“ Winston Churchill authorised the use of the “most devastating chemical weapon ever devised” against the Russian Bolsheviks at the end of the First World War, a noted historical author has revealed.
Giles Milton, who was speaking to The Telegraph following his appearance at the Wigtown Book Festivalto promote his new book, Russian Roulette, said: “Churchill, who was secretary of state for war at the time, wanted to really go hard against the Bolsheviks in Russia. He wanted to support the White Army in their fight against the Red Army but the Government simply refused to countenance that.
“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. 50,000 of them 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.”
Milton, 47, illustrated Churchill’s commitment to the use of chemical weapons, explaining that he had also supported their use against rebellious tribes in North India. “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.” “
