The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Bari: The 'Second Pearl Harbor' (12/2/1943) - Sep. 8th, 2005

World War II Magazine | Eric Niderost

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

Bari:
The 'Second Pearl Harbor'

Dubbed the 'second Pearl Harbor,' the 1943 German attack on Bari also revealed an Allied secret--mustard gas.

On the afternoon of December 2, 1943, 1st Lt. Werner Hahn piloted his Messerschmitt Me-210 reconnaissance plane over the port of Bari, in southeastern Italy. Cruising at 23,000 feet, his aircraft made a telltale contrail as he streaked across the sky, but Allied anti-aircraft crews took little notice. Still unmolested, the German pilot made a second pass over the city before turning north toward home. If Hahn's report was promising, the Luftwaffe would launch a major airstrike against the port.

ME-210

Bari was a city of some 200,000 people, with an old section of town that dated back to the Middle Ages. Old Bari, clustered on a fist of land that jutted out into the Adriatic, boasted such famed landmarks as the Castello Svevo, a brooding medieval fortress dating to Norman times, and the Basilica San Nicola, which allegedly contained the bones of St. Nicholas.

In contrast, new Bari had broad boulevards and modern buildings. These new buildings included a sports facility nicknamed "Bambino Stadium," which had been built by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as a reward to the citizens for producing the most babies in a specified period of time. Bari--old and new--had been fortunate, suffering little damage because the Allies had earmarked the city as a major supply port from the start.



As 1943 drew to a close, Bari's medieval torpor and somnolent grace were shaken off by the influx of Allied shipping into its harbor. Tons of supplies were offloaded almost around the clock, transforming the once quiet town into a hive of activity. On December 2, at least 30 Allied ships were crowded into the harbor, packed so tightly they almost touched.

The port was under the jurisdiction of the British, in part because Bari was the main supply base for General Bernard Law Montgomery's Eighth Army. But the city was also the newly designated headquarters of the American Fifteenth Air Force, which had been activated in November of that year. The Fifteenth's primary mission was to bomb targets in the Balkans, Italy and especially Germany. Fifteenth Air Force commander Maj. Gen. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle had arrived in Bari on December 1.

The Americans had championed daylight precision bombing, but the Eighth Air Force in England was suffering terrible casualties in order to prove the theory valid. Luftwaffe strength was increasing, not decreasing, over Germany. The Fifteenth Air Force was intended to take some of the pressure off the beleaguered Eighth.


Bari Harbor

In addition to the usual war materiel, ships moored at Bari carried aviation fuel for Doolittle's bombers and other much-needed supplies. Selection of Bari as the Fifteenth Air Force headquarters--about 75 miles from the Fifteenth's primary airfields at Foggia--meant a large infusion of staff personnel. About 200 officers, 52 civilian technicians and several hundred enlisted men were being brought into the city.

Totally absorbed by the task of getting the Fifteenth Air Force off the ground, the Allies gave little thought to the possibility of a German air raid on Bari. The Luftwaffe in Italy was relatively weak and stretched so thin it could hardly mount a major effort. Or so Allied leaders believed.

German reconnaissance flights over Bari were seen as a nuisance. At first, British anti-aircraft batteries fired a half-hearted round or two, but eventually they ignored the German flights altogether. Why waste ammunition?



Responding to rumblings about lax security measures, British Air Vice Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham held a press conference on the afternoon of December 2 and assured reporters that the Luftwaffe was defeated in Italy. He was confident the Germans would never attack Bari. "I would regard it as a personal affront and insult," the air marshal haughtily declared, "if the Luftwaffe would attempt any significant action in this area."

Not everyone was so sure that the German air force was a broken reed. British army Captain A.B. Jenks, who was responsible for the port's defense, knew that preparations for an attack were woefully inadequate. But his voice, as well as those of one or two others, was drowned out by a chorus of complacent officers. When darkness came, Bari's docks were brilliantly lit so unloading of cargo could continue. Little thought was given to the need for a blackout.

