Tabun (or GA) is a chemical nerve agent, and an extremely toxic chemical substance, that can be incredibly fatal to humans. It was mass produced during the Second World War by Germany.
In the last days of the Battle of Berlin, Dr. Hermann Wolff and the Soviet Union attempted to launch a V-2 Rocket loaded with a Tabun payload at London in a false flag to blame Nazi Germany, making it look like a final attack at the end of the war. Sniper Karl Fairburne managed to stop the launch, destroy the rocket and shoot Wolff from the Brandenburg Gate.
Overview[]
GA 3D balls.
Tabun was made on an industrial scale by Germany during World War II, based on a process developed by Gerhard Schrader. In the chemical agent factory in Dyhernfurth an der Oder, codenamed "Hochwerk", at least 12,000 metric tons of this agent were manufactured between 1942 and 1945.
Tabun became the first nerve agent known after a property of this chemical was discovered by pure accident in late December 1936 by German researcher Gerhard Schrader. Schrader was experimenting with a class of compounds called organophosphates, which kill insects by interrupting their nervous systems, to create a more effective insecticide for IG Farben, a German chemical and pharmaceutical industry conglomerate, at Elberfeld. He discovered that tabun, as well as being a potent insecticide, was enormously toxic to humans.
Karl inquiring the moribund Dr. Efram Schwaiger what Tabun is.
Tabun is a clear, colorless, and tasteless liquid with a faint fruity odor. It is classified as a nerve agent because it fatally interferes with normal functioning of the mammalian nervous system. Tabun is the first of the G-series nerve agents along with GB (sarin), GD (soman) and GF (cyclosarin). Although pure tabun is clear, less-pure tabun may be brown. It is a volatile chemical, although less so than either sarin or soman.
During World War II, as part of the Grün 3 program, a plant for the manufacture of tabun was established at Dyhernfurth (now Brzeg Dolny, Poland), in 1939. Run by Anorgana GmbH, the plant began production of the substance in 1942. The reason for the delay was the extreme precautions used by the plant. Intermediate products of tabun were corrosive, and had to be contained in quartz or silver-lined vessels. Tabun itself was also highly toxic, and final reactions were conducted behind double glass walls. Large scale manufacturing of the agent resulted in problems with tabun's degradation over time, and only around 12,500 tons of material were manufactured before the plant was seized by the Soviet Army. The plant initially produced shells and aerial bombs using a 95:5 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene, designated "Variant A". In the latter half of the war, the plant switched to "Variant B", an 80:20 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene designed for easier dispersion. The Soviets dismantled the plant and shipped it to Russia.
During the Nuremberg Trials, Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich, testified that he had planned to kill Adolf Hitler in early 1945 by introducing tabun into the Führerbunker ventilation shaft. He said his efforts were frustrated by the impracticality of tabun and his lack of ready access to a replacement nerve agent, and also by the unexpected construction of a tall chimney that put the air intake out of reach.
The US once considered repurposing captured German stocks of tabun (GA) prior to production of Sarin (GB). Like the other Allied governments, the Soviets soon abandoned tabun (GA) for Sarin (GB) and Soman (GD). Large quantities of the German-manufactured agent were dumped into the sea to neutralize the substance.