The British Had A Plan To Drop Anthrax Laced Cattle Feed Over Germany In 1942

Updated Nov 27, 2020 6:34 PM EST

Under the darkly ironic codename Operation Vegetarian, the United Kingdom developed a scheme to respond in kind should Nazi Germany unleash a biological warfare attack on the British mainland during World War II. The fear of Hitler employing germ warfare was very real, intensifying after the fall of France in the summer of 1940, after which the United Kingdom was expected to be the next major target of the German military conquest of Western Europe.

Chair of the Bacteriological Committee in the United Kingdom, Lord Maurice Hankey urged Prime Minister Winston Churchill to look into the practicality of biological weapons “so as to put ourselves in a position to retaliate if such abominable weapons should be used against us.” Churchill agreed and set up a team of scientists at Porton Down, a top-secret laboratory in Wiltshire, southwest England, to embark on a project examining options for reprisal — should it ever be needed.

The choice of biological weapon fell on anthrax . Caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis , anthrax is a familiar agent of biological warfare. Anthrax spores occur in nature and can be produced in a lab. The spores can be delivered in the form of powders or sprays, or via contaminated food and water, and can persist in the environment for decades. Humans contract the disease when spores enter the body via a cut or scrape (cutaneous anthrax), via inhalation (pulmonary) or by consumption of infected meat (gastrointestinal). While pulmonary is the most lethal (around 80% mortality, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ), the gastrointestinal version used for Operation Vegetarian still results in death in between 25% and 75% of cases. These figures all depend on levels of exposure and availability of antibiotics, which can usually treat cutaneous anthrax.

Maurice Hankey, in 1934., WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Tests were conducted on Gruinard Island on Scotland’s north coast and on Penclawdd off the Welsh coast. The former was bombarded with anthrax spores from the air by Vickers Wellington medium bombers, killing the island’s resident sheep within three days. Penclawdd, meanwhile, was attacked by a Bristol Blenheim in a follow-up test. The twin-engine bomber delivered a single device from around 5,000 feet. Its target was two lines of sheep — 60 in all — placed downwind of the impact point. The three pounds of liquid anthrax spores were found only to have killed two animals outright. Nevertheless, after these trials, anthrax was judged 100 times more effective than a chemical agent on a weight-for-weight basis.

January 1942 saw the go-ahead for Britain’s production of anthrax on a large scale with the War Cabinet simultaneously recommending that it be used against Germany as a reprisal weapon if Britain was attacked using germ warfare. Porton Down scientists by 1943 had produced an operational stockpile of five million cattle cakes infected with anthrax spores. Under Operation Vegetarian, these were to be delivered by Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster bombers — 12 in total — that would drop the deadly cargo over northern Germany. Aiming for farmland rather than population centers, the scheme was planned to wipe out the country’s beef and dairy cattle. As well as removing a vital food source, the bacterium would also work its way into the human food chain that was expected to lead to fatalities numbering tens or hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

The Lancaster was an obvious choice for the mission, had it ever been sanctioned. The four-engine type had entered service in December 1941 and would go on to excel both as a conventional heavy bomber and in a range of more unconventional missions, including dropping the 22,000-pound “Grand Slam” earthquake bomb and the “Upkeep” bouncing bombs that breached German dams in the raids of May 1943.

Of course, Hitler never sanctioned the use of biological warfare for reasons that have never been fully explained. It’s been speculated he may have had an aversion to germ warfare based on his experience of being gassed in World War I or his phobia of microbes . The Nazis nonetheless carried out research in this area including establishing an entomological institute to study the physiology and control of insects that inflict harm to humans.

British anthrax stockpiled under Operation Vegetarian was ultimately destroyed at the end of the war — all but two crates of infected cattle cakes were incinerated. It’s not clear what became of the remainder, but the spores they contained were still judged to be effective as of 1955.

The defeat of Nazi Germany was not the end of British interest in biological warfare. On the contrary, with the beginning of the Cold War, the focus now turned to the Soviet Union, which had begun its own experiments in the field before World War II and which had captured a Japanese biological weapons facility in Manchuria.

The effect of the anthrax tests on the British islands was dramatic and long-lasting, including reports of livestock deaths on the Scottish mainland after an infected sheep carcass from Gruinard was washed up on a beach. According to Porton Down’s official account, the mile-long island was not fully decontaminated until 1986 following a painstaking sterilization process amid mounting public pressure .

Today, Porton Down continues to play a role in biological and chemical weapons – rather than developing them for potential wartime use, it’s now tasked with developing countermeasures. It was also a focus of attention in the wake of the poisoning by nerve agent of former Russian military officer and double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, in nearby Salisbury in March 2018.

