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.