Operation Vegetarian: The British Anthrax Plan of WWII
Back in 1942 with World War II raging and the entire world suffering casualties, many countries devised unthinkable plans that they believed would help end the war. Luckily many of these plans weren’t put into place either because they didn’t work or because the war ended before they could be enacted.
In the latter category falls “Operation Vegetarian” which involved the British military dropping anthrax-infected linseed cakes (cow cakes) in fields where German cattle would graze thereby infecting them.
“Should we stop eating?”
The Plan for The Anthrax
The plan was actually pretty simple on paper; inject linseed cakes with anthrax, drop them where cattle in Germany were known to feed, and the animals would surely get infected. The anthrax-infected cattle would then die off in mass quantities causing a severe food shortage in Germany.
If you don’t know what anthrax is, it’s an extremely deadly disease caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis which produces dormant spores waiting to get into a body. Once in a host, the bacteria multiplies and produces toxins with a mortality rate anywhere between 20% to 80% which are not the greatest odds.
Now, sure a lot of animals would die from eating the linseed but not before some of the cattle was used for food and milk. This would infect and kill thousands of Germans who prepared the animals, drank the milk, and ate the meat. Basically, this tells us that whoever thought of the name “Operation Vegetarian” had a sick sense of humor.
After people realized that others were dying from the meat they were eating, it would cause distrust in the eating of meat and possibly other foods; further contributing to mass deaths by starvation. This would also lower the morale of the people and during a World War, two important things you need are morale and trust.
“Guys I’m just not feeling it. I think we’re going to lose.”
With the plan in place, the next step was getting the linseed cakes produced as well as the anthrax bacteria. Yep, the British Military produce their own home-grown batch of anthrax and for the purposes of the war, they chose one of the most virulent strains known as the Vollum strain.
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Testing Anthrax on Gruinard Island
By the summer of 1942 the British military was ready to start testing and the isolated 520-acre private island of Gruinard, off the north coast of Scotland, was chosen for the cause.
“Wow that’s a nice island… let’s poison it.”
For the test, the British military brought 60 sheep into Gruinard Island and let them roam freely. During what seemed like a nice vacation day for the sheep, a bomb delivering the anthrax spores was dropped on the island.
Remember when I said that there’s a 20 to 80% fatality rate for anthrax? In this case, it was 100%, all 60 sheep were dead in a few days from the anthrax spores. The test was deemed a success and Winston Churchill ordered 5 million linseed cakes laced with anthrax.
The operation had a deployment date of spring 1944 but, by then, the tide of war had turned and victory was near for the Allied troops. The operation was scrapped and the 5 million linseed cakes had to be incinerated. But before all that happened, it turned out that the testing on Gruinard Island worked a little too well.
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Mainland Anthrax Outbreak
See, Gruinard Island was isolated but only around 1km or a little more than half a mile away from the mainland. A short time after that sheep sacrifice test, there were reports that cattle on the mainland were mysteriously dying.
But it’s not like the British Military contaminated a bunch of sheep and then buried them in shallow graves near the ocean where an infected body could float into the mainland… right?
“…Whoops”
Unfortunately, shortly after that first round of testing, a storm hit Gruinard island that unearthed one of the contaminated sheep. It then slipped into the ocean and floated to the mainland. A dog found the corpse and, doing what dogs do, it took a bite and became the new host for the anthrax spores.
According to some reports up to a hundred dogs, horses, cows, and sheep died on the mainland before the military could step in and stop the spread. Despite that “minor” incident, the plan was still seen as a success.
It was then discovered that the anthrax spores had contaminated all of Gruinard island, not just the portion where the tests had been performed. An interesting thing about dormant anthrax spores is that they can stay dormant for decades. Because of that interesting fact, the island was quarantined and access to the island or going anywhere near the island was prohibited for the next 40 years.
In 1986 a decontamination process began, concluding in 1990. The island was sold back to its original owners and since then, it has been considered safe but you won’t find many people going or willing to take you there.
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Quick Facts
Some estimates claimed Operation Vegetarian would leave millions of German citizens dead but I couldn’t find any reliable source to back that up. Though the population of Germany was around 80 million in 1941.
The “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction” treaty was signed in 1972 and enacted in 1975. This prevented the production and use of biological weapons in war.
