Nerve Agents: Tabun, Sarin, and Soman IV.
Now imagine that you are on a beach code-named OMAHA during World War II. As you travel inland from the beach, suddenly you see your commanding officer on the ground; he is dead but not from a bullet wound. After you take a few steps away from him you start to shake, very hard, and then all of a sudden everything goes BLACK, into oblivion. You have just been a victim of one of the most deadly gases ever developed before or after World War II. Even though nerve agents were never used in World War II, if they had the outcome might have been very different. The creation and little known facts about nerve agents, like Tabun, Sarin, and Soman are very interesting. The development of, and original usage of the first nerve agent, proves very enlightening. This is an in depth look at some of the deadliest nerve agents ever created.
Dr. Gehard Schrader, who was a pesticide specialist, in Leverkusen, Germany at the I.G. Farbindurstrie laboratory created the first nerve agent ("Chemistry of GA"). Schrader first created what he called Tabun on December 23, 1936 ("Short History"). About one year later Schrader and his assistant started showing symptoms of meiosis, the contraction of the pupils of the eye, and they also had some shortness of breath. It was later said Schrader was lucky to escape with his life. On the more scientific side, the chemical structure contains five different atoms and they are seven carbons, eleven hydrogen, two nitrogen, two oxygen and phosphorus. What is unique is phosphorus is the center of the molecular structure ("Chemistry of GA"). The American classification of Tabun is GA; all nerve agents of this origin are called the G-series nerve agents. Schrader sent a sample of GA to the chemical warfare department in 1937, as for told in a Nazi decree in 1935, after his close call ("Short History").
Dr. Gerhard Schrader also created the second nerve agent in1938 at an undisclosed location in Germany ("Short History").