In the harbor, cargo ships and tankers waited their turn to be unloaded. Captain Otto Heitmann, skipper of the Liberty ship SS John Bascom, went ashore to see if the process could be speeded up. He was disappointed in his quest, but he might have been even more concerned had he known what was aboard SS John Harvey.


SS John Harvey

John Harvey, commanded by Captain Elwin F. Knowles, was a typical Liberty ship, scarcely different from the others moored in the harbor. Much of her cargo was also conventional: munitions, food and equipment. But the ship had a deadly secret cargo. Approximately 100 tons of mustard gas bombs were on board. The bombs were meant as a precaution, to be used only if the Germans resorted to chemical warfare.

[SAMWolf]

In 1943 there was a possibility that the Germans just might use poison gas. By that point in the war, the strategic initiative had passed to the Allies, and Germany was on the defensive on all fronts. Adolf Hitler's forces had sustained a major defeat at Stalingrad, and they had lost North Africa as well. The Allies were now on the Continent, slowly inching their way up the Italian peninsula.


JU-88 A4

Hitler, it was said, was not a great advocate of chemical warfare, perhaps because the Führer himself had been gassed during World War I. He was, however, ruthless and might be persuaded to use gas if he believed it would redress the strategic balance in his favor. Intelligence reports suggested that the Germans were stocking chemical weapons, including a new chemical agent called Tabun.

American President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a policy statement condemning the use of gas by any civilized nation, but he pledged that the United States would reply in kind if the enemy dared to use such weapons first. John Harvey was selected to convey a shipment of poison gas to Italy to be held in reserve should such a situation occur.

When the mustard gas bombs were loaded aboard John Harvey, they looked deceptively conventional. Each bomb was 4 feet long, 8 inches in diameter and contained from 60 to 70 pounds of the chemical. Mustard is a blister gas that irritates the respiratory system and produces burns and raw ulcers on the skin. Victims exposed to the gas often suffer an agonizing death.



The poison gas shipment was shrouded in official secrecy. Even Knowles was not formally informed about the lethal cargo. Perceptive members of the crew, however, must have guessed the voyage was out of the ordinary. For one thing, 1st Lt. Howard D. Beckstrom of the 701st Chemical Maintenance Company was on board, along with a detachment of six men. All were expert in handling toxic materials and were obviously there for a purpose.

John Harvey crossed the Atlantic without incident, successfully running the gantlet of German submarines that still infested the ocean. After a stop at Oran, Algeria, the ship sailed to Augusta, Sicily, before proceeding to Bari. Lieutenant Thomas H. Richardson, the ship's cargo security officer, was one of the few people on board who officially knew about the mustard gas. His manifest clearly listed 2,000 M47A1 mustard gas bombs in the hold.

Richardson naturally wanted to unload the deadly cargo as soon as possible, but when the ship reached Bari on November 26, his hopes were dashed. The harbor was crammed with shipping, and another convoy was due shortly. Dozens of vessels were stacked up along the piers and jetties, each waiting its turn to be unloaded. Since the lethal gas was not officially on board, John Harvey was not about to be given special priority.



For the next five nerve-racking days, John Harvey rode peacefully at anchor at Pier 29 while Captain Knowles tried vainly to get British port officials to speed things up. This was difficult, because he was gagged by the secrecy that surrounded the gas shipment. How could he get officials to act when he was not even supposed to know that he was carrying the mustard gas in the first place?

While Knowles fretted, German reconnaissance pilot Hahn had returned to base. His positive report about conditions at Bari set in motion a raid that had been discussed and planned some time before. The Bari attack was the product of a planning session between Luftwaffe Field Marshal Albert Kesselring and his subordinates. The Allied airfields at Foggia were discussed as possible targets, but Luftwaffe resources were stretched too thin to permit the effective bombing of such a large complex of targets.

