Bari - The Second Pearl Harbour
 
 
Bari, during the second world war was an important British port.  It is the site of a well kept secret bombing becoming known as
the "2nd Pearl Harbor" because of the great tragedy recorded and uncovered about the incident of  Dec 2,1943.

 

 

 

The port was crowded with 30 Allied ships. One, the Liberty ship SS John Harvey, carrying a secret load of 100 tons of mustard gas bombs,
intended for "defence" by Allied Forces.   The harbour filled with mustard gas and this disaster convinced Truman that poison gas was too volatile
and dangerous to be effective in war since a change in the wind could blow it back in your own face!
 

German reconnaissance flight during the afternoon of the 2nd. of December 1943. 

1st. Lieutenant Werner Hahn  flew his Messerschmidt ME-210 over Bari at 23,000 feet on the afternoon
of December 2/43. Unmolested by any AA fire, he made a 2nd pass before turning north for home, to report
the proposed target port crowded with the unloading of 30+ships.
 
 
Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, in command of Luftflotte-2, had suggested to his boss, Field Marshal Kesselring,
that an attack on Bari could slow down the advancing 8th. Army, and retard attacks from the newly arrived US-15th Air Force. 
Planning to gather 150 JU-88's for the attack, but mustering only 105,  he was ordered to fly east to the Adriatic,
then turn and approach Bari from the west, while Allies anticipated German air raids to come from the North.
The aircraft would drop Duppel, thin strips of tin foil to confuse the defensive Radar.
Parachute flares would be dropped to light up the targets in the harbour at about 19:30,
then the JU-88's would attack at a low altitude, hoping to avoid Allied Radar installations.
 
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq104-4.htm and
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/SlaughteratBariSouthernIt.html
-for more pictures of Bari ships under attack - click here 

     

 

The air raid lasted 20 minutes – but it was the “most destructive enemy attack on [Allied] shipping other than Pearl Harbor.”
Though only three or four ships received direct hits, the bombs broke open a pipeline connecting tankers to storage tanks.
Oil flowed into the sea, caught fire, then set one ship after another ablaze.  Nineteen vessels were destroyed.  
USA: John Bascom, Joseph Wheeler, John Harvey, John L. Motley, Samuel J. Tilden;
UK: Testbank, Fort Athabaska, Devon Coast;
Norwegian: Lom, Bollsta, Norlom;
Italian: Barletta, Frosinone, Cassala, Inaffondable;
Polish: Puck, Lwow;
Danish: Lars Kruse;
Yugoslavian:Yug
 
At 10:10 p.m. – two hours and 20 minutes after the raid ended – the US Liberty ship SS John Harvey exploded.
Her cargo included 2,000 M47A1 bombs (100-pounders) each with 60 to 70 pounds of sulphur-mustard.
Because of an offshore breeze, much of the "sulfur-mustard" drifted out to sea but some mixed with oil in the harbour water.  
Some sailors died in the burning oil. Some drowned. Some were rescued.  A few, worried about the oil, got rid of their clothing.
A few others were hosed down on board ship, again because of the oil.
 
Most remained in their clothing, unaware it was saturated with oil and "sulfur-mustard".
In addition, the rescuers’ faces and eyes were splashed by contaminated spray,
or their hands burned when they pulled someone into a lifeboat.
 
"I had brown lines across my forehead and down the side of my face where the straps of helmet had touched my skin.
The straps had previously got soaked in the lifeboat when I had passed it to someone who used it for bailing out the water in the boat….
My right forearm was the worst for I had been wearing a heavy woolen sweater and my arm got soaked and the wool held the water;
the prolonged exposure gave the gas time to work on my arm and it burned a hole in it about the size of a dollar."
 
Roughly 800 casualties were admitted to hospitals: 617 (more than 75%) suffered from exposure.  
Many others were exposed but did not seek treatment.  One reason they were not treated is that most did not appear to
have physical injuries and the hospital staff was already swamped with those who did.  Nurses left the victims in their own
clothing and gave them a cup of tea. Although the victims smelled of garlic – the typical smell of mustard gas –
the medical staff assumed that was because they had been eating Italian food.
 
The first deaths occurred 18 hours after exposure. Gladys M. Rees Aikens was a nurse with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military
Nursing Service (Reserve):  “One undamaged ship picked up 30 survivors then cleared harbour the next day.
Four to six hours later the entire crew had eye problems. When she reached Taranto 18 hours later, eye problems were so severe
the crew had trouble docking the ship.” (Infield, 1971, p. 146)
 
The aftermath of the explosion was almost too pathetic and grim to describe. Only a few hours after dawn following the raid we began to realize
that most of our patients had been contaminated by something beyond all imagination.  I first noticed it when one or two of my patients went
to the sink looking for a drink of water.
 
This was odd, because drinks had already been taken around as usual after supper. Suddenly, there were more looking for water
and we could hardly control them.  They were complaining of intense heat and began stripping their clothes off.
Patients confined to bed were trying desperately to rip their dressings and bandages off. 
 
By morning, many patients had blisters as big as balloons heavy with fluid.  At that point, the nurses did strip some patients and wrap them in blankets but
did not do decontamination. The patients tore off the blankets and wandered around naked searching for water.
 
Day after day, the deaths continued: nine on the second day; 11 on the third; eight on the fourth; four on the fifth; four on the sixth; five on the seventh;
nine on the eighth; nine on the ninth. Alexander concluded there had been mustard gas contamination, 617 had been contaminated, 13.6% died.