Changed the course of world war ii. She will bespeaking tonight about her new book , the great secret, the classified world war ii that launched the war on cancer. Thank you for joining us. Thank you and i want to thank the museum for inviting me to be with you tonight. Alas, its virtually but im here at my desk. Myfirst zoom presentation so bear with me everyone. Im thinking right now i should have a little bit of wine but anyway here we go. Lets start us off with a quote from winston churchill. He had a way with words. Men occasionally stumble across it to most of them themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. Lieutenant colonel Stuart Francis alexander, our hero is not long off. In fact, you refused to leave the scene of a military disaster even though churchill warned him to. He stayed and investigated and as a result he recognized a never before seen symptoms of dying sailors that might have lifesaving implications for others inthe future. This is the story of one intrepid army doctor and how turned a chemical weapons report into a steppingstone and a horrific world war ii tragedy into a medical triumph. Im going to take you back to the night of december 2 1943. The old port town of bari of bari was bustling. The british had taken the capital in september and though the front lay hundred 50 miles to the north the medial city with its massive clips cradling the sea had escaped the fighting almost unscathed. Only a few miles outside of town women and children were begging for blackmarket food but in bari the shops were full of case and bread and rolls , young couples strolled on and off like in the old days and vendors were doing abrisk business. Bari was a critical Mediterranean Service town at the allied forces make your stay protected. It was applying both the american and british armies which comprise a better part of 500,000 allied troops in case and drive driving the germansout of italy. You can see that first slide of the bari water plant. The liberating british commies had already shake the nazis from the skies and the british were so confident they had one air war that marshalls announced that it was almost immune fromattack. I was regarded as a personal affront, insult a walk should attackany significant action in this area. The busy wartime work was teeming with activity. Four days earlier the american liberty ship john hardy pulled in with a convoy of nine merchants men, three allied ships were cramming the harbor act against the sewall noseto nose along here. The holes were leading with everything from food, medical gear engines, fields for landing strips and tons of oil for the planes really busy on the upper deck where tanks armored personnel carriers , ambulances, everything. Lights went atop huge cranes wasted, the dockyard for working around the clock to unload the supplies of the next big push to advance on rome. Allied strategy hinged on making steady progress of the rugged mountain and peninsula culminating in Amphibious Attack at anzio about 32 miles south of rome. The success depended on the long supply lines sustaining the mens march northwards. Because of the absolute certainty incoming stream of war material moving where it was needed most, the usual blackout wars were suspended. The lights of bari armor all night long. At 7 30 5 pm, a blinding flash was followed by a. The ancient port single antiaircraft battery opened fire, then came an error splitting explosion and another and another and the german junkers flew in low over the town dropping bombs red smoke and flames rose on the city blinding streets. The lead pathfinders had dropped a window, a new kind of jamming technique using oil strips designed to confuse allied radar and as a result they keep almost complete surprise. As the incendiaries rained down on the harbor it turns night in today. Got her subordinate handkerchiefs scrambled to shoot down enemy but it was too late. There was virtually no opposition. The attacking german planes pulled out unchallenged by allied fighters. Although the range lasted less than 20 minutes results were devastating. A tremendous roar came from the harbor and exploding ammunition tankers had a huge massive rolling claims 32 feet high. Time magazine described the panorama. Patients were burning fiercely. The entire center of the harbor was covered with burning oil. A ruptured fuel line sent thousands of gallons crashing into the harbor where the ignited into a gigantic sheet of claims involving the entire north side of the port with a prairie fire, the flames read across the surface of the water from ship to ship. The crews worked frantically to save their vessels for the raging fire force them to jump, swim for safety. The distant cries of men yelling for help echoed in the ruin harbor. News of the night raid on bari was one of the worst naval catastrophes of the war was heavily center. Dwight d eisenhowers first communicate from air force Head Quarters in algiers on december 4 and only damage was done. Adding insult to injury, the first real count of the air raid came from the germans, a german propaganda broadcast gloated over the missions spectacular success eating that the harbor was so poorly protected german bombers and been able to pay off the allied ships sitting ducks. The sneak attack on bari with the press dubbed a little pearl harbor chips the complacency of the allied forces who had been convinced oftheir air superiority in the area. All told the nazis some 17 allied ships and destroyed more than 31,000 tons of vital cargo, more than 1000 american and british servicemen were killed outright and almost as many wounded. An untold number of civilians. Rumors abounded official for covering up an embarrassing incident. There was talk of a new german secret weapon, our rocket driven glide,. Conventional concern over the debacle was underscored by eisenhowers announcement that he had asked a special senate subcommitteeto investigate. Rear admiral emery scott will responsible for us merchant marine fleas across 70s angrily fulltime magazine were going