The Ministry of Defence dropped a 30-pound anthrax bomb onto the hard beach here in 1942. It burst on contact and released a fine mist that infected nearby sheep, which died soon afterward. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of anthrax as a lethal agent in warfare, and the testing on Gruinard Island, the military began Operation Vegetarian, producing five million units of anthrax-filled cattle cake, the nation’s first biological weapon. The plan was to drop the anthrax buns into Germany’s grazing pastures where cattle would eat the cakes, and hence enter the food chain. However, by 1944, when the operation was ready to launch, the Allies were winning the war by conventional means, they were not considered further.
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