'Little Pearl Harbor', The Raid on Bari

[Facman]

This event is of interest to me because Bari is where my Father's parents were born & married. They came to the US for their honeymoon (just before WW1) and never returned. My Father's oldest brother, Uncle Louie, was a survivor of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor while stationed there in the US Navy.

 

[Rico]

It was a scandalous cover-up by Allied high command ... keeping secret that fact that one of the ships anchored in Bari harbour was carrying mustard gas even from their own local Allied commanders, meant that doctors didn't know what to treat and many servicemen and Italian civilians died needless, agonising deaths. Churchill and Eisenhower figured that avoiding the potential PR disaster of admitting Allied stockpiles of chemical weapons in Italy was worth the sacrifice of a few hundred sailors and servicemen ...