to hear more about that raid before you hear less. But that was the last official word on the matter and the bari incident made shrouded in mystery. In the days that followed the task of treating the injured sailors remained difficult by wartime secrecy and a determined effort to cover the incident so as not to endangerpreparation for the most important operation of the war. Overlord, the allied invasion of germany occupied france for the spring. It would be almost 30 years before the world would learn the truth about what took place on the fatal and even today, few are aware of the surprising consequences of the disaster and impacts on the lives ofmillions of americans. Lieutenant colonel alexander was asleep at his headquarters. He was awake at the first jangle of thetelephone. The summons came in the middle of the night. There was a developing medical crisis in bari. Too many men were dying too quickly unexplained causes. The symptoms were unlike anything the military physicians had seen before they had begun to suspect the germans had built an unknown weapon, perhaps gas. With a number of mysterious, the bitter british placed a red alert in algiers. Has it. He had to good head on his shoulders. The desire to serve ran deep in his family. He was a selfmade immigrant who fled famine and persecution in europe from the United States in the 1880s and were forever grateful for the opportunities afforded them in their new home. Alexanders father was a popular Family Doctor in parkridge new jersey and it was his one ambition to follow in his fathers footsteps. He excelled in the military academy and entered dartmouth at 15 a standout was allowed to a dam advanced directly to medical school and graduated at the top of his class in 1935. He earned his m. D. At columbia. I completing his residency he went back home and hung out next to his father full of pride. In the spring of 1940 as hitler began his march across Europe Alexander volunteered for duty felt strongly that this was a war in which she had to participate. He notified the draft board that he would be available at any time. He was called up in november and time with the 16th regiment stationed that Gunpowder Creek in maryland not far from the Edgewood Arsenal which happened to be home to the Chemical Warfare service. Before long he decided to contact the Chemical Warfare service for the Innovative New design heat come up with perspective goes that could fit inside the peace of the gas mask. It just happens that alexander suffered from extreme myopia. He was very nearsighted and flunked his first physical. When the army doctor went back and shuffled some papers he quickly memorize the first few lines of the eye chart talk him into giving him the test again and pass. But he was fearful because there was a gas attack or in the war hed have to choose between wearing his glasses and a gas mask because the gas mask was left over from the previous war and didnt fit over his glasses so he came up with a new design. They offered him a job. Hed transferred to the arsenal underwent a crash course in poison gases. In a hurry case of the war he became a newly minted expert in this field. He conducted all kinds of experiments on animals to evaluating 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 to teach Army Medical Personnel how to treat chemical casualties. He was promoted to director of the Chemical WarfareServices MedicalResearch Laboratory and so when general eisenhower concerned about the threat that hitler might launch a gas attack in europe he requested a doctor with the Chemical Warfare background and Young Alexander was set at allied force headquarters in new shares. In december 1940. Five days after the attack alexanders plane touched down. Waiting for him were group of senior british doctors but he could see they were agitated and he was taken to the hospital at once he wrote in his diary. The situation was grim. Old equipment for five field hospitals have been struck in the air. Fortunately all the doctors were safe and they scramble to open an American General hospital the morning after the raid following advances from the battalions to help care for the scores of owning victims. I think we have a picture of the hospital. Alexander navy lack of medical supplies held the tragedy to the existing hospitals were run by the british and by some miracle the largest 98 General Hospital had been spared but the place had taken a beating. The windows were shattered in and the walls scattered their brookside hail. A concussion blast knocked out out the power so they were working by lamplight. They were fixing the class when the wounded began to arrive. Hundreds and hundreds of bloodied and battered sailor suffering from shock burns and exposure almost all of them are covered in thick black crude oil. They brought up the rear tearing the most seriously injured. These were the sailors who jump from planes or ships or were thrown through pools of flaming oil and were horribly burned. In the basement a makeshift mortuary a local carpenter was knocking together rough pine as fast as he could. The town ran out of caskets in the first few hours. The summary patients needing urgent attention there was no time to get most of the wounded sailors out of their clothes so the nurses did what they could. The emerging cases and the shivering boys who are fetched from the shivering water received emergency treatment a shot of morphine blankets to keep the mormon and strong hot sweet tea. Then they were left to rest. It a few complained of smarting eyes and stinging burns but that was attributed to the large fire and they were discounted at the time. Most just lay there quietly aware that surgical cases would be given priority. The first unusual indication that doctors told alexander was the casualties did not seem to present typical symptoms or respond in a typical manner. At dawn the nurses said the men complained of being thirsty. Suddenly they started ripping off their clothes in bandages in a frenzy complaining that their skin was on fire. Overnight the