The Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical Strategy in Peace and War

Before nuclear weapons changed everything, there was gas. Victor Lefebure served in the chemical warfare sections of World War I, and in this bracing, urgent account he lays bare the underground war that most histories barely mention. The Riddle of the Rhine traces Germany's deliberate mastery of poison gas as both tactical weapon and diplomatic lever, showing how the Reich's chemical factories became as vital to their war effort as any army division. But this book is more than a military history. Lefebure wrote in the war's aftermath, when the chemicals that had killed and maimed on the Western Front were now being repurposed for industry, and when the public and policymakers alike remained dangerously ignorant of what these substances could do in peacetime. He argues with fierce conviction that the Allied powers misunderstood the chemical threat entirely, and that without a fundamental rethinking of policy, the poisons that had killed hundreds of thousands would continue to cast their shadow over international safety. This is a book about the first weapon of mass destruction, and why its legacy still matters.