What if Anthrax was used in WW1?

[SirHalifax]

I found that in OTL, German spies attempted to poison horses earmarked for Entente use with anthrax. What would happen if Germany took this a step further and used anthrax on Entente forces? Obviously, this would backfire, and German troops would be affected too, not to mind Allied retaliation.

With an even more apocalyptic Western front, and Northern France, Belgium, (and possibly the southern Netherlands and a good chunk of Western Germany) being poisoned, what happens now? Is there a WWII?


@ETGalaxy (Pinged since you’re the WWI expert [at least in my mind])

 

[Deleted member 147978]

Come what now?

Okay, poison gas is one thing but Anthrax? I could see whole armies on the Western Front completely hindered because of it.

 

[Veiovis]

Nothing much would happen. Outside of fiction, Bio Weapons are pretty lacklustre.

 

[SirHalifax]

Nothing much would happen. Outside of fiction, Bio Weapons are pretty lacklustre.

Anthrax has a nasty tendency to poison the soil for centuries at least.
This is more about the long term consequences.

 

[Vabasion]

Bioweapon are an escalation to chemical weapons. The threat goes from local and tactical to strategic potentially impacting a nation. There’s be equal response. Civilians are worse of. More death.

 

[Beatriz]

This would likely backfire on the Germans with anthrax being transmitted back in.

 

[Dorknought]

Nothing much would happen. Outside of fiction, Bio Weapons are pretty lacklustre.

Are you sure? The contamination of Gruinard Island seems like Anthrax would be difficult to manage.

From wiki: Original tests on the effectiveness of anthrax were conducted on the island in 1940 and 41 with the bacteria being included in a chemical bomb, which was dropped on 60 sheep that had been shipped over to the island. The bomb itself contained a thick slurry of concentrated anthrax spores and was dropped via a Vickers Wellington bomber plane. This test proved more effective than expected, with all the sheep dying in days, but also infecting a number of farm animals on the mainland months afterwards. It was determined later that one of the buried sheep carcasses had become unearthed due to a major storm and washed ashore. Other tests continued until 1943 when the risk of infecting nearby populations became too great and the island was quarantined from all boat and plane traffic. Because of the widespread contamination from the anthrax spores, the land remained closed until 1990.

 

[YYJ]

I am thinking that if anthrax was used on the trenches, and the spores were scattered on no-man's land, every artillery barrage would throw them into the air again to contaminate whoever happened to be down wind.

 

[SirHalifax]

I am thinking that if anthrax was used on the trenches, and the spores were scattered on no-man's land, every artillery barrage would throw them into the air again to contaminate whoever happened to be down wind.

I’m guessing the Allies and Germans would adjust the timing of their barrages accordingly?