It was Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, commander of Luftflotte 2, who suggested Bari as an alternative. A cousin of famed World War I ace Manfred von Richthofen, the field marshal was an experienced officer who had served in Poland and the Soviet Union as well as in the Battle of Britain. His advice, Kesselring knew, was sound. Richthofen believed that if the port was crippled, the British Eighth Army's advance might be slowed and the nascent Fifteenth Air Force's bomber offensive delayed. Richthofen told Kesselring that the only planes available for such a task were his Junkers Ju-88 A-4 bombers. With luck, he might scrape together 150 such planes for the raid.



When the strike force was mustered, there were only 105 Ju-88s available for the mission. But the element of surprise, coupled with an attack at dusk, might shift the odds in the Germans' favor. Most of the planes would come from Italy, but Richthofen purposely wanted to obfuscate matters by using a few Ju-88s from Yugoslavia. If the Allies thought the entire mission originated from there, they just might misdirect retaliatory strikes to the Balkans.

The Ju-88 pilots were ordered to fly their twin-engine bombers east to the Adriatic, then swing south and west. British anti-aircraft would probably expect an attack--if any--to come from the north, not from the west. The Ju-88s were also supplied with Duppel, thin strips of tinfoil cut to various lengths. The tinfoil registered like aircraft on radar screens, producing scores of phantom targets.

The aim of the German pilots was to arrive over Bari around 7:30 p.m. Parachute flares would be released first to light the way for the attacking aircraft, and the Ju-88s would come in low, trying to get under Allied radar that was already confused by the Duppel.



The Germans arrived at Bari on schedule. First Lieutenant Gustav Teuber, leading the first wave, could hardly believe his eyes. The docks were brilliantly lit; cranes stood out in sharp relief as they unloaded cargo from the ships' gaping holds, and the east jetty was packed with ships.

[SAMWolf]

Scores of Ju-88s descended on Bari like gigantic birds of prey, their attack illuminated by the city's lights and German flares. The first bombs hit the city proper, great geysers of smoke and flame marking each detonation, but soon it was the harbor's turn. Some 30 vessels were riding at anchor that night, and each ship's crew had to respond to the emergency as best they could. Surprise was total, and some ships had to function without a full complement, since many sailors were on shore leave.



The German flares gave sailors the first inkling of the impending attack. Aboard John Bascom, the second officer, William Rudolf, saw the flashes and alerted Captain Heitmann. John Bascom's gun crew sprang into action, joining the barrage that shore batteries were now hurling into the sky. Tracer bullets laced the air, but the anti-aircraft fire was largely ineffective.

There was no time to cut anchor cables and get underway; crews along the east jetty watched helplessly while a creeping barrage of German bombs came ever closer to their vulnerable vessels. Joseph Wheeler took a direct hit and exploded into flames; John Motley took a bomb in its No. 5 hold. John Bascom, anchored next to John Motley, was next in line for punishment.



John Bascom shuddered under a rain of bombs that hit her from stem to stern. One of the explosions lifted Captain Heitmann off his feet and slammed him against the wheelhouse door. Momentarily stunned, his hands and face bloody, Heitmann saw the body of Nicholas Elgin sprawled nearby, blood pumping from a head wound, his clothes torn off by the force of the blast.

The ship's bridge was partly destroyed, the decks were buckled and debris was everywhere. There was nothing left to do but abandon ship. Ignoring his own wounds, Heitmann ordered the crew into the single undamaged lifeboat. By now, the entire harbor was a hell on earth, where yellow-orange flames leaped into the air, producing dense columns of acrid smoke. Ships were in various stages of burning or sinking. When flames reached munitions-laden holds, some exploded. The surface of the water was covered by a viscous scum of oil and fuel, blinding and choking those unlucky enough to be in the water.


Allied shipping burning at Bari, 3 December 1943

Meanwhile, the crew of John Harvey was engaged in a heroic battle to save their ship. The vessel still was intact and had sustained no direct bomb damage. Nevertheless, she had caught fire, and the situation was doubly dangerous with the mustard gas bombs aboard. Captain Knowles, Lieutenant Beckstrom and others on board refused to leave their posts, but their heroism was ultimately in vain.

