Nerve Gas?

Experts believed that the "Secret Weap on" brandished by Adolf Hitler at the war's beginning was anything from a Buck Rogers death ray to hot air. But the sudden, startling capture early last week of Eben Emael fortress, potent key of Bel gium's Liege defense system and synonym to Belgians for Security, made the world wonder. Germany officially announced that this exploit was accomplished by use of a new Angriffsmittel (attack method) operated by one Lieut. Witzig, an air pilot who landed his plane inside the fortress and in a few minutes, "despite heavy de fense measures," rendered its 1,000 occupants so defenseless that a mechanized Nazi column which soon arrived easily took the Belgians prisoner.

Eben Emael is ten miles north of Liege at a deep cut through the St. Peter's hills where the Albert Canal leads out of the River Meuse. The fort, modern and ex pensive, is built into the side of the cut.

Within its thick walls is a plaza some 600 yd. in diameter. Ceilings of its turrets are reinforced concrete ten feet thick, low to the ground like the Maginot Line. Speculation as to what manner of weapon could paralyze the defenders of such a place centred on two possibilities: 1) Bombs (perhaps liquid oxygen) of such strength that their concussion would knock unconscious if not kill any living thing within half a mile -- a means that left some question of how Lieut. Witzig and his two assistants managed to survive.

2) A "nerve gas" like acetyl choline, one drop of which in liquid form will, if placed on a skin abrasion, quickly induce unconsciousness, followed later by no ill effects. Swiss sources last week said the Germans had experimented with such a gas -- with a faint geranium odor -- against which ordinary filter masks are useless.

One whiff, they said, makes soldiers stagger and fall, their muscular coordination anesthetized as by "twilight sleep." Fuhrer Hitler last weekend personally handed the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross to Lieut. Witzig and seven other flying officers for their "incomparable daring" in taking Eben Emael and certain bridges over the Albert Canal. He promoted Lieut. Witzig to captain. To the inventors of the new Angriffsmittel went greater tribute: real alarm among the Allies lest this unknown new weapon prove a key to unlock the Maginot Line.

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