6 C
THURSDAY. MARCH 28. 1963
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON
Roosevelt's Veto Credited With.Bcmning Poison Gas
By FREDERICK H. TREESH
United Preis International
New York-flJPI)-It is a wide
ly held notion that, for hu
manitarian reasons, poison
gas was not used in World
War II - a sort of gentlemen's
agreement on both sides.
But a high-ranking official
of the wartime Office of Stra
tegic Services (OSS) came for
ward this week with a sur
prising story that the Ameri
can military command
planned to saturate the Japa
nese island fortress of Iwo
Jima with nerve gas, fired
from Navy snips. Only a per
sonal veto by President Frank
lin D. Roosevelt spared the
Pacific island which cost 20,.
000 American casualties to
take by conventional means,
said Stanley P. Lovell, for
mer director of research and
development for the OSS,
Lovell also quoted Nazi
Marshal Hermann Goering as
saying at the time of his war
crimes trial, that the allied
invasion force at Normandy
was spared a gas attack be
cause the Germans feared the
gas would disrupt their own
norse-oriented supply system
Goering said the Nazis needed
all available gasoline for their
mechanized Panzer divisions
and Air Force, so material on
tne ground was horsedrawn
Gas Vitwtd
"I tell you, you would have
won tne war years ago if you
naa usea gas - not on our
soldiers but on our transpor
tation system," Goering was
quoted as telling OSS Chief
William J. (Wild Bill) Dono
van.
These and other heretofore
unpublished tales of the su
persecret spy and sabotage
agency were made known by
Lovel In a new book, "Of
Spies and' Stratagems," pub
lished this week by Prentice
Hall. Lovell said he was
pledged to secrecy for 20
years after he became "the
OSS' "Dr. . Moriarty" .(Sher
lock Holmes', sinister adver
sary) in 1942. ' '
One thing Lovell claims the
OSS tried early ii World War
II was to neutralize Hit
ler by injecting .female sex
hormones into his Berchtes
gaden vegetable garden. The
Fuhrer was' suspected of be
ing close to the male-female
line and a heavy dose of hor
mones might have further un
settled him. v V
lies! . . -
ouico ne survived. I can
only assume that the gardener
iook our money and threw the
syringes and medications into
me nearest thicket," said
Lovell.
Plot ApproTfd . ' - i
Lovell said the plot to use
gas on Iwo Jima, the little
known "Lethbridge Report,"
was approved by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and the Pacific
Theater Naval commander,
Adm. Chester W. Nimilz.
It was, Lovell said, a dia
bolical scheme to leak to the
Japanese phoney radio mes
sages about a newly invented
"death ray," allow the Iwo
Jima garrison to relay the re
port to Tokyo and then anni
hilate the defenders with gas.
American Marines then could
take the island without a shot
being fired and, hopefully, the
Japanese at home would be
terror-struck by the enemy's
ghastly death ray weapon
which, In fact, never existed.
The plan was returned to
the OSS marked: "All prior
endorsements denied - Frank
lin D. Roosevelt, commander-
in-chief," Lovell said.
"Admiral Nimitz probably
would deny he ever approved
that plan," Lovell told United
Press International. "But not
one word - so help me God -not
one word in that book is
not the truth!" Lovell now
heads his own chemical firm
in Watertown, Mass., work
ing, among other things, on
k way to develop cement that
hardens more slowly and is
mure waterproof.
Perhaps as far out a plan
as the OSS ever dreamt up
was the plot to blind Hitler
and Mussolini at a secret war
conference in northern Italy
A waiter at the meeting place
was to drop into a flower
vase a liquid that would, with
water, vaporize into nitrogen
mustard gas - colorless, odor
less but permanently blind
ing. Unfortunately, the ever
alert Nazi security changed
the meeting place at the last
minute and the plot failed,
Lovell wrote.
