
Air raid on Bari - curtis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari
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curtis
This is one of those pieces of World War II history that I somehow missed. I
found the part about the mustard gas particularly shocking -- I hadn't
realized the allies had mustard gas munitions ready for deployment, although I
guess that shouldn't be surprising in hindsight.

~~~
tzs
The Wikipedia article on chemical warfare has some interesting information on
this [1].

The British were ready to use gas on their beaches if the Germans has stages
an invasion of Britain. Churchill urged its use against German cities if it
came down to life or death for Britain, or if it would shorten the war by a
year, but this was rejected because of fear that this would prompt the Germans
to use gas.

The Germans didn't use their fancy new nerve gases because they assumed the
allies secretly had them too (they interpreted the lack of mention of such
gases in allied scientific journals as evidence the allied military was
suppressing publication of such research), and so feared the allies would
retaliate with similar gas attacks.

They would have probably used gas to repel the D-Day invasion, but practical
matters stopped them. Germany was dependent on horses to move supplies, and
they had been unable to develop an effective gas mask for their horses.

Japan made heavy use of gas, but only against Asians. They didn't use gas
against Westerners, because they feared retaliation.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare)

