European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday december 10, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 3troops in chemical arms move cited by de Reavis staff writer German and american soldiers and civilians were honoured in Bonn Germany on monday for the role they played in removing chemical weapons from West Germany in 1990, a spokesman said. The ceremony which took place at the German department of defense was presided Over by the German inspector general Klaus Naumann and Usa eur Deputy commander it. Gen. Paul g. Cerjan. Naumann a position is equivalent to the chairman of the . Joint chiefs of staff. Quot about 26 germans and americans were invited to the ceremony As symbols of the hundreds of people that made the operation successful a the spokesman said. The withdraw of chemical weapons from West Germany began in july 1990 after a May 1986 agreement Between then president Ronald Reagan and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to remove All such weapons from German depots by 1992. The last shipment left Germany on sept. 19,1990. Quot it was a phenomenal feat which we called operation Serpent a the spokesman said. Quot it involved moving More than 100,000 american chemical weapons on trucks trains and ships without  the trucks travelled a variety of routes for safety and Security reasons from the town of Clausen in Rheinland Pfalz to Miessau about 30 Miles away. The shortest route used was a 25-mile stretch Over autobahn 62, which was still under construction and autobahn 6. The other route used was a 37-mile stretch taking autobahn 8 toward Wei Brincken and then autobahn 6 to Miessau. Each Convoy included 20 flatbed trucks loaded with the chemical weapons stored in airtight steel  containers were packed in steel military vans. Each Convoy also included 60 escort trucks including German and . Security forces emergency Crews and Decon sex officer talks of sabotaging Hitler s plan by de Reavis staff writer a chemical weapons Are outlawed in our world even Hitler Wasny to crazy enough to try to use it during world War ii a said Vernon Walters former american ambassador to Germany commenting on the 1986 . Decision to remove chemical weapons from the Clausen depot near Pir Masens Germany. The ambassador was wrong. Hitler did order it used during the last Days of the War but basically against his own people. The Man who knows the most about the nazi intentions is Guenter Zoller the Man who risked execution to sabotage the plan. Zoller a major at the time commanded the wehrmacht chemical weapons depot in Urlau located in the Beautiful Allau Region of Southern Germany. Today Urlau is the site of a German army munitions depot three Miles outside the town of leu Kirch on the Road to Wisny. Quot i arrived in Urlau on the first of March 1945," Zoller said in a Telephone interview from his Home in Aachen. A i was Only stationed there for six weeks but they turned out to be very important  in the last weeks of the War the wehrmacht in Urlau collected All its Poison Gas stores they feared might fall into Allied hands. A there were approximately 20,000 tons of chemical weapons in the depot. There was Poison Gas from world War i but also the newly developed gn3 nerve Gas called  in addition there were about 14,000 tons of explosives stored in the depot a Zoller said. He said the depot was wired with explosives following a personal order from Hitler that the warehouse be blown up in Case of an Allied invasion of the area. A i kept the key to the detonation device with me at All times a he said. A there was never any question in my mind that i would not carry out the order despite the threat of death by the local District commander. A i was the Best informed about the enormity of the crime Hitler wanted committed and i lived in the greatest fear that some Accident would trigger the  speculating on the extent of damage that an explosion would have caused Zoller Saia it would depend upon on the direction of the winds. A we can safely say that an area ranging from Urlau to Lake Constance in the South to the town of Kau Beuren in the North and into Bavaria on the East would have been a death zone. The tragedy probably would have reached Nagasaki proportions a Zoller said referring to the atomic bomb dropped by . Warplanes on Nagasaki Japan during world War ii. Zoller said at the time his Best ally in Hood winking the nazi command was the local minister pastor Willburger. A Willburger would announce from the pulpit a Date for the detonation and for the evacuation of the population a Zoller said. Quot but of course Only Willburger and i had any idea what kind of catastrophe an explosion would have meant. The population had no idea about the Poison Gas. Quot then Willburger would announce that the detonation was cancelled for some reason or other. That show i gained time until the allies  Zyller had alerted the directors of the surrounding Post offices to notify him As soon As any Allied troops were in the area. When he heard French forces had reached the town of leu Kirch Zoller sent his Young medical officer Friedrich Jung on a bicycle bearing a White Flag to surrender the depot. Jung returned to the depot sitting on the Lead tank with his White Flag. The French waited for Zoller and his men to defuse the explosives before accepting the depot. The French later removed the stores of chemical weapons by train to a North sea port Zoller said. A i done to know what happened to it after that. Its too bad your army Wasny table to remove its Gas from Clausen without All the fanfare. But i guess you press people Are to blame for that a Zoller said. Jung the medical officer is currently professor for pharmacology and toxicology at Humboldt University in East Berlin. He was an expert witness during the hearings on chemical weapons held in Geneva last year. Zoller is now 81 and a retired Engineer. Last year he finally received official thanks for his refusal to obey hitlers order to destroy the depot. In july the City of leu Kirch awarded Nim a citation for his act of bravery. Otto Baumann lord mayor of leu Kirch to which the Community of Urlau belongs said most people in the town now know the Story but agreed that their expression of gratitude was late in coming. Lamination teams. Sea. Southwest of Hawaii. The containers were then loaded onto at the port they were reloaded onto there the weapons Are scheduled to special trains at Miessau for the trip North . Navy ships for transport to Johnston be destroyed in specially built inc Inera to the port of no Denham on the North atoll in the Pacific about 700 Miles  interviews of pos reported by the new York times Washington a soviet agents interrogated american service members captured in Indochina during the Vietnam War current and former officials of the Kab say. Some of the interrogations took place after the War ended in 1975 and after Hanoi said All american prisoners had been returned the soviet agents said on australian 60 minutes which is modelled after the lbs program. Some of the americans May have been taken to the soviet Union on regular Supply flights from Vietnam the report said. The agents said the interrogators goal was to learn about . Equipment. The program was broadcast oct. 27, but its assertions were not publicized in the United states until the san Diego Union printed an article about the documentary last week. Bob Hall a spokesman for the defense department said the Pentagon was looking into the allegations. But Hall said interviews with american prisoners who returned after the War had turned up no evidence of interrogation by soviet agents. Agents interviewed for the program said they believed that americans who had been interrogated might have been killed after being returned to the vietnamese. The United states which withdrew its forces from Vietnam in 1973, lists 2,273 americans As missing in Vietnam Cambodia and  Only an exercise special forces members Parachute onto All Al Salem air jumped onto the destroyed air base from seven c-141 held about 30 Miles North of Kuwait City on sunday Dur Star lifter transport planes after an 18-hour flight from ing a joint  exercise. The paratroopers Hunter army Airfield near Savannah a