THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE: ORGANIZING FOR WAR. By Leo P. Brophy and George J. B. Fisher. (1959, 1989; 498 pages, 16 tables, 11 charts, 1 map, 32 illustrations, bibliographical note, glossary, index, CMH Pub 10-1.)

The first part of this volume is an administrative history of the Chemical Warfare Service from its inception until 1946, when it became the Chemical Corps. This part covers the experience of World War I, at home and with the American Expeditionary Forces; the trying years from 1920 to 1939 when the new service had to contend with military parsimony and the public opprobrium attached to gas warfare; and then with the greatly expanded functions of the service in World War II.

In that war the Chemical Warfare Service was responsible for training not only its own service troops and specialized combat units for chemical mortar, smoke generator, and chemical air operations, but also for training the whole Army to cope with chemical warfare, and, incidentally, for training civilians for defense against the use of chemicals in case of enemy attack. These training missions are the subject of Part II.

In 1942 the Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service was designated to head a United States Chemical Warfare Committee, which worked out with the British combined policies and plans for chemical warfare--an experience described in Part I, Chapter IV.

Key topics:
1. The status of gas warfare in international treaties (Ch. II).
2. Plans for use of poisonous gases in World War II (Chs. II-IV).
3. Industrial manpower problems in producing chemical weapons (Ch. VII).
4. Civilian-defense preparations and training (Ch. X).
5. Antigas training of Army air and ground units (Ch. XVI).
6. American preparations for gas warfare in World War I (Ch. I).
7. Problems in wartime expansion of production, testing, and storage facilities (Ch. VI).
8. Problems in the production of training and technical manuals (Ch. XI).

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9. The training of officer candidates (Ch. XV).