Winston Churchill 'wanted to use most devastating
chemical weapon ever devised' on Russian Bolsheviks at the end of
WWI
By STUART
WOLEDGE
He is feted as a national hero, but new evidence has come to
light that Winston Churchill once ordered 50,000 of the most
devastating chemical weapons ever made to be dropped on
Russia.
In two months at the end of the First World War, Churchill
authorised the M Device - shells with chemical tips - to be dropped
over villages and military posts held by the revolutionary
Bolsheviks in northern Russia.
Then secretary of state for war, Churchill had wanted the
British Government to support the White Army in its civil bitter
fight for power with the Bolshevik Red Army, according to Giles
Milton author of Russian Roulette.
Mr Milton told The
Telegraph Churchill had wanted to 'really go hard
against the Bolsheviks, who had seized power from Tsar Nicholas II
in 1917.
He said: 'The British had developed this highly secret
chemical weapon called the M Device, which is like a shell with a
canister of gas on the end.
'It was developed at Porton laboratories in Wiltshire and
described by the head of munitions as the most devastating chemical
weapon ever devised. It had been invented but not
used.
'Churchill’s idea was to use the M Device against the Russian
Bolsheviks. Fifty-thousand were taken up in planes and then dropped
on the Bolshevik Red Army positions and Bolshevik controlled
villages in northern Russia between August and September
1918.'
Although Churchill had wanted to help the White Army, the
Government refused to take sides.
Mr Milton,
47, has also revealed Churchill wanted to use chemical weapons
against rebellious tribes in North
India.
He added:
'What I found really shocking was when he wrote this internal memo
to the India Office, along the lines of ‘we should use it against
the tribes on the North West front. They’re really troublesome,
let’s gas them.'
'There’s a line in the memo that says "I really don’t
understand this squeamishness about poison gas". Today that reads
pretty badly.'
Cabinet minister: When
Churchill ordered the chemical weapons to be dropped on the
Bolsheviks, he was secretary of state for war. Pictured here at
Enfield munitions factory in 1915
Bloody: Bolshevik soldiers
take aim at their rival Mensheviks during the struggle for power in
1917
Minority: In 1917 the
Bolsheviks were in the minority, but that did not stop them seizing
power and ordering the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his
family
Mr Milton explained he was researching material for his new
book when he discovered a document in the National Archives that
had been written by British scientists, who had been sent to Russia
to record the effects of the M Device.
Shortly after breathing it in, victims started vomiting
blood. They then fell unconscious.
Mr Milton said the British tried to 'play it down' by
claiming fatalities were limited. But Russian evidence tells an
altogether different story, with one soldier claiming 50 of his
comrades were killed.
Revolutionary zeal: This
image from about 1900 shows Vladimir Ilych Lenin addressing a
crowd. Stalin, Trotsky and Kamenev stand behind him
Support: Churchill wanted
to support the White Army against the Bolsheviks. Pictured, the
North Russia Intervention saw the allies invade land at Archangel
and drive the Bolsheviks back
Despite their fearsome reputation, the M Device did not prove
as devastating as Churchill had hoped and thousands of the shells
were dumped in the White Sea on the north-west coast of Russia
because they were too unstable to fly home.
Asked what effect the latest revelation could have
Churchill's image, Mr Milton said: 'He’s a great Briton but there
are other sides to his character. He was advocating the mass use of
chemical weapons.'
Mr Milton's new book, Russian Roulette, is the true account
of British spies who were sent to Russia to undermine Lenin's plot
to bring down British India.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2440225/Winston-Churchill-wanted-use-devastating-chemical-weapon-devised-Russian-Bolsheviks-end-WW1.html