Without warning, John Harvey blew up, disappearing in a huge, mushroom-shaped fireball that hurled pieces of the ship and her cargo hundreds of feet into the air. Everyone on board was killed instantly, and all over the harbor the force of the concussion knocked men off their feet. The blast sent out multihued fingers of smoke like a Fourth of July fireworks celebration and made the harbor as bright as day.



The men aboard USS Pumper, a tanker carrying aviation fuel, were witnesses to John Harvey's last moments. Air initially rushed into the vortex of the blast, then the concussion radiated out to knock the tanker 35 degrees to port.

Meanwhile, Heitmann and his surviving crew managed to reach the tip of the east jetty, around a lighthouse that was located at its north end. He had about 50 men. Many were badly wounded, and some were so badly burned that the slightest touch brought agony. At first the lighthouse area seemed a refuge, but it soon became apparent it was more of a deathtrap. A sea of flames cut Heitmann and his men off from following the jetty's long spine into the city, where they might have been relatively safe.



While the sailors waited to be rescued, Ensign K.K. Vesole, commander of John Bascom's armed guard detachment, was having difficulty breathing. Many of the other men were gasping, but it was Vesole who noted something strange about the smoke. "I smell garlic," he said, without realizing the implications of his remark. A garlic odor was a telltale sign of mustard gas. The gas had become liberally intermixed with the oil that floated in the harbor and lurked in the smoke that permeated the area.

Mustard gas-laced oil now coated the bodies of Allied seamen as they struggled in the water, and many swallowed the noxious mixture. Even those not in the water inhaled liberal doses of gas, as did hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Italian civilians. A launch dispatched from Pumper rescued Captain Heitmann and the other John Bascom survivors from the east jetty, but their troubles were just beginning.



The German raid began at 7:30 p.m. and ended 20 minutes later. German losses were very light, and they had succeeded beyond their most sanguine expectations. Seventeen Allied ships were sunk and another eight were damaged, causing Bari to be dubbed the "second Pearl Harbor." The Americans sustained the highest losses, losing the Liberty ships John Bascom, John L. Motley, Joseph Wheeler, Samuel J. Tilden and John Harvey. The British lost four ships, the Italians three, the Norwegians three and the Poles two.

The next morning survivors woke to a scene of utter devastation. Large parts of Bari had been reduced to rubble, particularly the medieval old town. Portions of the city and the harbor were still burning, and a thick pall of black smoke hung in the sky. There were more than 1,000 military and merchant marine casualties; about 800 were admitted to local hospitals. The full extent of civilian casualties may never be known. Conservative estimates hover around 1,000, though there were probably more.

Additional Sources:

www.luftarchiv.de
www.garantialisveris.com
www.luftwaffepics.com
www.vnh.org
www.vectorsite.net
www.rsa.org.nz
www.armed-guard.com
www.450thbg.com
www.la-piazza.it
www.daveswarbirds.com

[SAMWolf]

Fortunately, Bari was the site of several Allied military hospitals and related support facilities. Some were housed at the Bari Polyclinic, built by Mussolini as a showcase of Fascist health care. The Polyclinic was home to the 98th British General Hospital and the 3rd New Zealand Hospital, among others. Those facilities received many of the mustard gas victims that began to appear.



Casualties from the raid began pouring in until the hospitals were filled to overflowing. Almost immediately some of the wounded began to complain of "gritty" eyes, and their condition worsened in spite of conventional treatment. Their eyes were swollen, and skin lesions began to appear. Swamped with wounded of all descriptions and still not realizing they were dealing with poison gas, hospital staffers allowed victims to remain in their oil-and-gas-soaked clothes for long periods.

Not only were the victims severely burned and blistered from prolonged exposure, but their respiratory systems were also badly irritated. The mustard gas casualties were wracked with coughs and had real difficulty breathing, but the hospital staff seemed helpless in the face of this unknown ailment. Men started to die, and even those who did recover faced a long and painful convalescence. Temporary blindness, the agony of burns and a terrible swelling of the genitals produced both physical and mental anguish.



