![]() Then without warning, patients in relatively good condition began dying. The staff’s unease only deepened when notification came from headquarters that the hundreds of burn patients with unusual symptomology would be classified “Dermatitis N.Y.D.“-not yet diagnosed. The doctors suspected some form of chemical irritant, but the patients did not present typical symptoms or respond to standard treatments. READ MORE: The History of Chemical Weapons Use Goes Back to the Ancient Worldīy dawn, the patients had developed red, inflamed skin and blisters on their bodies “the size of balloons.” Within 24 hours, the wards were full of men with eyes swollen shut. It was tantamount to marinating in mustard gas. They were given morphine, wrapped in warm blankets and left to sit in their oil-soaked uniforms for as long as 12, and even 24 hours, while the seriously wounded were attended to first. In the crush of casualties that first night, hundreds of survivors, who had jumped or been blown overboard and swam to safety, were mistakenly believed to be suffering from only shock and immersion. As a result of the military secrecy, medical personnel weren’t alerted to the danger of contamination from the liquid mustard that spread insidiously over the harbor, mixing with the tons of fuel oil from the damaged ships. Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill moved to conceal the truth about the shipment of poison gas, for fear Germany might use it as an excuse to launch an all-out chemical war. ![]() In the devastating aftermath of the attack, which the press dubbed a “little Pearl Harbor,” U.S. This photograph was made as Nazis staged their successful bombing raid on Allied Shipping in the Harbor at Bari, Italian port on the Adriatic, December 2, 1943.
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