In a Nutshell
Adolf Hitler’s decision to take on the world and instigate World War II cost the lives of millions of people over the six-year period. He wanted Germany to be leading figure on Earth, but he soon met his match when he encountered Winston Churchill and Great Britain. With Hitler threatening to invade, Churchill orchestrated an operation to unleash the deadly anthrax disease on Germany. But, the final order was never given…
The Whole Bushel
The war started in 1939, and by June 22, 1940, Hitler and his Nazi forces had already secured Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and France. So, the mass invasion was rapidly spreading across Europe, with the natural progression after France being Great Britain.
Although Hitler recognized that Britain had a serious army to contend with, so he put together Operation Sea Lion as preparation for his attack. The mission involved deploying the renowned Luftwaffe to drop bombs all across England. Now, with most of Europe already under the control of the Nazis, Britain had very little – if any – support to hold off the advance of the German military.
Even the US, who would have provided a ton of assistance, remained neutral due to pressure from isolationists. That was until Japan decided to involve them by bombing Pearl Harbour, but that was far too late. So, Winston Churchill felt he had to take drastic action, which led him to order Porton Down – a secret military facility – to commence Operation Vegetarian and find a way to use the horrific anthrax disease in battle.
The disease is typically spread from cattle to humans, and when digested or inhaled, the death rate was between 60 and 95-percent. Therefore, the plan was to create cattle cakes full of anthrax, that could be dropped by British bombers all across Germany. Then, cattle would graze on the cakes and contract the catastrophic disease. By 1944, five million anthrax cattle cakes had been produced, which would allow Britain to bombard Hitler’s land continuously.
Moreover, the anthrax spores can live happily in the soil for a number of years, meaning if the operation was successful, the poisoned area would be uninhabitable for centuries. It just needed Churchill’s go ahead, but the order was never sent. That’s because Britain had already fended off the Germans and halted Hitler’s plan to invade the British Isles.
How? Well, it was all thanks to the plethora of British pilots that risked their lives and shot down those German bombers. That then pushed the Nazis back and forced Hitler to turn his attention to Stalin’s Russia, and we all know what happened after that. At the end of the war, in 1945, all five million cakes were shoved into an incinerator at Porton Down to be destroyed.
If things turned out differently, we could now live in a world where the majority of Germany is completely deserted, imagine that! But, not everywhere was so lucky… Gruinard Island was used as a testing ground, but when scientists couldn’t get rid of anthrax from the land, there’s now a sign on the beaches that reads:
“THIS ISLAND IS GOVERNMENT PROPERTY UNDER EXPERIMENT – THE GROUND IS CONTAMINATED WITH ANTHRAX AND DANGEROUS LANDING IS PROHIBITED BY ORDER 1987”
