December 2, 1943.  The Italian port of Bari is on the Adriatic coast, crowded with ships offloading supplies to support the Allied forces driving up the peninsula towards Rome.  The port was well-lit, as cargo needed to be offloaded during the night as well as the day, and it was not well-defended, as the Luftwaffe was considered to have been beaten in that area.





Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe scrambled together enough planes for a raid.


"On the afternoon of 2 December, Luftwaffe pilot Werner Hahn made a reconnaissance flight over Bari in a Messerschmitt Me 210. His report resulted in  ordering the raid. Kesselring and his planners had earlier considered Allied airfields at Foggia as targets, but the Luftwaffe lacked the resources to attack such a large complex of targets. Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram von Richthofen—who commanded Luftflotte 2—had suggested Bari as an alternative. Richthofen believed that crippling the port might slow the advance of the British Eighth Army. He told Kesselring that the only planes available were his Junkers Ju 88 A-4 bombers, and he might be able to muster 150 for the raid; in the event, only 105 Ju 88s were available.

Most of the planes were to fly from Italian airfields, but Richthofen wanted to use a few aircraft flying from Yugoslavia in the hope that the Allies might be fooled into thinking the entire mission originated from there and misdirect any retaliatory strikes. The Ju 88 pilots were ordered to fly east to the Adriatic Sea, then swing south and west, since it was thought that the Allied forces would expect any attack to come from the north.

The attack opened at 19:25, when two or three German aircraft circled the harbour at 10,000 ft (3,000 m) dropping Düppel (foil strips) to confuse Allied radar. They also dropped flares, which were not needed due to the harbour being well illuminated.

The German bomber force obtained complete surprise and was able to bomb the harbour and its contents with great accuracy. Hits on two ammunition ships caused explosions which shattered windows 7 mi (11 km) away. A bulk petrol pipeline on a quay was severed and the gushing fuel ignited. A sheet of burning fuel spread over much of the harbour engulfing otherwise undamaged ships.

Twenty-eight merchant ships laden with more than 34,000 short tons (31,000 t) of cargo were sunk or destroyed; three ships carrying a further 7,500 short tons (6,800 t) were later salvaged. Twelve more ships were damaged. The port was closed for three weeks and was only restored to full operation in February 1944." (1)


Junkers Ju 88:




Ships on fire, Bari harbor:




Unfortunately for the people living and working at Bari, the SS John Harvey was one of those ships destroyed in the harbor.  President Roosevelt had authorized shipment of chemical warfare agents to Europe to be prepared to retaliate in case of Axis first use,


"In August 1943, Roosevelt approved the shipment of chemical munitions containing mustard agent to the Mediterranean theater. On 18 November 1943 the John Harvey, commanded by Captain Elwin F. Knowles, sailed from Oran, Algeria, to Italy, carrying 2,000 M47A1 mustard gas bombs, each of which held 60–70 lb of sulfur mustard. After stopping for an inspection by an officer of the 7th Chemical Ordnance Company at Augusta, Sicily on 26 November, the John Harvey sailed through the Strait of Otranto to arrive at Bari.

Bari was packed with ships waiting to be unloaded, and the John Harvey had to wait for several days. Captain Knowles wanted to tell the British port commander about his deadly cargo and request it be unloaded as soon as possible, but secrecy prevented him doing so." (2)


Painting of attack on Bari:




"Although he had issued a statement denouncing the use of chemical weapons by any actor in World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had also reserved the right to retaliate in kind if chemical weapons were used by the Axis. He therefore ordered mustard-filled munitions to be forward deployed in Europe to provide the capability to launch a retaliatory strike in the event that the Germans initiated gas warfare. In 1943, the Germans were on the defensive. As a consequence, or so the Allies believed, Germany could have been desperate enough to use poison gas on the battlefield. To avoid triggering a preemptive strike by Germany with chemicals, however, the presence of the Allies’ chemical munitions was kept secret. This was to play a tragic role in what transpired off the Italian coast.

Being oil miscible, liquid mustard released into the harbor waters mixed with oil from stricken vessels. This mustard agent came into contact with sailors who had dived into the water to escape their sinking ships. Sulfur mustard vapors were also released into the air. Because medical personnel were unaware of the mustard’s presence, rescued seamen were allowed to remain in their oil-soaked clothing while those injured in the blasts were treated, prolonging contact with the agent. Victims began to exhibit the delayed effects of mustard exposure within hours, with burns on their skin, swollen eyes and genitals, and temporary blindness. More serious casualties were those involving respiratory exposures of mustard agent." (3)


Bari Harbor:




Interestingly enough, the tragedy did have a beneficial, if unintended side effect.  While trying to figure out what happened, doctors collected a lot of autopsy samples and eventually figured out that the poison could be used to treat some forms of cancer.


"The nitrogen mustards are cytotoxic chemotherapy agents similar to mustard gas. Although their common use is medicinal, in principle these compounds can also be deployed as chemical warfare agents.  Nitrogen mustards are nonspecific DNA alkylating agents. Nitrogen mustard gas was stockpiled by several nations during the Second World War, but it was never used in combat. As with all types of mustard gas, nitrogen mustards are powerful and persistent blister agents and the main examples (HN1, HN2, HN3, see below) are therefore classified as Schedule 1 substances within the Chemical Weapons Convention. Production and use is therefore strongly restricted.

During WWII nitrogen mustards were studied at Yale University and classified human clinical trials of nitrogen mustards for the treatment of lymphoma started in December 1942. Also during WWII, an incident during the air raid on Bari, Italy, led to the release of mustard gas that affected several hundred soldiers and civilians. Medical examination of the survivors showed a decreased number of lymphocytes. After WWII was over, the Bari incident and the Yale group's studies eventually converged prompting a search for other similar compounds. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard known as "HN2" became the first chemotherapy drug mustine." (4)


References:

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Raid_on_Bari
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey
(3) http://weaponsandwarfare.com/?p=30192
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_mustard


Further readings:

Infield, Glenn B. (1988). Disaster at Bari.  Toronto: Bantam. ISBN 0-553-27403-1.
Reminick, Gerald (2001). Nightmare in Bari: The World War II Liberty Ship Poison Gas Disaster and Coverup. Palo Alto: Glencannon Press. ISBN 1-889901-21-0.
Southern, George (2002). Poisonous inferno: World War II tragedy at Bari Harbour. Shrewsbury: Airlife. ISBN 1-84037-389-X.

Never knew. Interesting.

Thanks

Damn!

Thanks for posting.

I'm just finishing Rick Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light and the right of retaliation agains chemical weapons is mentioned in the book. It is hard to imagine how much ghastly the war would have been with the widespread use of chemical weapons.

I have a piece of a JU-88 from one Grandpa (kind of) shot down over Iceland.