ese nations, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and Great Britain, resumed and eventually expanded such programs as World War II approached. Hersh dated the resumption of large-scale weapons research in Nazi Germany from 1936 and in the Soviet Union from 1938 (7). According to Choffres, the British R & D center first established at Porton Downs on Salisbury Plain in 1916 to spearhead the production of poison gases was reopened in 1934 and instructed by successive Prime Ministers to develop biological as well as chemical weapons (58).
Biological Weapons during World War II
Italian and German WMD Programs. Allied nuclear, chemical and biological research, development and production programs were primarily animated by their fears of what the Fascist powers might do with such fearsome weapons. They were first alerted by Italy's use of poison gases against Abyssinian tribesmen in 1936. German scientists were among the first to understand the power of nuclear fission, but for various reasons t
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