As the victims began to die, the doctors started to suspect that some kind of chemical agent was involved. Some physicians pointed fingers at the Germans, speculating that they had resorted to chemical warfare after all. A message was sent to Allied headquarters in Algiers informing Deputy Surgeon General Fred Blesse that patients were dying of a "mysterious malady." To solve the mystery, Blesse dispatched Lt. Col. Stewart Francis Alexander, an expert on chemical warfare medicine, to Bari.

Alexander examined the patients and interviewed them when appropriate. It was beginning to look like mustard gas exposure, but the doctor was not sure. His suspicions were confirmed when a bomb-casing fragment was recovered from the bottom of the harbor. The fragment was identified as an American M47A1 bomb, which was designated for possible delivery of mustard gas. The Germans could be eliminated as suspects; in this case, the Allies were to blame.



Alexander still did not know where the mustard bombs had originated. The doctor tallied the number of mustard deaths in each ship, then plotted the position of the ships in the harbor. Most of the victims came from ships anchored near John Harvey. British port authorities finally admitted off the record that they knew John Harvey was carrying poison gas. Alexander drew up a report detailing his findings, which was approved by Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Secrecy still dogged the whole affair, however. Eventually, the British and American people were told of the devastating Bari raid, but the part played by mustard gas was kept from them. British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill was particularly adamant that this aspect of the tragedy remain a secret. It was embarrassing enough that the raid occurred at a port under British jurisdiction. Churchill believed that publicizing the fiasco would hand the Germans a propaganda coup.



Although the gas was mentioned in official American records, Churchill insisted British medical records be purged and mustard gas deaths listed as the result of "burns due to enemy action." Churchill's attempts at secrecy may have caused more deaths, because had the word gone out, more victims, especially Italian civilians, might have sought proper treatment. Axis Sally, the infamous propaganda broadcaster, learned the truth and taunted the Allies. "I see you boys are getting gassed by your own poison gas," she sneered.

There were 628 mustard gas casualties among Allied military and merchant marine personnel. Of these, 69 died within two weeks. Most victims, however, like Captain Heitmann of John Bascom, fully recovered. But the figures do not include the uncounted Italian civilians who must have been exposed to the deadly chemical. There was a mass exodus of civilians out of the city after the raid. Some were probably gas victims who died for want of proper treatment.



The deaths and injuries were terrible tragedies, but Bari was a strategic disaster as well. The port was completely closed for three full weeks after the terrible incident. On January 12, 1944, General Mark Clark's Fifth Army launched an offensive, part of an overall push that included the Anglo-American landings at Anzio some days later. Elements of the Fifth Army crossed the Rapido River and established a bridgehead, only to be forced to withdraw due to lack of supplies. Bad weather was the official cause of the supply problems, but the closing of Bari was probably a major factor.

The Fifteenth Air Force suffered setbacks as well because of the German success at Bari. Just two days after the raid, the Fifteenth had been scheduled to act in concert with the Eighth Air Force in a combined offensive against Germany. The Bari raid sharply curtailed the Fifteenth's participation in that offensive. In fact, the Fifteenth Air Force did not make a major contribution to the war until after February 1944.



The Bari raid was a twofold disaster. On one hand, it was truly a second Pearl Harbor, one of the most notable Luftwaffe exploits of the war. But it was also the only poison gas incident of World War II, a tragedy made worse by the perceived exigencies of wartime secrecy.

[SAMWolf]

Showcasing America's finest, and those who betray them!

Please click on the banner above and check out this newly created (and still under construction) website created by FReeper Coop!

