Mustard gas found at Woodhall Spa, two injured

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17 years 5 months

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Timely reminder when digging around on airfields, be careful

http://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/lincolnshire-woods-cordoned-again-after-572391

Original post

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18 years 2 months

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BBC Lincolnshire, now reporting a second arrest:

"A second person has been arrested following the discovery of mustard gas canisters near Woodhall Spa.

A woman has been arrested under suspicion of possession of a noxious substance, police have confirmed.

It comes after the arrest of a 38-year-old man from Lincoln under suspicion of the same offence after the cannisters were found at Roughton Manor Woods at the weekend."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-lincolnshire-41466872

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14 years 6 months

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So would this have been aerial dropped WW2 ordinance. Presumably a stock pile kept in case Germany dropped it on us and was never used.
Or would this have been some form of Home Defence measure?
I'm guessing unlikely to be WW1.

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18 years 5 months

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Slight thread creep, but there could be an awful lot of nasty stuff around. About 12 years ago I received a call at work asking me to locate a firm that could supply a rubbish skip for delivery to a local playing field - just one stipulation, the skip had to be water-tight. Turns out workman had started a task and very soon uncovered some phospherous bombs of the definate 'home made' varity as intended for use by last-ditch defenders in case the Third Reich decided to invade Welwyn Garden City. The idea was that the Fire Brigade filled the skip with water and put the bombs in, to stop them going off. It seems to have worked.

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9 years 6 months

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I'm a little bit surprised by the arrests, but I assume there are quite a few gaps in the reporting. I've read that the accused were simply looking for 'old bottles' and then dug up containers of mustard gas, leading to arrests!

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17 years 5 months

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It is a chemical weapon and will kill you, it is really nasty stuff.. and the effects of it are horrendous, also i think you will find some was removed from site from what I have read. So you are then in possession of a chemical weapon... hence arrests.

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20 years 6 months

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hampden98
I'm guessing unlikely to be WW1.

A north Hampshire Army training area still has unknown quantities of mustard gas left over from WWI buried in unkown areas on site, said to be too dangerous/too big a site to go looking for it .

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18 years 10 months

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All sorts of nasties out there, when I lived in Cambridge there was an area on Milton Road that was known as the "Anthrax Site". No building allowed etc.

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11 years 3 months

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#6 hampden98. I cannot find the reference now in Alanbrooke (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) "War Diaries" but somewhere there is a discussion between him and Churchill after the event that Churchill was prepared to order the use of chemical weapons if the Germans had landed in 1940. Someone here will know more. I seem to recall somewhere from the greater depths of my failing mind that Lysanders would have been used for aerial drops.

Someone might be able to indicate whether the storage site was possibly a WW1 training area before the RAF use of the site?

The forthcoming press conference might reveal detail or dismiss the latter.

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11 years 3 months

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I wish I had bothered to do a bit more research before writing the previous, it would have saved you reading it. This Independent article is a good summary of the situation I think, for the lay reader, outlining the widespread storage of mustard gas in WW2 at RAF bases.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/sixty-secret-mustard-gas-sites-uncovered-1335343.html

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14 years 6 months

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There was an interesting documentary on tv some years ago where they took you inside a chemical disposal centre in the UK which was primarily setup to dispose of WW1 shells including gas.
The bombs were xrayed to determine their load then chopped open in a sealed environment using a saw and the gas or explosive removed before being rendered safe.
What was interesting was the WW1 Detectives series on tv (the one with the Canadian dudes) seemed to imply that gas bombs found in France are buried and then just blown up.
I wonder if the UK site was also looking for biological weapons?

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21 years

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That TV programme was about Porton Down. They were even dealing with weapons from overseas.
mmitch.

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20 years

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Airfield plans for RAF Sawbridgeworth show a Gas munitions Store, Temporary Brick construction and square in design. 2(AC)Squadron were based here with Lysanders from 1940 to 41 and according to the squadron history were considered for anti invasion duties.

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17 years 5 months

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Ahhh Porton Down, I remember throughout my career they used to advertise for people to go there to be Guinea pigs for the cure for the common cold... I always thought it was a barmy idea to volunteer for it and it was proved right years later when it was found they were testing nerve agents I believe.

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18 years 10 months

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ooer missus!

It is believed the canisters date from WW2 and had possible kinks with the home guard units.