Not that anyone's paying attention to the subject line anymore, but there's a
fascinating exchange about it in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, November
1987. pp42-45.
Barton J. Bernstein wrote an article describing "Churchill's Secret Biological
Weapons" in the January/February issue. A response appeared from R.V. Jones and
J.M. Lewis. Jones was head of Scientific Intelligence at the Air Ministry; a
pioneer in the field, if not THE pioneer. He politely but carefully
demonstrated Bernstein's near complete misunderstanding and misuse of the
available information on the subject.
Bernstein's response was the kind of bluster that undergraduates are used to
from tenured professers, and that graduate students are used to hearing from
unprepared lecturers caught out.
In short, anthrax was researched as a possible threat from the enemy and as a
retaliatory weapon in case of attack. There were no plans to use it as an
offensive or "terror" weapon--that's what Bomber Command was for.
The opinion seems to have been that it was like poison gas--difficult to
control and nearly as great a danger to one's own troops as it was to the
enemy. That stocks of gas were kept on hand near all the fronts, but never
used, shows that it was a retaliatory weapon for attacks that never came. Like
anthrax.