A scientist at the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, 2011., CROWN COPYRIGHT

Operation Vegetarian — details of which for many years remained within classified the National Archives — is clearly one of the more extreme plans hatched by the Allies during World War II, but it’s a clear reminder of the kind of thinking at the highest military levels during one of the darkest periods in Europe’s history.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2020年11月27日下午6:34

在极具讽刺意味的代号“素食行动”下，英国制定了一项计划，以应对纳粹德国在二战期间对英国本土发动的生物战攻击。人们对希特勒使用细菌战的担忧并非空穴来风，尤其是在1940年夏天法国沦陷后，这种担忧更加强烈，因为英国很可能成为德国征服西欧的下一个主要目标。

英国细菌学委员会主席莫里斯·汉基勋爵敦促首相温斯顿·丘吉尔研究生物武器的可行性，“以便我们能够在遭受此类可憎武器攻击时进行报复”。丘吉尔同意了，并在位于英格兰西南部威尔特郡的绝密实验室波顿唐设立了一个科学家团队，着手研究在必要时采取报复措施的方案。

最终选择的生物武器是炭疽杆菌。炭疽杆菌是由炭疽杆菌引起的，是一种常见的生物战剂。炭疽芽孢天然存在，也可在实验室中人工合成。芽孢可以以粉末或喷雾剂的形式传播，也可以通过受污染的食物和水传播，并且可以在环境中存活数十年。人类感染炭疽的途径包括：芽孢通过伤口或擦伤进入人体（皮肤炭疽）、吸入（肺炭疽）或食用受感染的肉类（胃肠道炭疽）。虽然肺炭疽的致死率最高（据美国食品药品监督管理局统计，死亡率约为80%），但“素食行动”中使用的胃肠道炭疽的致死率仍然在25%到75%之间。这些数字都取决于接触程度和抗生素的可用性，而抗生素通常可以治疗皮肤炭疽。

莫里斯·汉基，1934 年。维基媒体共享资源

在苏格兰北海岸的格鲁伊纳德岛和威尔士海岸附近的彭克劳德岛都进行了试验。格鲁伊纳德岛遭到维克斯·威灵顿中型轰炸机的空中炭疽孢子轰炸，岛上的绵羊在三天内全部死亡。与此同时，彭克劳德岛在后续试验中遭到布里斯托尔·布伦海姆轰炸机的攻击。这架双引擎轰炸机从约5000英尺（约1500米）的高空投掷了一枚炭疽孢子。目标是位于投弹点下风处的两排绵羊，共60只。结果发现，这三磅（约1.4公斤）液态炭疽孢子只当场杀死了两只动物。尽管如此，这些试验之后，炭疽杆菌被认为在同等重量下比化学制剂的杀伤力高出100倍。

1942年1月，英国获准大规模生产炭疽杆菌，同时战时内阁建议，如果英国遭到德国的细菌战攻击，应将炭疽杆菌作为报复性武器用于德国。到1943年，波顿唐实验室的科学家们已经生产出500万块感染炭疽芽孢的牛饼，并建立了可操作的储备。根据“素食行动”，这些牛饼将由英国皇家空军的12架兰开斯特轰炸机投放至德国北部。该计划的目标是农田而非人口中心，旨在消灭德国的肉牛和奶牛。除了摧毁重要的食物来源外，这种细菌还会进入人类食物链，预计将导致数万、数十万甚至数百万人死亡。

如果这项任务获得批准，兰开斯特轰炸机显然是最佳选择。这款四引擎轰炸机于1941年12月投入使用，后来在常规重型轰炸和一系列非常规任务中都表现出色，包括投掷22000磅重的“大满贯”地震炸弹和在1943年5月空袭中炸毁德国水坝的“维护”跳弹。

当然，希特勒从未批准使用生物战，个中缘由至今仍未完全明了。有人猜测，他可能因为在一战中遭受毒气攻击的经历，或是出于对微生物的恐惧，而对细菌战抱有反感。尽管如此，纳粹还是开展了这方面的研究，包括建立了一个昆虫研究所，专门研究对人类有害昆虫的生理特性和防治方法。

英国在“素食行动”中储备的炭疽菌最终在战争结束时被销毁——除两箱受感染的牛饼外，其余全部被焚毁。剩余的牛饼下落不明，但据判断，截至1955年，其中所含的炭疽孢子仍然有效。

纳粹德国的战败并未终结英国对生物战的兴趣。恰恰相反，随着冷战的开始，英国的关注点转向了苏联。苏联在二战前就已开始进行生物战实验，并且攻占了位于满洲的日本生物武器设施。

炭疽试验对英国岛屿的影响巨大且持久，其中包括格鲁伊纳德岛一具受感染的绵羊尸体被冲上苏格兰大陆海滩后，导致当地牲畜死亡的报道。据波顿丘陵岛官方记载，在公众压力日益增大的情况下，经过艰苦细致的消毒程序，这座长约一英里的岛屿直到1986年才彻底清除污染。

如今，波顿唐恩研究所仍然在生物和化学武器领域扮演着重要角色——但它不再是为潜在的战争用途研发这些武器，而是负责研发应对措施。2018年3月，前俄罗斯军官兼双面间谍谢尔盖·斯克里帕尔及其女儿尤利娅·斯克里帕尔在附近的索尔兹伯里遭神经毒剂毒害，此后，该研究所也成为了关注的焦点。

2011年，英国国防科技实验室（位于波顿唐）的一位科学家。（版权所有）

“素食行动”（其细节多年来一直被国家档案馆列为机密）显然是二战期间盟军制定的最极端的计划之一，但它清楚地表明了在欧洲历史上最黑暗的时期之一，最高军事层面的思维方式。

联系作者：thomas@thedrive.com

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