Hotschi
Posts: 548
Joined: 1/18/2010 From: Austria Status: offline
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Finished Poisonous Inferno by George Southern, about the 2nd December 1943 Luftwaffe air raid on the Italian Adriatic port of Bali. George Southern was there at the time, serving as a gunner on HMS Zetland, a Type II Hunt-class destroyer, and was involved in rescuing survivors. What makes this raid so unique is that one ship involved, the Liberty-ship John Harvey, carried among its mixed cargo a load of mustard gas bombs. Two other ships, the Liberty-ships Lyman Abbott and Samuel J. Tilden, also carried a deckload of mustard gas canisters. John Harvey was sunk during the raid - she exploded - and the mustard gas, in liquid form, contaminated the surrounding water in the harbor together with fuel oil. And all this greasy stuff contaminated survivors swimming in the water. The existence of mustard gas in Bari was subsequently classified by the British and American authorities. A interesting book (although not the only one) about this subject, perhaps a little vague about the larger picture, but it gives a very good first-person account by someone who actally was himself involved - sadly the e-book version contains no maps or photographs. Started reading South East Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire by Paul H. Kratoska (editor).
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"A big butcher's bill is not necessarily evidence of good tactics" - Wavell's reply to Churchill, after the latter complained about faint-heartedness, as he discovered that British casualties in the evacuation from Somaliland had been only 260 men.
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