From: rayssd!m1b@uunet.UU.NET (Barone)
Subject: What happened at Bari?
Organization: Raytheon Submarine Signal Division, Portsmouth, RI
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 01:58:08 GMT


From rayssd!m1b@uunet.UU.NET (Barone)

	I asked a similar question in soc.history in Spetmeber, 1990 and
I received a couple of very informative replies.  Here they are below.

	From: haydon@nevada.edu (James P. Willey)
	Subject: Re: Bari
	Date: 3 Sep 90 05:47:49 GMT
	Organization: University of Nevada, System Computing Services

In article <232@sgfb.ssd.ray.com> m1b@sgfb.ssd.ray.com (M. Joseph Barone)
writes:
%	About 15 years ago, I saw a paperback in the bookstore concerning
%a chemical accident in Bari, Italy during World War II.  Needless to say,
%I didn't buy it and I have regretted it ever since!  I remember reading
%the back cover which stated something like the U.S. was constantly worrying
%that Hitler would start to use chemical weapons as his position became more
%tenuous, so the U.S. kept their own chemical stockpiles near the front
%during WWII.  Anyway, I think the Germans bombed Bari releasing the poison
%gases.  Can anyone elaborate on this?  Can anyone name the book?  Thanks.

	The book is "Disaster at Bari" by Glen Infield, Copyright 1971.
Basically, what happened was the Germans attacked the Italian port of
Bari on December 2, 1943.  Bari was one of the main ports being used to
move Allied forces into Italy.  The Germans managed to sink 17 merchant
ships and damage 8 more. The Allies referred to the attack as the Second
Pearl Harbor.

	The S.S. John Harvey was laden with 100 tons of 100 pound mustard
gas bombs, along with other ammunition, and was berthed between two other
ammunition ships.  When the John Harvey blew up, her cargo of mustard was
released into the air and water.  The water was full of men from sinking
ships, and the wind blew the mustard gas towards the town.  Over 1,000
men were killed or missing after the attack.  Over 800 casualties were
hospitalized after the attack, 617 of them suffering from mustard exposure.
These patients were not treated for mustard exposure because the medical
units on hand had no idea that mustard was present.  13.6% of the mustard
casualties proved fatal, as opposed to 2% in World War I.

	Exactly how many died will never be known because these figures
account for military personnal only.  The civilian population of Bari
was exposed to large quantities of mustard gas, but had no hospital to 
go to.  An official count was never made of civilian casualties, but it
is likely to be much higher than military casualties, because of the lack
of medical care.

James P. Willey                           haydon@arrakis.nevada.edu
---
	From: The FASS Theatre Company <fass@watmath.waterloo.edu>
	Subject: Re: Bari
	Date: Mon, 3 Sep 90 13:02:41 EDT
	Organization: University of Waterloo

	As I recall, the raid was picture-perfect and destroyed the
ships, leaving a number of allied soldiers swimming in mustard-gas
tainted water. This is how, BTW, mustard gas derivatives were found
to be useful in fighting cancer; the living casualities were kept
track of to see the long term effects of their immersion and someone
noticed that they had a low cancer incidence [although they had lots
of other problems].	
								JDN