Nerve Agents

Nerve Agents are organic chemicals (the branch of chemistry that deals with carbon compounds) that prevent the breakdown of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.

(https://www.opcw.org/about-chemical-weapons/types-of-chemical-agent/nerve-agents/)

Acetylcholine is responsible for arousal, attention, memory and motivation, it allows for the nerve cells to send signals and communicate with all the other cells.

(http://www.compoundchem.com/2014/10/07/nerveagentspart1/)

The first class of Nerve Agents (the G-series - Tabun, Sarin, Cyclosarin and Soman - some of the most powerful nerve agents in existence) were discovered back from 1936 by German chap called #Schrader.

(Gerhard Schrader - creator of tabun and sarin - https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i41/Nazi-origins-deadly-nerve-gases.html)

He was messing about with compounds to try and improve insecticide and eventually he ended up creating a chemical called Tabun ((RS)-Ethyl N,N-Dimethylphosphoramidocyanidate), noticing how very effective it was at killing leaf lice.

In 1937 an accidental spillage of Tabun onto a workbench caused Schrader and his colleague to experience the effects of the poison first hand as they experienced shortness of breath, dilated pupils, sickness, taking over 3 weeks to fully recover.

The effects of Tabun

We have since discovered that Tabun causes the nose to run, the mouth to salivate, the lungs to secrete mucus, the heartbeat to slow, the body to sweat, the loss of bowel and bladder control, the body to seize and convulse, the brain to lose consciousness, the lungs to blister, the breathing to stop… it’s not a pretty sight. All nerve agents act like this, but some are more powerful than others.

(http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeadlyGas)

In minute doses Tabun can be lethal. Absorbed through the skin the process is a bit slower compared to inhaling directly to the lungs or dripped through the eyes, you have about 2 hours extra to try and survive if contact is via the skin compared to about 10 minutes when inhaled or eyeballed.

Tabun is prone to irritating the eyes more than other Agents, its chemical compound breaks down more slowly in the body.

The Antidote Options

Bleach power was found to destroy Tabun but the byproduct would be the poisonous gas cyanogen chloride.

Eventually an antidote was created, which currently involves 3 different injections which have to be administered as soon as possible.

Antropine (found in plants such as deadly nightshade, jimson weed and mandrake) was used for treatment of over-exposure to pesticides and it was learned that it also works as treatment against some forms of Nerve Agent, Tabun being one of them. It has to be injected into the muscle for rapid effect, and also used alongside obidoxime (which reverses the bindings of Acetylcholine, clearing these enzymes away from blocking the receptors allowing the nerve cells to start communicating again.

In developed cases of nerve-gas poisoning, Atropine is often used in conjunction with pralidoxime chloride, which is like an extra booster removal chemical that supports obidozime with the removal of hard-binded Acetylcholine blockages..

World War II - the German Side

Because the 2nd World War was kicking off around this time of discovery, Schrader had to send off a sample of his Tabun insecticide off to the Ministry of War because 2 years before, the government had issued a new law requiring that any discovery that could be of Military significance had to be reported.

(https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i41/Nazi-origins-deadly-nerve-gases.html)

It wasn’t long before all of Schrader’s research and funding was marked as a classified secret. Schrader was forced to move to a new lab and continued to work on researching these substances in secret for the rest of the duration of the war.

(http://www.environet.eu/tox/etoxcw.htm)

However the production and experiments on nerve agents were passed on to other researchers such as Dr. Wirth (who became Chief Doctor at the Auschwitz concentration camp.) It wasn’t long before Sarin was created.

(https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i41/Nazi-origins-deadly-nerve-gases.html)

Although Schrader worked intermittently on a manufacturing process for Sarin, the Army expanded its technical staff and asserted full control over the development effort, limiting his involvement. Schrader resented being excluded, complaining that the engineers were mismanaging the process development and causing lengthy delays. He was also suspicious of the secrecy surrounding the physiological development laboratory where Dr. Wirth and his colleagues were conducting experiments with Tabun and Sarin
(https://forum.axishistory.com//viewtopic.php?t=101711)

Hochwerk and The Dyhernfurth Prison Sites

(https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i41/Nazi-origins-deadly-nerve-gases.html)

In 1940 the Germans built a secret factory called Hochwerk (meaning High Factory) it was 1.5 miles by 0.5 miles wide, designed to produce Tabun on a large scale. (Had they won the war, the Nazis planned on turning it into Europes biggest Chlorine factory.)

