The Messed Up Truth About Winston Churchill

May 2024 ยท 1 minute read

Winston Churchill might not have always walked the straight and narrow by modern standards, but seeing as he was an esteemed WWII-era Ally leader, surely his military decisions were as heroic as they come? Yeah, about that... 

As Giles Milton of the Guardian reports, Churchill was actually as huge proponent of using chemical weapons. He advocated their use against the Russian Bolsheviks as well as rebellious locals in northern India, and eventually got his wish during his stint as the secretary of state for war: In the summer of 1919, Churchill unleashed a "sustained chemical attack on northern Russia."

The weapon he used was the terrifying "M Device," a top secret artillery shell containing a gas called diphenylaminechloroarsine. Armed with no less than 50,000 of such devices, the British bombed a series of Bolshevik-occupied northern Russian villages, sending the enemy running in panic as the green gas clouds caused everyone they caught to throw up blood and fall unconscious. However, Churchill was disappointed because the weapons weren't effective enough, and the British called off the attacks and dumped the remaining M Devices in the White Sea. 

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