---

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

---

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

---

We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

Blue Stars for a Safe Return

---

UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

---

LINK TO FOXHOLE THREADS INDEXED by PAR35

[snippy_about_it]

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Thursday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

[PzLdr]

Wolfram Von Richtofen made his bones with the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. By the time of Case White, he was acknowledged as the German expert on dive bombing and close air support.I believe it was his units that supported Guderian's attack across the Meuse at Sedan in 194o. He commanded Fliegerkorps VIII on the Eastern Front, and was the front line Luftwaffe commander during the Stalingrad operation. He argued against trying to support the 6th Army by air when it was encircled, and then served in the Med. A critic of the Army's over reliance on air support, he coined the phrase "They want my dive bombers when they could throw grenades"

I believe the Allies had mustard gas on ships off the Normandy coast on D-Day, in case the Germans used gas to repel the attack. Luckily, the Luftwaffe failed to show up in any force, and the ships weren't hit.

Richtofen developed an inoperable brain tumor, and was retired in 1944. He died before the end of the war

[wildcatf4f3]

OK, here comes---its Bush's fault...........(sorry)

[PAR35]

But it was also the only poison gas incident of World War II

I'm not sure about that one. I guess it depends on what one means by "World War II". The Italians used gas against Ethiopia, and I think the Japanese used it in China.

[SAMWolf]

Wolfram von Richthofen was a distant cousin of the late Manfred von Richthofen and one of only a few select officers in the Luftwaffe to have attained the highest rank of Generalfeldmarschall.

[SAMWolf]

Ony if you count the "offical" start of WWII as Sep. 1st 1939. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Why not, he seems to get the blame for everything else.

[U S Army EOD]

Well if Bush hadn't been screwing around in the Pacific he could have shot all those Germans down or something.

[quietolong]

Very interesting!
But Like the first. It was not really a surprise.

Currently one of the books I’m reading is:

Reflections of Pearl Harbor
An Oral History of December 7, 1941
K. D. Richardson
2005
http://www.greenwood.com/books/BookDetail.asp?sku=C8516

160 personal narratives that describe a day in the life of America; that day was December 7, 1941.
This collection of memories, told in participants' own words, gathers accounts from both military and civilians, children and adults, people of many ethnic backgrounds, from all over of the United States. Together, these ordinary Americans paint a portrait of a nation
stunned,

One of the most interesting so far. Is one from a Marine by the name of Ernest M. Phillips on the heavy cruiser Northampton.

In Dec. He was with Task Force 16. Delivering a Marine squadron of fighter planes off the Enterprise to Wake Island. using his words:

“ We had heard the Japanese were holding maneuvers around the island. I saw a dispatch that said if we went there they thought the Japanese would leave. However they really
didn’t leave, they just followed us to Pearl Harbor”

If this is correct. The Japanese fleet was not as lost as we have been told.

Two other interesting things he says are:

They were due to tie up at Pearl on Dec. 6th. But were delayed in getting there and could not enter the harbor because the sub nets were in place. And were told to wait to 10 am on the 7th to enter.

As they were maneuvering around. Waiting for 10 am. some of the ships began making sub contacts. As they radioed these in. The Admiral was very put out. That they were making contacts were there shouldn’t be. And radioed back.

You are in error. We do not have any submarines in the area, Please instruct you operators on the proper use of there equipment.

The other thing is he states is the Japanese put 27 torps. into the Utah. Because the Enterprise was slated to be tied up next to it.

Seem like they had good Intel. Just not current enough.

[Iris7]

Gas as we know it was first used on the western front at Ypres in 1915 (it had been first used on the eastern front) when the German Army released chlorine gas, which suffocates. The gas caused great terror. The chlorine was deployed from steel cylinders and blown by the wind.

The race was on to who could make the most effective gas and delivery system. Masks were naturally introduced right away so the next step was developing gases that would penetrate these masks. Masks and other protective gear changed very rapidly, new stuff coming weekly at times, even daily.

In 1917 the Germans developed an agent which could get through all masks and clothing, boots, even rubber protective gear. It was not a gas, but more like a light oil, toxic usually through the skin or, when vaporised, through the eyes and lungs. It stayed active for weeks, slowly turning into vapor from a liquid. It was called mustard gas because of it's smell.

