Thursday, December 2, 1943. The Mustard Gas release at Bari.

The Luftwaffe attacked the Italian port of Bari in a surprise raid, hitting the SS John Harvey which had a cargo that included 2,000 M-47A1 mustard gas aerial bombs being brought into Italy secretly in case the Germans started using chemical weapons.   The contents of the ship were known only to those on the ship, who were killed when it exploded.

83 people were killed due to the mustard gas release, and a further 545 injured.  The cause of the deaths and injury could not be determined until a British diver discovered a shell casing.

The treatment of the victims lead to a medical advance which, ironically, lead to the introduction of Mustine, the first drug developed that could fight cancer with minimal harm to healthy cells.  It was the effective birth of chemotherapy.

The incident was covered up at the time for obvious reasons.

The British announced the conscription of 10% of men from ages 18 to 25 for work in British coal mines.