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Poison Gas Paris Gun
What if, in early 1918 as the Germans are getting ready to deploy the Paris Gun, they belatedly realize the anemic load of high-explosives in the shells (roughly the equivalent of a WWII 75mm Sherman tank gun) isn’t going to do much damage to Paris and hit on the idea of loading the shells with poison gas instead?
At the same time, the German zeppelin fleet realizes aerial bombing with HE isn’t very effective either, as the zeppelins need to fly at too low an altitude to aim and are subject to fighter and AA defenses, suggest simultaneous poison gas bombing attacks against London instead?
What are the effects on Paris and London?
How to the Allies respond?
What are the post-war effects (as Germany is still going to lose in the end)?
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>>1456921
>poison gas bombing attacks against London instead?
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>>1456921
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>>1456921
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Gun
The Paris Gun (German: Paris-Geschütz) was the name given to a type of German long-range siege gun, several of which were used to bombard Paris during World War I. They were in service from March to August 1918. When the guns were first employed, Parisians believed they had been bombed by a high-altitude Zeppelin, as the sound of neither an aeroplane nor a gun could be heard.
The Paris Gun shells weighed 106kg (234lb).[1]:120 The shells initially used had a diameter of 216mm (8.5in) and a length of 960mm (38in).[1]:120 The main body of the shell was composed of thick steel, containing 7kg (15lb) of TNT.[1]:120[Note 2] The small amount of explosive – around 6.6% of the weight of the shell – meant that the effect of its shellburst was small for the shell's size.[5] The thickness of the shell casing, to withstand the forces of firing, meant that shells would explode into a comparatively small number of large fragments, limiting their destructive effect.[5] A crater produced by a shell falling in the Tuileries Garden was described by an eye–witness as being 10 to 12ft (3.0 to 3.7m) across and 4ft (1.2m) deep.[6]
As military weapons, the Paris Guns were not a great success: the payload was small, the barrel required frequent replacement and its accuracy was only good enough for city-sized targets. The German objective was to build a psychological weapon to attack the morale of the Parisians, not to destroy the city itself.
A total of around 320 to 367 shells were fired, at a maximum rate of around 20 per day. The shells killed 250 people and wounded 620, and caused considerable damage to property. The worst incident was on 29 March 1918, when a single shell hit the roof of the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church, collapsing the entire roof on to the congregation then hearing the Good Friday service. A total of 91 people were killed and 68 were wounded.
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>>1456931
On 20 March 1915, temporarily forbidden from bombing London by the Kaiser, Z X (LZ 29), LZ 35 and the Schütte-Lanz airship SL 2 set off to bomb Paris: SL 2 was damaged by artillery fire while crossing the front and turned back but the two Zeppelins reached Paris and dropped 1,800 kg (4,000 lb) of bombs, killing only one and wounding eight. On the return journey Z X was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and was damaged beyond repair in the resulting forced landing. Three weeks later LZ 35 suffered a similar fate after bombing Poperinghe.[39] Two further missions were flown against Paris in January 1916: on 29 January LZ 79 killed 23 and injured another 30 but was so severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire that it crashed during the return journey. A second mission by LZ 77 the following night bombed the suburbs of Asnières and Versailles, with little effect.[40][41]
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>>1456921
>(roughly the equivalent of a WWII 75mm Sherman tank gun)
Sorry, I misremembered the total weight of the Sherman's HE shell as being the weight of the HE load, which in fact was;
Bursting charge was 1.49 lb TNT or 1.36 lb 50/50 Amatol or 1.52 lb trimonite
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>>1456921
Gas wasn't really that effective beyond its psychological effects. It had tactical value, but you couldn't simply shell Paris and hope for everyone to die or something - it simply wouldn't work. It's not deadly enough to be applied strategically. In general, the effectiveness of gas is overrated. It's good when used tactically in combination with conventional artillery and infantry, but it's not good all by itself.
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>>1456921
You need a lot of shells fired in rapid succession to get a good gas cloud going.
The Paris gun was slow to load and its payload was puny compared to the size of the gun.
Gas wouldn't have been effective.
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>>1458108
> Gas wasn't really that effective beyond its psychological effects.
The Paris Gun was designed as a terror weapon from the start. The Germans knew the small HE load wouldn’t do much physical damage, the hoped for result was panicking the population of Paris into pressuring the French government for a cease fire.
>>1458363
>Gas wouldn't have been effective.
It would have been far more effective then HE;
“A total of around 320 to 367 shells were fired, at a maximum rate of around 20 per day. The shells killed 250 people and wounded 620.”
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What if forums never discuss anything new, but keep asking the same dumb questions and getting the same dumb answers?
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