Mustard was difficult to detect, it penetrated anything, it vaporised relatively easily depending on the weather conditions or could form fogs. It was easy to handle and deliver.

Mustard had it's worst effect on moist areas of the body, eyes, pulmonary and gastric systems, armpits, groin, etc. Blistering of the skin would start several hours to several days after exposure. The mildest reaction would be reddening and itching, but the worst ones would be large blisters that became gangrenous. The greater the exposure the greater the reaction.

The eye's were the most likely to be damaged, we have all seen the pictures of men with bandaged eyes walking in lines with a hand on the next man's shoulder. After exposure the first symptom would usually be irritation of the eyes, as if some foreign object were in them. Then the eye lids would swell forcing the eyes to close and the conjunctiva in the eyes to swell ("Pink eye" is minor conjuncivitis). The eyelid would burn and get cramp. The eyes would become very sensitive to light. The vision would then be lost as the cornea becomes ulcerated and decayed.

The effect on the eye's was gross but not fatal. The effects on the respiratory tract were worse and life threatening. After the eyes the breathing passages became irritated with an urge to cough, by difficulty in swallowing, and by a shortness of breath. The inner passages of the respiratory tract became inflamed. The gums would develop dead tissue and the surface layers of the breathing tubes and lungs die. Bronchitis would follow with a tightening of the throat, then pneumonia with bleeding and steadily increasing tissue death, and the airways would eventually block and the victim suffocate. There were two peaks of death occurring, day 3 and day 8. If you survived your lungs would be "Completely Knackered".

Other organs could also be damaged like the digestive system, causing sickness, diarrhea and bowel damage, disabling and not killing.

Mustard injuries left men open to diseases such as TB and pneumonia. Mustard is also a strong carcinogen. Very destructive to long term health.

---

Excelllent CDC piece on Mustard

Very excellent CDC piece on toxic materials in general

The Italians so worried about in the story about Bari were probably not very exposed, if at all, to the mustard. The agent is extremly soluable in the fuel oil covering the water of the harbor and should have been trapped there. Most GIs hurt by mustard had been pulled out of the water, covered with oil, and the oil was contaminated with a small (parts per million) concentration of mustard. In warm weather (looks to be in the 80's by the clothing) mustard decays pretty quickly in water. Should be undetectable in a week or two.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, snippy and everyone at the Freper Foxhole.

[GailA]

Good morning Snippy, Sam and every one.

[texianyankee]

Good Thursday morning to everyone.
Interesting read on what happened at Bari. I never even heard of that event. Thanks for the education.

[The Mayor]

September 8, 2005

A Helping Hand

Read:
Luke 5:17-26

To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend. —Job 6:14

Bible In One Year: 2 Chronicles 26-29

A college student named Kelly shattered her arm in the first volleyball game of the season. This meant she couldn't work at her part-time job. Then her car stopped running. To top it all off, the young man she had been dating stopped calling. Kelly felt so low that she began spending hours alone in her room crying.

Laura, a Christian friend on the volleyball team, became concerned about Kelly and decided to help her. So she planned a party. She and some friends collected money, and a couple of guys got Kelly's car running again. They found a temporary job she could do, using just one hand. And they gave her tickets to see her basketball hero when his team came to town. Before long, Kelly was herself again. When she asked why they did all this for her, Laura was able to tell her about the love of Jesus.

Kelly's story reminds me of the paralyzed man who was healed by Jesus. The afflicted man's friends cared enough about him to bring him to the Savior (Luke 5:17-26).

Do you have a friend in need? Think of some ways you can help. Show the love of Christ and then share the gospel. You never know what might happen when you lend a helping hand. —Dave Egner

Reach out in Jesus' name
With hands of love and care
To those who are in need
And caught in life's despair. —Sper

Real love puts actions to good intentions.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
The Compassion Of Jesus
What Is Real Love?

[The Mayor]

God, I had no idea this happened, Mustard gas. No way to die.
Thanks Sam.

[alfa6]

Good Morning Bump For the Freeper Foxhole

Regards

alfa6 ;>}