Just learned about it:

http://theoemery.com/book-hellfire-boys/

FYI, the US still stores chemical munitions awaiting disposal at the Pueblo and Blue Grass Depots.

https://www.cma.army.mil/pcd/

https://www.cma.army.mil/bluegrass/

I'm sure it will discuss the relatively unknown incident at the port of Bari, Italy during WW2. The German Luftwaffe bombed the Allied transports in port during December 1943, hitting one US ship that contained a secret cargo of mustard gas. The mustard gas was released across the harbor, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of US and British servicemen and Italian civilians.

The US and British governments subsequently attempted to cover up the incident, in order to disguise the fact that the Allies were shipping chemical weapons to the ETO/MTO.

The US and UK did not use chemical weapons during WW2, but had them on-hand for retaliatory use in case the Axis powers were to use them first. The Axis did not use chemical weapons against the Western Allies, but Germany did use them against the Soviets. Prior to the Western Allies entering the war, Italy had used chemical weapons against the Ethiopians, and the Japanese had used chemical weapons against the Chinese.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

I'm sure it will discuss the relatively unknown incident at the port of Bari, Italy during WW2. ...

This book first came out 30 or so years ago, there may now be more thorough books about the incident.

https://www.amazon.com/Disaste...rds=incident+at+bari

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
This book first came out 30 or so years ago, there may now be more thorough books about the incident.

There are books on the subject, but it still remains relatively unknown outside of history nerds like me.

What battles did the Germans use them against the Soviets? Never knew that.

Ethiopia, Italy, and China weren't the only places chemical weapons were deployed, stored, or otherwise released.

The British had them in India (where that was officially denied until fairly recently), there is evidence the Germans inadvertently(?) used them in the Ardennes in 1944, and there were dozens, perhaps hundreds or thousands of people exposed to agent (mostly mustard) during the war and in the years immediately after the war. And this doesn't include the tens of thousands of Americans, British, Chinese, and Mongolians or millions of German and occupied territory Jews exposed to biological and/or chemical weapons by the Germans in the Holacoust or by Japan.

After the war the victors had to decide a means of destroying the German, Italian, and Japanese stockpiles. The most famous was Operation CHASE (Cut Holes And Sink Em) where ships filled to the brim with chemical warfare materiel (CWM) were sunk in the deeper parts of the Baltic Sea and elsewhere. These locations are posing problems to fishermen today.

The really nasty shit we (and the Brits, French, and Soviets) brought home to study. Organophosphate poisons, Zyclon B, tractor rockets, biological weapons... We learned a lot from the Germans and Japanese. If you need to loose the desire to eat for an evening, watch Ytub videos on Unit 731. It's... revolting, and not much gets that term applied by me. I know some of the Chinese and Japanese working on an extensive program to find all this "stuff" (to use a technical term) so it can be, once and for all, destroyed.

If you want to know more about America's current program to address CWM here and OCONUS, go read the Army's Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel (RCWM) Program Website. I know the author quite well.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

...Army's Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel (RCWM) Program Website. I know the author quite well.

Nice link, I was waiting for you to chime in.

True story: Sig 2340 and I worked in the same program though we were about 800 miles apart. I retired a year ago but I'm still interested in RCWM and UXO.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
What battles did the Germans use them against the Soviets? Never knew that.

Mainly in the Crimea, in the fighting in and around Odessa and Sevastapol.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

...Army's Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel (RCWM) Program Website. I know the author quite well.

Nice link, I was waiting for you to chime in.

True story: Sig 2340 and I worked in the same program though we were about 800 miles apart. I retired a year ago but I'm still interested in RCWM and UXO.

I hadn't heard you punched out.

Congratulations on a well-deserved retirement to one of the best!!

I estimate a need to fight these issues for another 10 years before I can say "Adiosyou ignorant bastards."

As a young Army PFC in the early days of Desert Shield then Storm, nothing was more concerning than the possibility of Bio/Chem weapons, and the thoughts of doing the "dying cockroach" or having to rely on atropine injections that *might* be enough to save you.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
As a young Army PFC in the early days of early Desert Storm, nothing was more concerning than the possibility of Bio/Chem weapons, and the thoughts of doing the "dying cockroach" or having to rely on atropine injections that *might* be enough to save you.

I was also active Army during that time-frame and remember it well.

MOPP-related skills were a big part of our common task training. Went to the 25th ID two-week NBC Course in '91.

Infantry units we trained with our pro-masks everywhere. Shot at the range with them on.

'GAS ! GAS ! GAS ! ' and on goes the mask... Would have been hell to face it for real but at least we made an effort to be ready.

-------------------------------------

quote:

GAS ! GAS ! GAS !

And "NBC PT".

(Not so) Fond memories.