The production of Tabun was essentially made in the same way in which Schrader had developed it, but sized up for industrial use. When the factory was up and running (2 years later than planned due to many problems in design and containing chemicals), it could produce 1000 metric tons of Tabun every 24 hours.

(http://mediworldrkr.blogspot.com/2010/06/discaover-of-nerve-gas-in-germany-and.html)

But Tabun turned out to be extremely hazardous - 300 people were killed during in the first 2 years of building, before production even started.

"No technicians were allowed to enter the operating chamber while the production of Tabun was underway. Instead, the operators opened and closed valves with long-handled mechanical levers that penetrated the double glass walls through rubber-sealed gaskets. This system enabled them to control the flow of chemical ingredients to and from the reaction kettles without being exposed to the deadly fumes
(https://forum.axishistory.com//viewtopic.php?t=101711)

But unfortunately the seals had not be tight enough and all of the technicians working in this area became subject to low-level Tarun poisoning.

Workers were allowed to wear respirators and protective suits, but they didn’t help much. If anyone was contaminated they were stripped down and bathed in a sodium bicarbonate solution.

All members of the staff working at Dyhernfurth were never free at one time from the effects of Tabun.

Testing the gas was extremely dangerous as there is no perceptible threshold of irritation like with other gases, by the time one is aware of of the symptoms it is already too late to put on a respirator. The gas is not suitable for spraying but will be used in gas shells.
(Unknown Informer for the British)

They discovered that high amounts of body fats helped to ward off low concentrations of Tabun so extra rations of milk and fatty foods were issue to staff.

Early in the war, guinea pigs and white rats were found to be inadequate for testing Tabun and Sarin, so apes were used instead because their physiological reactions were closer to those of humans. The Speer ministry purchased a colony of apes from Spain at a cost of 250,000 Swiss francs and transported them to Germany by train, but many of the animals died in transit. Given the difficulty and high cost of procuring nonhuman primates, it was decided to experiment on concentration camp inmates.
((https://forum.axishistory.com//viewtopic.php?t=101711))

(https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/sarin-nerve-gas-i-g-farben-and-the-nazis/)

Two concentration camps were built for the purpose of using prisoners of war as test subjects in these chemical experiments and laborers of the "business"; Dyhernfurth I and Dyhernfurth II
(named after the Dyhrn family)

(https://www.ww2aerialreconstudies.com/-dyhernfurth--.html)

The Dyhernfurth I inmates were forced to produce the gas and fill bombs and shells with it, the prisoners of the second camp were primarily forced to work on enlarging the plant.

Dyhernfurth was a forced labor factory: Over the course of the war, hundreds of inmates died of toxic exposure, overwork, disease, and malnutrition, and they looked like “walking corpses” to nearby town residents.

In the first two months, 50 prisoners were shipped in to #Dyhernfurth. The numbers soon reached 200 and all prisoners were forced to work, with no leisure time or days off, and in utterly poor conditions where diseases spread, no medications available, and all prisoners suffering from malnutrition along with daily tortures and beatings.

Dyhernfurth II was built to keep up with demands, and was used for prisoners who had been sentenced to death. These would be perfect to experiment on without the hassles of human rights or intervention.

Later on Jewish prisoners were thrown into the equation and these guys had an even worse deal than the other prisoners. They were truly hated. In 1944, 2000 jewish prisoners were brought to Dyhernfurth, they were all killed within 3 weeks of arrival.

Reports are pretty grim. One guy had 2 litres of Tabun poured into his protective suit, killing him in 2 minutes. 4 pipe fitters died when a large amount of Tabun drained onto them as they were cleaning the pipes, they died in convulsions before their suits could be torn off, 7 workmen got blasted in the face with Tabun which got between their face and the mask, forcing them to remove their masks only to inhale even more tabun. Only 2 people survived from this incident.

Upon autopsy of the 5 dead workers, it was noted that their lungs and brains were thickly congested.

In the end around 20,000 tons of Tabun was produced until the factory was captured by the Soviet Army and moved to the USSR.

Producing or stockpiling tabun was banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. The worldwide stockpiles declared under the convention were 2 tonnes, and as of December 2015 these stockpiles had been destroyed.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve_agent#Discovery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcholine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabun_(nerve_agent)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Wirths
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Dyhernfurth&item_type=topic
https://books.google.co.uk/books - A Narrow Bridge to Life
https://books.google.co.uk - A Higher Form Of Killing