I and delighted to welcome an accomplished author and the administrative director of the Manhattan Project and the author of New York Times bestsellers with the british spy ring and wartime washington and in tuxedo park speaking to her new book the great secret. Thank you for joining us. Also thank you to the museum for inviting me to be with you tonight my first zoom presentation. Bear with me. Now im thinking i should have had wine. Winston churchill had a way with words. Men occasionally stumble across the truth but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing is happened Lieutenant ColonelFrancis Alexander the remarkable humor of my book and in fact refused to leave the scene of a military disaster when churchill himself warned him to. And investigated and recognize the never before seen symptoms in a group of dying sailors to have lifesaving implications in the future. And then turns a chemical weapons report into a stepping stone and a tragedy into a medical triumph. To take you back to 1943 with the adriatic coast was bustling the position taken a capital with 150 miles to the north almost unscathed and then outside of town women and children were begging for blackmarket food and young couples strolled like in the old days and i. C. E. Cream vendors. And a critical Mediterranean Service hub and to supply just the americans and british armies which comprise the better part of the 500,000 and allied troops engaged in driving the germans out of italy. Chasing the skies over italy and the british control the port were so confident that marshalls announced it was all but immune from attack if they should attempt any significant in this area. The busy wartime import was teeming with activity but the american liberty ship and then 30 allied ships were cramming the harbor. And engines and landing strips you can see on the upper deck lights and huge cranes testing equipment. And then to unload the supplies for the next big push with the advance on rome. Now kids are making steady progress and then about 32 miles south of from the success of the advanced depended on the supply lines that they march northward. Because of the urgency to keep the incoming stream to go was needed most the blackout orders were suspended. All night long. Radar and as a result they achieved almost complete surprise as the incendiaries rained down on the harbor it turned night into day. They scrambled to shoot down the enemy but it was too late. There was virtually no opposition. They pulled out unchallenged by allied fighters although it lasted less than 20 minutes, the results were devastating. A tremendous roar came from the harbor and exploding ammunition tankers set huge rollin said hus of flames thousands of feet high a reporter for Time Magazine described a fiery panorama, eight ships were burning fiercely. The entire center of the harbor was covered with burning oil a ruptured fuel lines and thousands of gallons gushing into the harbor where it ignited into a giant sheet of flame and golfing the entire north side of the port. Like a prairie fire spread across the surface of the water before it forced them to jump, swim for safety. The cries of men yelling for help echoed in the harbor. News of the raid one of the worst catastrophes of the war was heavily censored. General Dwight Eisenhowers first communique from air force headquarters on december 4th stated damage was done. Adding insult to injury the first account came from the germans, a berlin propaganda broadcast over the missions spectacular success stating that it was so poorly protected german bombers had been able to pick up the allied ships like sitting ducks. The attack which the press dubbed a little pearl harbor shook the complacency of the allied forces who had been convinced of their superiority in the area. All told, they sunk 17 allied ships and destroyed more than 31,000 tons of vital cargo more than 1,000 american and british servicemen were killed outright and almost as many wounded in the untold number of civilians. Rumors founded officials were covering up in an embarrassing incident and there was talk of the secret weapon a rocket driven glide bomb. Congressional concern was underscored by eisenhowers announcement that he had asked a special Senate Subcommittee to investigate. The rear admiral responsible for the u. S. Merchant marine fleet angrily told Time Magazine youre going to hear more about that before you here last. But that was the last official word on the matter and the incident remained shrouded in mystery. In the crucial days that followed, the task of treating the gravely injured sailors would be made even more difficult by wartime secrecy and the determined efforts of the american and British Government to cover up the incident so as not to endanger preparations for the most important operation of the war, the allied invasion of germany occupied france planned for the spring. It would be almost 30 years before the world would learn the truth about what really took place on that fatal night and even today few are aware of the surprising consequences of the disaster and its impacts on the lives of millions of americans. Lieutenant colonel alexander was asleep in his headquarters. He was awake at the first rise of the telephone. The summons came in the middle of the night and there appeared to be a developing medical crisis. Too many men were dying too quickly of unexplained causes. The symptoms were unlike anything the military physicians had seen before and they had begun to suspect the germans had used in an unknown weapon perhaps poison gas. With a number of mysterious deaths increasing rapidly each day the british placed a red light call alerting air force headquarters in algiers allied headquarters. There was an urgent request for assistance. Alexander was dispatched immediately to the scene of the disaster. He looked young for a combat physician. 