majority of the emergency cases have developed red inflamed skin and blisters as big as balloons. This was causing widespread not involving and led doctors to think the cause might be poisonous fumes perhaps explosives but six hours after the attack patients began complaining of severe eye pain. By the end of the day the awards were full of hundreds of men with her eyes swollen shut. As the Staff Headquarters and notifications there was a possibility of a blister gas exposure but the information was vague and unconfirmed. The hundreds of burn patients with unusual symptoms were to be classified with dermatitis nyd not yet diagnosed pending further instructions. Given the crush of cattle to set first by the nonurgent cases who appeared in good conditions were sent away. Most of them were still in their white uniforms for the next morning they returned clearly needing treatment. They were in a horrible state but making it worse with so many the boys were conscious throughout their ordeal. A young gunner aboard the american liberty ship could not understand why his vision was becoming blurrier with each passing hour. Thats when the rumors about the gas started to spread he recalled. He remembered feeling uneasy when an official looking group came to the hospital ward and confiscated all the clothing shoes, belts, uniforms everything. There was no explanation given. That created a panic among the patients he said. They knew their fates were sealed. The first unexplained death occurred 18 hours after the attack. Within two days there were 14. Alexander noticed the starlings by role downward spiral of the patients. More of them would die. The british doctors were mystified or the symptoms did not fit any of those in their case histories of poison gas from world war i. They could find no similarities are medical textbooks or manuals issued by the Chemical Warfare service. If the a toxic agent was mustard gas so named because of its unpleasant garlic odor respiratory complications should have been more prominent but they werent. As alexander walked the crowded wards he examined the patients gently lifted blankets to study their burns and with extraordinary delicacy he raised that they can and spoke with each man intern asking him how he had come by his injuries. How did he come to be rescued . Do you received any first aid on the dot . What about when he got to the hospital . One sailor after another told of being caught in a firestorm in the pandemonium that followed and somehow making it to the hospital. There they had waited for as long as 12 and even 24 hours in a red uniforms before receiving treatment. Drawing back the covers on one patient alexander studied the burns on the otherwise healthy muscle bodies. He had been a porter pt vote when the german bombers flew over. He heard aloud blumenthal to spray oil and grit land on his neck. A picture of his injuries is shown in alexanders report. He had the red raise skin shiny red ointment from where hed been sprayed as if it was imprinted on his flesh. The Burns Alexander some of the patients were. But already he could distinguish between chemical burns and those burns caused by fire. Certain patterns were present depending on how the individual had been exposed he wrote. He appeared to alexander sailors were thrown over board and burned over 90 of their bodies while those in boats with superficial burns wherever the toxic soup had hit them. Some men who were in the solution perhaps in lifeboats had only local burns and a few lucky souls would take it upon themselves to wipe off the oily mixture that first night and had only minor injuries. As he made his rounds it was increasingly clear to alexander that most of the patients that have been exposed to chemical agents. He noticed something from the first moment he entered the hospital. It was some order that just kept banging away at him and he could pick it up at various places in various rooms and it stood out in the usual smells of and disinfectant and burned flesh. The odor that planted itself in his mind he wrote in his very was mustard gas. It had been five days since the initial exposure and if there was any chance of saving the lives of hundreds of sailors lying in beds plus the countless italian civilians he knew he needed to act swiftly. He decided to question the hospital director and put the question to him. He had his own suspicions. I feel these men may have been exposed to mustard in some manner colonel. Do you have any idea how it might have happened . None came the hospital directors are bipartisan Chemical Warfare consultant alexander was clear to the highest degree nude the allies have begun secretly stuck having poison gas in the mediterranean in case germany resorted to Chemical Warfare. But he was skeptical that the allies would have shipped mustard shells into a busy port so close to the local population and then allow the toxic cargo to sit there as a prime target for enemy strikes. Still they couldnt afford to rule it out. He tried again and it did you check with the port authorities did you check the shipping mask . Should could the ships no longer been carrying mustard . The was told again and again they didnt have the information and that it was not possible but alexander had his doubts. It sounded to him like the british were trying to damage the investigation. He didnt believe he is getting the full story or their full cooperation. The burden of proof he realized rested on him. He he wanted the series of test for the patients were still alive and careful and complete autopsies of those whod died under mysterious circumstances be regarded samples and collected and analyzed a pretty bar personnel from displaced American Hospital units and put them to work gathering data performing lab tests on tissue samples and compiling pathology reports. Suspecting that british officials acting with discretion and alexander visited the navy house the local headquarters. Again he demanded that it was mustard mustard gas and barria harbor. He left unconvinced. What he needed was proof but