2nd Pearl Harbour - Bari

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I guess some of you  know about the 2nd Pearl Harbour, the attack on Bari 2nd december 1943.

This was the best exploits using German bombers (JU88s) during the war.

It was also the first and last use (unintentional) of chemical warfare in WW2 afaik.

links.



http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/SlaughteratBariSouthernIt.html

[pipz]

Never read of that. Thanks for the post.

[PR3D4TOR]

It is fortunate that the war didn't escalate to chemical and biological warfare. The Germans could have won the war using their advances in chemical weapons technology.

[Lusche]

The Germans could have won the war using their advances in chemical weapons technology.

Not at all.

[PR3D4TOR]

They sure could.

[bagrat]

actually mexico had the greatest advancement in chemical warfare, that's why germany wanted mexico to get involved. Fortunately firing chemical weapons at america was not a reasonable part of mexico's greater plan to retake america in 2012.

[Butcher]

I've read about the Bari bombing a while back, interesting to note it made no information about the chemical warfare, I am guessing the author at the time had no knowledge about it either, pretty cool find thank you!

[USRanger]

actually mexico had the greatest advancement in chemical warfare, that's why germany wanted mexico to get involved. Fortunately firing chemical weapons at america was not a reasonable part of mexico's greater plan to retake america in 2012.

 

[Lusche]

They sure could.

How so? Just having the chemicals ain't gonna win a war.

Or asked in another way. Why didn't they try?

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

They didn't try because by 1943 we would have sailed and marched a entire task force into mexico city.  


and about the story....dang. 

[mthrockmor]

 

Good information. Had never heard of this and considered myself a bit of a WW2 buff.

Boo

[PR3D4TOR]

How so? Just having the chemicals ain't gonna win a war.

Or asked in another way. Why didn't they try?

They did try, or rather Hitler's generals tried, but Hitler refused. Hitler was temporarily blinded during a mustard gas attack during WWI and was sent to a hospital in Berlin in excruciating pain. Hitler abhorred chemical weapons after that and made a decree that Germany would only use chemical weapons in response to an Allied chemical attack. Unlike the Allies who had only mustard gas and other WWI era chemicals at their disposal, German scientists at IG Farben had (accidentally) discovered the nerve agent Tabun in 1936, and in 1938 they developed it into Sarin nerve gas. Thanks to Hitler the Germans never allotted resources to mass producing Sarin during the war, but they still weponized several tons into artillery shells and bombs, but even in the closing days of the war Hitler refused to use them.

Sarin became the standard nerve agent for both NATO and the Warsaw Pact after the war. Had Germany decided to mass produce it and use it indiscriminately they could have killed half the population of London in a single raid.

[cpxxx]

Hitler may or may not have had issues with Chemical weapons. But I believe it was an early example of the MAD principle. Mutually Assured Destruction. Hitler might well have assumed that the Allies had nerve gas too. He might wipe half of London but every major city in Germany would suffer the same fate too. No winners in that war.

[PR3D4TOR]

The Allies didn't have the capability to do that until the advent of the atomic bomb. I don't think even Churchill would have fought on after losing half the population of London in one night. Mustard gas was the most potent WMD in the Allied arsenal at the time and is relatively easy to protect against, and did not have nearly the same lethal potential as nerve gas which was virtually impossible to defend against (still is for a civilian population).

During the battle of Britain the Luftwaffe dropped 9,000 tons of bombs on London in one month. It would only take 7,000 tons of nerve gas bombs to kill the occupants of 30 cities the size of London.

[PR3D4TOR]

You're right that the fear of secret Allied chemical weapons might have been a major factor in Hitler's decisions. However, after experiencing chemical warfare first-hand in the Great War Hitler disdained such weapons and almost forbade the production and continued development of nerve agents. Several of his top generals were furious that they could not use this advantage on the Russian front.