Always the Same Three 20:22 A Novel Type of Poison Gas 21:08 One Cold Calculation 21:54 Historians Still Argue 22:26 The Bill 23:03 What the Other Side Was Doing 23:18 So, What's Your Verdict? SELECTED SOURCES Otto Ambros testimony, IG Farben trial (Trials of War Criminals, Vol. VII, pp. 1044–45); Albert Speer, testimony at Nuremberg (21 June 1946) Mielenz affidavit and Karl Brandt testimony, Doctors' Trial (Trials of War Criminals, Vol. I); CIOS report on Raubkammer/Munsterlager (1945) Hansard, 6 July 1944; Churchill broadcast of 10 May 1942; Franklin D. Roosevelt, statement of 8 June 1943 (American Presidency Project); FRUS 1939 Julian Lewis, letters and essays on Churchill and gas warfare (The Times 2013); Barton J. Bernstein, American Heritage (1985); Jonathan B. Tucker, War of Nerves (2006) J. Preuss in One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare (Springer, 2017); Naval History and Heritage Command on Bari; Imperial War Museums on the V-1 Full source list: in the episode dossier. Narration: AI voice (cloned). Animation, maps and sound design made for this channel. Music and sound effects are generated or royalty-free. #WW2 #History #Churchill