During the Second World War, the Nazis made extensive use of a smokescreen of toxins to prevent the battleship Tirpitz from becoming a target for bombers. The toxic fog affected the environment, in particular trees.
"Tirpitz" - the second battleship of the "Bismarck", almost did not participate in the battles. However, with his presence in Norway, he threatened the Arctic Soviet convoys and fettered significant forces of the British fleet. For more than 2.5 years, attempts were made to destroy the Tirpitz. The battleship was periodically disabled, but only in November 1944 was it attacked and sunk. All this time, the massive ship was hidden in the Norwegian fjords. When the British Air Force made another attempt to locate the battleship in 1944, the Germans hid it in artificial fog. The main component was a toxic liquid - chlorosulfonic acid: when it is sprayed into the air from aircraft, it enters into a chemical reaction with water droplets and a dense smoke screen is obtained. The group of soldiers responsible for the production of artificial fog wore special protective suits.
These emissions left an indelible mark on the living witnesses of World War II - trees, according to a new study, LiveScience reports. Even after 75 years, the use of toxins affected their condition. It is a well-known fact that climatic changes in nature can be restored using tree rings, long-lived trees are chroniclers of past eras. They form narrow rings in cold years, and wide ones in warm years.
Researchers at the University of Mainz, Germany, found that trees in northern Scandinavia did not form rings in 1945, and many of them did not grow at all for several years after the war, due to the use of chlorosulfonic acid, which damaged or destroyed the needles. And the needles are involved in photosynthesis. When conifers lose them, it takes many years to regenerate. According to scientists, 60% of the pines near the coast were affected during the war. Usually under natural conditions (eg drought, heat), trees recover within 5 years, but in the north of Scandinavia it took them 12 years, and some - about 30. This is really a strong effect on the condition of the pine trees, this “exceptional response to stress.