Air Raid on Bari

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Air Raid on Bari Part of Italian Campaign, World War II Date December 2, 1943 Location Bari, Italy Result German victory Belligerents  United Kingdom  United States  Germany Commanders Mark Wayne Clark Jimmy Doolittle Albert Kesselring Casualties and losses 17 ships sunk, harbor heavily damaged, 1,000 military and merchant marine personnel killed, 1,000 civilians killed[1] None

v • d • e Italian Campaign Invasion of Sicily – Invasion of Italy – Armistice with Italy – Volturno Line – Barbara Line – Bari Raid – Bernhardt Line – Monte Cassino – Anzio – Trasimene Line – Gothic Line – Spring offensive 1945

The Air Raid on Bari was an air attack on Allied forces and shipping in Bari, Italy by Nazi German bombers on December 2, 1943. In the attack, 20 German Junkers Ju 88 bombers, achieving complete surprise, bombed Allied shipping and personnel operating in support of the Allied Italian campaign, sinking 17 cargo and transport ships in Bari harbor. The attack lasted a little more than one hour, but put the port out of action until March of 1944 for the Allies

One of the destroyed ships, the U. S. cargo Liberty ship John Harvey, was carrying a secret cargo of mustard gas. Many additional military and civilian casualties occurred because medical authorities were unaware of the presence of the gas, also additional casulalties were caused among the rescuers by contact with the contaminated skin and clothing of those more directly exposed to the gas. In total, 1,000 Allied military and merchant mariners and around the same number of Italian civilians died as a result of the attack and the harbor was put out of operation for over two months.

After the attack, Allied leaders, including Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill ordered that the full story of the disaster be kept secret. The U.S. records of the attack were declassified in 1959 but the episode remained obscure until 1967. In 1986 the British government admitted to Bari raid survivors that they had been exposed to poisonous gas and amended their pension payments accordingly.^[2]

Contents 1 References 1.1 Books 1.2 Web 2 Footnotes

[edit] References

[edit] Books

• Atkinson, Rick (2007). The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. Henry Holt and Co.. ISBN 0805062890. 
• Infield, Glenn B. (1988). Disaster at Bari (paperback), Bantam. ISBN 0553274031. 
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1975 (reissue)). Sicily-Salerno-Anzio January 1943- June 1944, vol. 9 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ASIN B000RCJ6X8. 
• Reminick, Gerald (2001). Nightmare in Bari: The World War II Liberty Ship Poison Gas Disaster and Coverup. Glencannon Press. ISBN 1889901210. 
• Southern, George (2005). Poisonous Inferno. Airlife. ISBN 184037389X. 

[edit] Web

• United States (U.S.) Naval Historical Center (August 8, 2006). Naval Armed Guard Service: Tragedy at Bari, Italy on 2 December 1943. U.S. Department of the Navy. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.

[edit] Footnotes