Thus Lovell admits, some
of the OSS' most grandiose
schemes failed. But he told
also of devices and stratagems
that did work-lumps of "coal"
that exploded hundreds of
freight trains fireboxes, elec-1 whom gave their lives for us,
trie-eye detonators that de
railed trains inside Italian
mountain tunnels, flashless
pistols and corset bone stil
letos, oil additives which caus
ed Nazi tanks to burst into
flame, rifle-bullet booby-traps
that protected American Jun
gle patrols, and "Who? Me?,"
a smelly device which morti
fied Japanese officers with
embarrassment at its artificial
human odors.
The dedication of Lovcll's
book reads, in part: "To the
men and women of OSS,
working in solitary danger be
hind enemy lines, so many of
with no hope of recognition
or reward ...
Uncover Plot
They include C-12, a super
agent who, Lovell recalls,
personally uncovered a Ger
man plot to assassinate Roose
velt and Winston Churchill at
the Tehran conference. And
the men of detachment 101
who harassed the Japanese
and killed them by the nun
dreds In the jungles of Burma.
And Jim the Penman, a con
victed counterfeiter and forg
er, who worked for the OSS
with the permission of the
Treasury department.
xor people
a teen-age
But especially
tion was meant
like Marguerite,
French girl refugee. Lovell
told this story about her: She
was a native of a French vil
lage, lying directly behind
Omaha beach, the principal
landing place in the invasion
of Normandy. She was smug
gled back to france with a
suitcase of high explosives to
place In a strategic telephone
and telegraph exchange. The
charge had a 30-minute time
delay fuse but it didn't work.
The communications center
was destroyed on the eve of
the dedica- Normandy
but the instant
blast took the young girl's
life.
Without Peers
Perhaps Lovell's most vivid
recollections of the OSS are
about its leader. Gen. Dono
van, the inspiring but reck
less "Wild Bill" who, in repu
tation at least, may never
have a peer.
Sipping bourbon and
crunching peanuts in a cock
tail lounge, Lovell portrayed
Donovan this way:
"He was a totally inspira
tional leader, although a to
tally unmilitary person. He
was shaped like a pear and
he was all gray - his eyes
and his hair. He wore ill
fitting clothes.
"But, oh, my God, what a
leader! He'd take over a group
of people and they'd follow
him through hell. He had
charm, magnetism and hu
mor." Lovell, an affable, active
and well proportioned man of
72, said the revelations of the
OSS in his book and private
conversations were "low eche
lon information."
For a real picture of the
OSS, should you read between
the lines and multiply by two
or three, he was asked.
"Multiply by
with a grin.
X,' 'he said
HELP
US!
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furniture, end bedding.
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HELP OTHERS!
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773-7335
Landing on Moon
Said Focal Point
Los Anglcss - (UPD - Why
Is the United Stales spend
ing $30 billion or so to put
a man on the moon?
The aucstion assumnx t' at
the lunar landing is the ul
timate goal of KDari rnspnrrh
New Frontiers, publlcat'nn of
x ne iiarrctl corporation, says
it is not, but a focal point on
which to concentrate the
whole rpace research effort.
The magazine says the rcHl
goal of the proposed lunar
expedition is American s p-
rcmacy in space for reasons
of security, prestige and other
benefits. It sya the major
benefit is more data about
the universe.
New Frontiers notes Hut
for the hard-headed realist
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his lax dollur, the 'l-sf five
years of the spare age already
nave demonstrated many
ways in which space research
can provide nractiral hinnrif
The most dramatic example
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such as Telcslar. Advances In
this area mean sports fans
most likely will be able to
view live the next Olympic
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dent of current affairs -Iso
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events abroad as
they happen.
The magazine, published by
one of the nation's defense
firms enaged in developing
life-support systems for space
flight, yay, olher practical
benefits to accrue from space
research are improved tech
niques tin weather forecast
ing. navigation, surveillance
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DRESSING CORN
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tO COPYRIGHT 1941, SAflWAY STORES. INCORPORATED
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