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 (
French 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 his doing so. On 2 December 1943
German aircraft attacked Bari, killing over 1,000 people, and sinking 28 ships, including the
John Harvey, which was destroyed in a huge explosion, causing liquid sulfur mustard to spill into the water, mixing with oil from the sunken ships, and a cloud of sulfur mustard vapor to blow over the city. Nearly all crewmen of
John Harvey perished in the sinking; this prevented the rescuers from knowing the real nature of the danger until an M47A1 bomb fragment was retrieved from the wreckage. A total of 628 military victims were hospitalized with mustard gas symptoms, and by the end of the month, 83 of them had died. The number of civilian casualties, thought to have been even greater, could not be accurately gauged since most had left the city to seek shelter with relatives. Chemical warfare expert Dr.
Stewart Francis Alexander found out about the mustard gas and gave the medics a correct treatment. While examining tissues collected on autopsied victims, he found out that mustard gas destroys
white blood cells and other kinds of rapid dividing cells. This discovery was further investigated by
pharmacologists,
Louis S. Goodman and
Alfred Gilman who had started in August 1942 a research on a mustard gas related agent,
mustine, as the first
chemotherapy treatment. U.S. records of the attack were declassified
in 1959 and
the British government admitted the poison gas release and harm caused to the surviving victims. Details of the attack were given in a 1967 article in the US Navy journal
Proceedings, and in a 1976 book by Glenn B. Infield,
Disaster at Bari. ==See also==