A Higher Form of Killing (50 page)

 
“the biggest . . . life . . . a church . . . sideways.”: Ibid., p. 40.

 
“shattering . . . The anti-aircraft . . . invisible.”: Quoted Dudley,
Monsters
, p, 37.

 
One of these remarkably tiny observation cars is in London’s Imperial War Museum.

CHAPTER SEVEN—“A MOST EFFECTIVE WEAPON”

 
“at the summit . . . battle.”: W. S. Churchill,
World Crisis
,
p. 21.

 
“entirely . . . anticipated.”: Quoted in L. Thomas,
Raiders of the Deep
,
p. 34.

 
“From a . . . imports.”: Quoted V. E. Tarrant,
U-Boat Offensive
, p. 12.

 
“most effective weapon.”: Von Tirpitz,
My Memoirs
,
vol. 2, p. 391.

 
“fought . . . warfare.”: F. von Rintelen,
The Dark Invader
,
p. 48.

 
“Now . . . traffic? . . . Why not? . . . blockade.”: Quoted A. C. Bell,
A History of the Blockade of the Central Empires, 1914–1918
, pp. 210–11.

 
“to get . . . nothing.”: Von Tirpitz,
My Memoirs
, vol. 2, p. 500. According to his postwar memoirs, von Tirpitz had personally favored a more limited blockade of the Thames because Germany did not yet have enough submarines for an effective blockade of all British ports.

 
“would be . . . neutral ships.”: Quoted in full in R. H. Gibson,
The German
Submarine War
,
p. 27. Hermann Bauer interpreted the announcement in unequivocal terms, writing to his submarine commanders on February 22, 1915, that henceforth “all English ships and any which in spite of neutral flags and markings could be taken for such” were to be annihilated (RM 86/224, Freiburg Military Archive).

 
“neutral . . . more ado . . . to avoid . . . complications.”: Message from Berlin to German embassy, Washington, D.C., decoded by the British, file ADM 187/3962.

 
“Thinking . . . mistake . . . hoped . . . about it.”: From an interview with von Bernstorff by an American newspaper editor O. G. Villard recorded in his book
Fighting Years
, pp. 268–69 and also in an article published in the
American Mercury
, May 1935.

 
fast steamer . . . 5th March: file ADM 137/4177.

 
American . . . spared: Decoded telegram to U-boat commanders, February 19, 1915, ADM 137/3958. Another copy is on ADM 137/1428.

 
“the
Lusitania
 . . . her.”: War Diary of
U-27
, file RM/97-680, Freiburg Military Archive.

 
“Mr. House . . . are one.”: C. Seymour,
The Intimate Papers of Colonel House
, vol. 1, p. 118.

 
“Every newspaper . . . hearsay.”: Colonel House’s diary, February 6, 1915.

 
“to a strict accountability . . . full enjoyment . . . high seas.”:
Foreign Relations of the U.S.
, 1915 supplement, p. 99.

 
“magnificent . . . as exciting . . . as novels.”: Von Tirpitz,
My Memoirs
, vol. 2, p. 513.

 
“most important . . . better still.”: Gilbert,
Winston S. Churchill,
companion vol. 3, p. 501. Churchill’s February 10, 1915, instructions to merchant captains are in file ADM 187/2958.

 
“terrorism . . . It is . . .of all.”: Quoted J. Willis,
Prologue to Nuremberg
, p. 31.

CHAPTER EIGHT—“SOMETHING THAT MAKES PEOPLE PERMANENTLY INCAPABLE OF FIGHTING”

“the ordinary weapons . . . gas.”: Falkenhayn, General HQ, 1914–16, p. 47.

 
“wasteland . . . fever . . . a splendid . . . intelligence”: Quoted D. Stoltzenberg,
Fritz Haber
, pp. 28–29.

 
“his immediate . . . objective.”: Lise Meitner’s recollections of Haber, 1954, MPG, Va5/HC 1484.