5foot eight and skinny, only 29, his hair was thinning at the temples and that lend him the only authority he could claim. He was popular with the troops though some said his gentle bedside manner was best suited to a pediatrician. But he was tougher than he liked. Hed been through the invasion of north africa under the Major General patton and despite his quiet modesty, hed proven himself to be confident, determined and resourceful. His superiors knew he had a good head on his shoulders. He could have sat out the war in a stateside hospital but the desire to serve ran deep in his family. They fled famine and persecution in europe for the United States in the 1880s and they were forever grateful for the opportunities afforded to them. His father was a popular Family Doctor in new jersey and it was his one ambition to follow in his fathers footsteps. He had excelled and entered the academy at 15 and a standout he was allowed to advance directly to medical school and graduate at the top of his class in 1935. He earned his md at columbia. After completing his residency he went back home and hung out next to his father full of pride but in the spring of 1940s as hitler began his march across europe, alexander volunteered for duty. He noted he would be available at any time and he was called up in november and spend time with the 16th infantry regiment stationed at Gunpowder Creek in maryland not far from the arsenal that also happened to be home to the Chemical Warfare service. Before long he decided to contact with an Innovative New design hed come up with with spectacles that could fit inside the face piece of a gas mask. He was very nearsighted and flunked his first physical. When the army dr. Went back he was pretty fearful of there was an attack during the war he would have to choose between wearing his glasses and the gas mask because they were left over from the previous war and it didnt fit over the glasses so he came up with a new design. He underwent a crash course in the hurried pace of the war he became a newly minted expert in the field and conducted all kinds of experiments on animals to evaluate toxic agents and develop new forms of treatment and protective gear for soldiers. After pearl harbor he started traveling around the country to different training camps. He was promoted to the director of the Chemical WarfareService MedicalResearch Laboratory and so when he was concerned about the threats they might watch a gas attack in europe he requested a doctor with a Chemical Warfare background and Young Alexander was sent to the allied force headquarters so now at 5 p. M. On december seven, 1943, five days after the attack, his plane touched down on the batter airfield and waiting was a group of senior british doctors. He could see they were immediately agitated and he was taken to the hospital. The situation was grim. All the equipment had been sunken in the air raid. However it was going to compound the tragedy. This place had taken a beating and the wall walls scattered le hail and had knocked out the power so they were working by lamplight. Hundreds and hundreds suffering from shock, burns and exposure almost all of them were covered in thick black crude oil. They were knocking together as fast as he could. The town ran out of caskets own only the first few hours. With so many patients needing urgent attention there was no time to get most out of their dirty clothes so the nurses did what they could. They received the standard treatment for the time a shot of morphine, blankets to keep them warm and strong sweet tea than they were left to rest. If you complained of burns but that was attributed and they were discounted at the time. Most laid there quietly aware that they would be given priority. They observed that they complained of being thirsty. Overnight the majority of the cases had developed blisters as big as balloons. This led to the doctors to think that it might be the poisonous fumes perhaps the explosives but six hours after the attacks they began complaining of severe eye pain. The headquarters send notification that there was a possibility of an exposure but the information was vague and unconfirmed. The hundreds of patients with unusual symptoms were to be classified dermatitis not yet diagnosed pending further instructions. Given the casualties that first night the non urgent cases were sent away most of them still in their white uniforms. The next morning they returned clearly needing treatment. They were in a horrible state and what made it worse is so many were conscious throughout the ordeal. A young goner couldnt understand why his vision was become blurry with each passing hour. Thats when the rumors about the poison gas started to spread. He remembered feeling uneasy when a group confiscated all the clothes, shoes, belts, uniforms, everything. There was no explanation given. That created a panic. The first occurred at 18 hours after the attack within two days there were 14. Alexander noted the downward spiral of the patients. It appeared in a matter of minutes and would become. The british doctors were mystified. The symptoms didnt fit any of those in the case histories. They could find no similarities in the textbooks or the manuals issued by the Chemical Warfare service. If the toxic agent was mustard gas, so named the unpleasant odor then complications should have been more prominent but they were not. As alexander walked towards he examined the patients, lifted blankets, studied their burns with extraordinary delicacy he re probed the skin, spoke with each man asking how he had come by his injuries, which ship was he on, how did he come to be rescued, did he receive first aid, what about when he got to the hospital. One after another told of being caught in the firestorm and the pandemonium that followed, somehow making it to the hospital. There they waited for as long as 24 hours in their white uniforms before receiving treatment. Drawing back the covers on one patient, he studied the burns on the otherwise healthy body. The sailors that had been aboard in the harbor when they flew over he heard a loud boom and felt liquid land on his neck. A picture of the injuries shown in alexanders report. He observed the outline of the red skin with ointment delineating where he had been sprayed as if