- Operation Davy Jones' Locker
-
Operation Davy Jones' Locker (or Davey) was a U.S. military operation from 1946-1948. It involved the dumping at sea of captured German chemical weapons following the end of World War II.
Contents
Background
In the aftermath of the Nazi defeat in World War II the occupying allies found large amounts of stockpiled German chemical weapons. They quickly convened the Continental Committee on Dumping and came to agreement pertaining to the destruction and disposal of the chemical stockpile. The allies decided that each of the four nations would destroy the German weapons, on their occupied territory, in whatever manner was most convenient. A total of 296,103 tons of chemical weapons were found, divided amongst each of the four zones of occupied Germany.[1] The name refers to Davy Jones' Locker, an idiom for the sea bottom.
Operation
The United States undertook Operation Davy Jones' Locker between June 1946 and August 1948 and it involved the scuttling of eleven ships containing between 30,000 and 40,000 tons of captured German chemical weapons.[2] Nine of the ships were scuttled in Skagerrak Strait in the Baltic Sea while two more were sunk in the North Sea.[2][1][3] The eleven ships were scuttled over the course of five separate dumpings in the region of Scandinavia.[1]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Chepesiuk, Ron. "A Sea of Trouble?" (Google books link) Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, September 1997, pp. 40-44, Vol. 53, No. 5, (ISSN 0096-3402).
- ^ a b Kaffka, Alexander V. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Scientific Affairs Division. Sea Dumped Chemical Weapons: Aspects, Problems, and Solutions, (Books link), Springer, 1996, pp. 31-38,(ISBN 0792340906).
- ^ Kassim and Barceló state that just two of the ships were sunk in the Baltic Sea, both in Skagerrak Strait.
References
- Kassim, Tarek A. and Barceló, Damià. Environmental Consequences of War and Aftermath, (Google Books link), Springer, 2009, p. 9, (ISBN 3540879617).</ref>
United States chemical weapons programAgents and chemicals 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ) · Chlorine · Methylphosphonyl difluoride (DF) · Phosgene · QL · Sarin (GB) · Sulfur mustard (HD) · VXWeapons Bigeye bomb · M1 chemical mine · M104 155mm Cartridge · M110 155mm Cartridge · M121 155mm Cartridge · M125 bomblet · M134 bomblet · M138 bomblet · M139 bomblet · M2 mortar · M23 chemical mine · M34 cluster bomb · M360 105mm Cartridge · M426 8-inch shell · M43 BZ cluster bomb · M44 generator cluster · M55 rocket · M60 105mm Cartridge · M687 155mm Cartridge · XM-736 8-inch projectile · MC-1 bomb · M47 bomb · Weteye bombOperations and testing Dugway sheep incident · Edgewood Arsenal experiments · Unethical human experimentation in the United States · MKULTRA · Operation CHASE · Operation Davy Jones' Locker · Operation Geranium · Operation LAC · Operation Red Hat · Operation Steel Box · Operation Ranch Hand · Operation Top Hat · Project 112 · Project SHADFacilities Anniston Army Depot · Anniston Chemical Activity · Blue Grass Army Depot · Deseret Chemical Depot · Edgewood Chemical Activity · Hawthorne Army Depot · Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System · Newport Chemical Depot · Pine Bluff Chemical Activity · Pueblo Chemical Depot · Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility · Umatilla Chemical DepotUnits and formations Equipment Related topics Categories:- Non-combat military operations involving the United States
- Chemical weapons demilitarization
- Aftermath of World War II
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.