World Battlefronts: Gas Alarm

After last week’s heavy bombing of Darmstadt (pop. 115,500), the Allies heard rumors that explosions had burst tanks of chlorine and other poison gases at chemical plants. Stockholm’s Aftontidningen (Evening News) reported details: there were more casualties from the gas than from the bombs. A gas alarm was sounded in Germany for the first time. Darmstadt’s population was told that Americans had dropped gas bombs. Several days later, when a thick sulphurous cloud still hovered over the city, the Germans had to retract this story.