War of the poison dart: How Britain planned to rain death on the Nazis with sewing machine needles
The concept sounds almost medieval in its crude simplicity.
A war strategy to shower enemy troops with tens of thousands of poisoned darts made from sewing machine needles that could bring death in minutes.
Incredibly, it was a plan considered by Britain at the height of the Second World War.
Air raid: A bomber such as this would have dropped the darts
Details, revealed today in secret documents released by the National
Archives, outline the gruesome physical effects of such an attack on
The papers also show how the Government tried to rope the Singer Sewing Machine Company into supplying the needles.
Front line: Armed Nazi soldiers rush forward against Red Army positions during the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union in October 1941
Scientists at Porton Down military science park in Wiltshire used a few prototypes from a local Singer branch, in Salisbury.
Realising they were short of the necessary supplies, Britain's wartime chemical weapons lead, Dr Paul Fildes, wrote to the company himself.
The concept, developed between 1941 and 1945, involved darts
carrying a sufficient amount of poison to cause 'death or disablement'.
Food trials: Contaminated food, such as flour pictured here, was used in trials during the Second World War
More the 30,000 of the darts could be stored in cluster bombs, which
could be dropped onto enemy troops from an aircraft at 3,000ft,
according to the file entitled Research Into Use Of Anthrax And Other
Poisons For Biological Warfare.
Death of a target would occur in 30 minutes if the darts were not removed quickly.
In chilling detail, experts list the side-effects of the specially concocted - but unidentified - poison.
When tested on sheep the animals were 'rendered helpless' within one to five minutes and were dead within half an hour. Effects included profuse salivation and sweating, acute defecation and retching.
Commodities rescue: Masked workers in London hose bleach off a chest before opening it
The files suggest the darts would weigh up to four grams and have a
paper tail. Dropped from high altitude, they were capable of
penetrating the flesh 'for six inches or until stopped by bone'.
Also included in the documents are letters sent between researchers and Singer in Bristol. Due to the secret nature of the project the scientists had not divulged their reason for requesting a particular type of needle.
Dr Fildes wrote: 'It is a little difficult to explain what I want sewing machine needles for...'
A reply from Singer, dated December 24, 1941, begins: 'We are
afraid we do not quite understand your requirements.
'From your remarks,
it would seem the needles are required for some other purpose, other
than sewing machines. In any case, we should like to help you, if at all possible.'
Salvage: Soldiers in Leeds immerse a heavily contaminated sack of flour
The plan was scrapped in 1945 because the darts were considered a 'highly uneconomical weapon'.
Mark Dunton, history specialist at the National Archives, said
Britain had become so desperate to bring the war to an end that it was
prepared to consider anything. 'This kind of weapon would have caused
widespread terror,' he added.
Although the 1925 Geneva Protocol banned biological warfare it would
not have precluded the use of chemical weapons like the darts.
Lethal weapon: This drawing shows the poison dart the British military was planning to develop in late 1941
TOKYO WAS IN OUR SIGHTS
Britain considered attacking Tokyo with chemical weapons more than a year before America dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.
Documents from the government's Chemical Board released yesterday reveal a detailed assessment of a possible assault 15 months before the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
The papers looked at how the climate in Tokyo and its narrow streets would affect the flow of gas. Scientists were considering the use of phosgene, mustard gas and incendiaries.
CHEESE AND MUSTARD (GAS)
Cheese contaminated with mustard gas was fed to volunteers in government experiments during the Second World War.
A series of 15 demonstrations were carried out in 1943 to show how commodities could be salvaged after a chemical attack, the newly-released documents reveal.
At each event, which drew up to 1,000 people, food was laid out on the floor of a gas chamber which was sealed and filled with mustard gas. This was later decontaminated and fed to the public 'without any harmful effects'.