The place is the Italian port of Bari on the Adriatic coast and it is early December.Bari was a supply base for the British 8th Army and headquarters of the American 15th Air Force.The port was packed with over freighters and various warships some unloading and others waiting for a berth.On berth 29 was one particular merchant ship the American S.S. JOHN HARVEY, she was laden with many types of war matrial but the most dangerous part of this cargo was hundreds of tons of mustard gas in bomb and liquid form.
At 7.20 PM on the 2nd December 1943 over 100 JU-88 German bombers swooped on the port,a port the allies thought imune from air attack.The first bombs hit central Bari killing civilians and servicemen alike,but as the barrage of bombs crept towards the harbour the first ship began to suffer.A bomb severed a fuel oil pipe line on the petrolium quay and burning fuel spread across the harbour and over the moles.One of the first ships to be hit was the JOSEPH WHEELER and the explosion split her open killing over 40 crewmen.Another Bomb struck the JOHN BASCOMBE and set fire to her cargo that included gasoline, her moorings parted and she drifted into the JOHN.L MOTLEY loaded with 5000 tons of ammunition,she had been hit already and was a roaring inferno,moments later she exploded killing over 60 of her crew.The Liberty ship SAMUEL.J.TILDEN was next to take a direct hit and was also machine gunned by the bomber.A British ship the FORT ATHABASKA was hit and most of her crew perished.
Also by now the JOHN HARVEY was on fire and soon after the JOHN L MOTLEY blew up the JOHN HARVEY exploded sending flames and debri into the evening sky.The force of the blast ripped apart the freighter TESTBANK and most of her crew died in the inferno.By now 100s of men where swimming,floundering and dying in the poisened burning waters of Bari harbour.
The air raid was over in less than 20 minutes,but in that time over 16 ships had sunk and 8 badly damaged for the loss of one German plane,but the worst was to come,service men and others began to detect a strong smell of garlic an odour characteristic with MUSTARD GAS.At the hospitals and field hospitals the surgeons where unable to fathom the shocking condition of many who had no visible injuries.No treatment seemed to work and along with this the surgeons where trying to cope with terrible burns and severe injuries to a multitude of men,women and children.The next day 100s of casualities developed huge fluid filled blisters on there bodies.Very few poeple knew of JOHN HARVEYs secret cargo and the medical teams where working in the dark.More than 1000 men where killed or missing along with over 800 civilians.800 where in hospitals and 600 of these suffered Mustard Gas poisening of which over 60 died.
Although the attack could not be kept secret the records where purged of any mention of Mustard Gas and it was not until 1959 and the mid. 60s that the whole story of the S.S. JOHN HARVEY and her secret cargo was fully revealed.
LOOSLY WRITTEN FROM VARIOUS FREELY AVAILABLE SOURCES
the last time i went to that port, it looked like they hadn’t done much to improve the place since the bombing raid 
shuttlespanker:
the last time i went to that port, it looked like they hadn’t done much to improve the place since the bombing raid
There is probably something somewhere in present day Bari that related to that terrible day. regards ardennes
ardennes:
shuttlespanker:
the last time i went to that port, it looked like they hadn’t done much to improve the place since the bombing raidThere is probably something somewhere in present day Bari that related to that terrible day. regards ardennes
i was referring to the port itself, not the town 