 
“both . . . same time.”: Quoted R. L. Sime,
Lise Meitner—A Life in Physics
, p. 142.

 
“You have . . . pouring out.”: Quoted Stoltzenberg,
Fritz Haber
, p. 87.

 
“we should risk it.”: Ibid, p. 88.

 
“splendid man . . . personal vanity.”: Quoted D. Charles,
Between Genius and Genocide
, p. 136.

 
“hunger for power”: James Franck’s memories of the Habers, April 1958, MPG, Va5/1449.

 
“the relationship . . . war”: R. Willstätter quoted J. A. Johnson,
The Kaiser’s Chemists
, p. 185.

 
The full text of the “Proclamation to the Civilised World” is readily available on the Internet.

 
“much-praised . . . civilization . . . an axe . . . criminal.”: Quoted D. Charles,
Between Genius and Genocide
, p. 151.

“developing shells . . . fight.”: Quoted Stoltzenberg,
Fritz Haber
, p. 134.

 
“imperious . . . life”: Quoted Harris and Paxman,
A Higher Form of Killing
, p. 9.

 
“something . . . fighting”: Quoted M. Szollosi-Janze,
Fritz Haber
, p. 324 (author’s translation).

 
“all suitable . . . German Empire”: Quoted Johnson,
The Kaiser’s Chemists
, p. 190.

 
“even in . . . dilution”: Ibid.

 
“the work . . . night.”: Quoted Harris and Paxman,
A Higher Form of Killing
, p. 10.

“owing to . . . effect . . . the use . . . mortars.”: Quoted Stoltzenberg,
Fritz Haber
, p. 135.

 
Otto Hahn helped Lise Meitner who was of Jewish extraction escape from Germany in 1938 at considerable personal risk to himself.

 
“lying . . . bed . . . how . . . frozen . . . the fronts . . . immobile . . . the war . . . of them.”: O. Hahn,
My Life
, p. 137.

 
“by using . . . gas . . . it was . . . sooner.”: Ibid., p. 118.

 
“in the . . . weapon”: Ibid., p. 119.

 
“with outspoken . . . husband’s”: James Franck’s memories of the Habers, April 1958, MPG, Va5/1449.

 
“when von Falkenhayn . . . sector . . . I must . . . soldier . . . using . . . exists.”: B. von Deimling,
Aus der alten in die neue Zeit, Lebenserinnerungen
,
p. 201.

 
“at times . . . enemy lines.”: Hahn,
My Life
, p. 119.

 
“They suffered . . . devices.”: Deimling,
Aus der alten in die neue Zeit
, p. 202.

 
“pale and exhausted . . . a charlatan . . . gas . . . extremely unhappy.”: MPG, Va5/HC1480.

 
“at the first . . . opportunity”: Duguid,
Official History
, appendix 706.

 
“alternate gas front”: Quoted J. McWilliams and R. J. Steel,
Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915
, p. 25.

 
“An attack . . . without losses.”: Ibid., p. 12

 
“to exercise . . . of gas.”: Quoted D. Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 154.

 
“to avoid . . . of war.”: General E. Ferry, “Ce qui s’est passé sur l’Yser,”
La Revue des Vivants
, pp. 889–900, Paris, July 1930.

 
“all this . . . seriously.”: A. F. Duguid,
Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914–19
, vol. 1,
appendix 318.

“at the first . . . wind.”: Account published in
Daily Express
, January 1, 1933.

 
“cylinders in dozens . . . was passed . . . headquarters”: Foulkes,
Gas! The Story of the Special Brigade
, p. 32.

 
“it has been . . . quickly.”:
Times
, April 9, 1915.

 
“Passages . . . necessary.”: Duguid,
Official History
, appendix 323.

“a rumour”: War diary of Canadian assistant medical director, quoted McWilliams and Steel,
Gas!
, p. 15.

 
“Last night . . . normal.”:
With the First Canadian Contingent
, p. 75.