WWII Chemical Warfare

Research Paper # 25324

History > European - World Wars
Holocaust Studies

The December 1943 Luftwaffe attack on Bari, Italy.

4,016 words () | 13 sources | APA | 1997 Canada

Paper Summary:

Historical paper on the little known accidental release of toxic mustard gas during WWII by the Americans. The paper examines in great deal the attack on Bari and discusses many of the battles before and after this attack. It questions whether the American's use of chemical agents was useful in achieving their goals and how this impacted the rest of World War Two.

From the Paper:

"During World War II, one of the main goals of the Nazis in Germany was to destroy as many "unwanted" populations as possible. To accomplish this, many of the "unwanted," including Jews, Gypsies, Disabled people and Homosexuals, were imprisoned in death camps. Finding quick and efficient ways of exterminating these people was a continuous challenge throughout the war. The gas chambers finally became the most efficient way, and the most common chemical used in the chambers was Zyklon B. However, Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer-SS, was never satisfied with the operation of the death camps, nor the success of Zyklon B. Himmler was constantly searching for more economical methods to exterminate large segments of the unwanted population, and ironically, an allied catastrophe in 1943 gave him an opportunity to test a toxic war gas. The Luftwaffe bombing of allied merchant ships in the harbor at Bari, Italy, on December 3, 1943, was one of the German Air Force's most successful missions of the entire war. Twenty five ships were sunk, instantly killing 2000 persons. It was the worst allied naval disaster except for Pearl Harbor; and it seriously delayed allied efforts to overrun Italy. But the real horror of the event and one of the best kept secrets of Word War II was the unleashing of 100 tons of poison gas! "