We discuss the effect of the chiral anomaly as a possible mechanism for triggering the formation of domains of disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The anomalous (Formula presented) coupling and the strong, Lorentz contracted electromagnetic fields of the heavy ions combine to produce the “anomaly kick” to the field configuration of the neutral pion field. We implement the effect of the anomaly kick in our numerical simulation of the linear sigma model in a schematic way which preserves its characteristic features: the effect is coherent over a large region of space but is opposite in sign above and below the ion scattering plane. We demonstrate by detailed simulations with longitudinal expansion that the DCC domain formation is dramatically enhanced by the anomaly kick in spite of its small absolute magnitude. We examine the behavior of various physical quantities such as pion fields, the axial vector currents, and their correlation functions. Our results also provide useful insight into the mechanism and properties of DCC domain formation, in general. Finally, we discuss some experimental observables which can signal the anomaly induced formation of DCC. © 1998 The American Physical Society.