it had been imprinted on his flesh. The burns he had seen on other patients were varied but he could distinguish between chemical burns and those caused by fire and heat. Certain patterns were present depending how the individual had been exposed. It appeared they had been thrown overboard and were burned extensively over 90 of their bodies while those in the boats had superficial burns wherever the toxic had hit them. Some men that sat possibly in lifeboats had local burns and a few lucky souls who taken upon themselves to wipe off the mixture had only minor injuries. As he made his round it was increasingly clear to alexander most of the patients exposed for chemical agent. Hed noticed something from the first moment he entered the hospital. It was some odor that kept nagging away at him and he could pick it up at various places and rooms and it stood out from the usual smells of urine and disinfectant and burned flesh. The odor implanted itself in his mind he wrote in his diary was mustard gas. It had been five days since the initial exposure is aroun founde was any chance of saving the lives laying in bed and the countless civilians that he knew he needed to act very swiftly. He decided to question the hospital director and put the question to him. He had his own suspicions so he asked i feel these men may have been exposed to mustard in some manner. Do you have any idea how this may have happened. None, came the hospital directors reply. As the Chemical Warfare consulted him alexander was clear to the highest degree he knew the allies had begun stockpiling poison gas in the mediterranean in case germany with its back to the wall resorted to Chemical Warfare but he was skeptical they would have shipped mustard shells to a busy port so close to the local population and then allowed the toxic car go to sit there is a prime target for the enemy strike. He couldnt afford to rule it out. He tried again. Have you checked with the port authorities and shipping mass, could they have been carrying mustard. He was told again and again that they did not have the information and that it was not possible. But alexander had his doubts. It sounded to him like the british were trying to manage the investigation. He didnt believe he was getting the full story or their full cooperation. The burden of proof he realized rested on him. He ordered a series of tests for those that were still alive and insisted on a series of careful complete autopsies of those who died under mysterious circumstances. He ordered samples of the water collected and analyzed and he borrowed personnel from displaced American Hospital units and put them to work gathering data, performing tests on tissue samples and compiling pathology reports. Suspecting the british officials were dodging his questions, alexander visited the navy house, the british headquarters and again demanded to be told that there was mustard gas at the harbor and again he was absolutely denied. He left unconvinced. What he needed was proof but he also knew something else. This was a new horror that he wrote, not the menace that he had studied. This was mustard gas poisoning through a different guise than that recognized from world war i. The first thing the next morning alexander scouted the harbor he wanted to do his own investigation with as little interference as possible. He picked his way through the rubble and surveyed the twisted metal. He looked at the burnedout vessels that had been some of them towed out to sea and some of them could still be seen, masks broken poking above the water. Still smoldering close by and the ashes stung his nostrils. The dark water in the harbor looked sinister. One sailor recalled the floating oil had been a foot thick on the surface after the raid. It ias a mixture of highoctane gasoline and fuel from two dozen allied ships and alexander suspected mustard gas. But he didnt know what else might be in there. He had to do more tests. He knew that they had been carrying shells and a new secret weapon. He couldnt be sure what was in the chemicals to. He also couldnt be sure that it wasnt a german gas attack. He reasoned that liquid mustard in most cases would be transformed into tiny droplets resembling a vapor. It would have contaminated the ships in the harbor and included the vessels that still remained afloat and drenched the men on the box below even those not on the water would have inhaled significant doses of the noxious vapor as it spread across the harbor some of it is sinking and burning and mixing on the surface and some evaporating in the clouds of smoke and flame. Alexander could find no evidence of the contamination. When he questioned the personnel they seemed surprised and shook their heads. Thats impossible theres no mustard here. When he spoke to the british port authorities they continued to state categorically that there was no mustard in the area but undeterred, he described in detail the burns he had seen and he insisted there was no way those injuries could have been sustained by anything than Chemical Exposure. At that point the port authorities began to waver and change their story. They began to say perhaps there was mustard gas in the harbor but it could only have come from the germans. Shocked by this sudden aboutface, alexander reconsidered. He needed more studies and the ramifications of the charge that hitler in a desperate gamble had risked a gas offensive but in the end after reviewing all the evidence he discounted it as unlikely coming after the authorities denial of so much he thought it was to meet of an explanation of what had happened which he now suspected was something much more complicated. Over the next two days he poured over the clinical records and autopsy reports. In the reports he wrote to take a journey into the nightmare of the effects of the chemical contamination. He came to an overwhelming conclusion the consequences could be seen on most of the victims. The Chemical Exposure was apparent. He wasnt sure how to proceed when he received the stunning news. They found the fractured gas shells and tests were performed