2020, the 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II: Remembering the Second Pearl Harbor
Allied ships burn during the raid on Bari
In the fall of 1943, the Italian port of Bari on the Adriatic Sea, the principal base to supply the British Eighth Army, commanded by General Bernard Law Montgomery (1887–1976), was the focal point for the assembly of American and Allied ships carrying supplies for the 15th United States Army Air Corps. The 15th Air Corps’ headquarters was advanced from North Africa to southern Italy to provide the United States a bomber-base more proximate to Germany and the Balkans, especially the Romanian oil fields in Ploiesti, a key source of oil for the Axis war machine.
The 15th was commanded by Major General James Harold (Jimmy) Doolittle (1896–1993). Doolittle was an aviation pioneer and a highly regarded military airman. He led the raid of sixteen B-25 bombers on five cities in Japan including Tokyo, four months after Pearl Harbor on April 18, 1942. The raid originated from the carrier United States Ship Hornet; the planes did not have sufficient fuel to return. The crews parachuted over Japanese-occupied China and were forced to make their way through Japanese lines to reach Chinese forces. Three raiders died trying to escape after the attack. Of eight captured by Japanese soldiers three were executed and a fourth died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Others escaped, assisted by local Chinese. The bombing of Japan was an important boost to the allies still reeling from the Japanese conquests in the Pacific and the disaster at Pearl Harbor.
One of the American ships in the port of Bari was a liberty ship, the John Harvey, named for a member of the Continental Congress in 1777 and a signer of the Articles of Confederation. The ship was loaded with two thousand, one hundred pound bombs containing sulfur mustard gas. The allies were concerned that the Germans, in desperation, would use mustard gas against their forces and they planned to be prepared to retaliate.
The night of December 2nd saw a surprise, low level, air raid by approximately 100 German Junkers Ju-88 bombers. The unexpected attack was planned by Field Marshal Freiherr von Richthofen (1895–1945), a distant cousin of Manfred von Richthofen (1892–1918), the World War I flying ace, referred to as The Red Baron. The attack was under the direction of Field Marshall Albert Kesselring (1885–1960), commander of all German troops in Italy. During the day of December 2nd, a German Messerschmitt-210 reconnaissance plane photographed Bari harbor. The images showed dozens ships virtually abutting each other, congesting the port. After analyzing the aerial photographs, the Germans, seeing an opportunity to impair the allied advance into Italy, attacked by air that night surprising the Americans and British forces. The allies felt the retreating Germans and the decimated Luftwaffe in Italy were incapable of mounting an attack. British Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham (1895–1948), at a press conference earlier on December 2nd, stated unequivocally that the Luftwaffe in Italy was incapable of attacking Bari. Thus, the nighttime blackout was not used. The ships largely carried a cargo of fuel for the planes, tanks, and trucks prepared to move north for the liberation of central Italy, notably Rome and Vatican City.
As a result of the German attack, 21 ships were sunk, 12 were damaged and the sunken ships blocked the port for several weeks. The John Harvey was set afire secondarily from hits by German bombs on adjacent ships and a nearby oil pipeline. It exploded and released sulfur mustard into air and water leading to severe casualties and deaths involving hundreds of merchantmen and seamen. (The civilian casualties and deaths were estimated to be several thousand.) The release of the mustard compound into the waters of the harbor represented a major ecological disaster. This tragedy, many ships sunk or severely damage, severe disruption of the flow of supplies, and the loss of life and severe injuries was referred to as “the second Pearl Harbor.” It was the most devastating air attack on allied forces since the attack on the naval fleet at Pearl Harbor.
The attack on Bari was not revealed publically because of wartime secrecy and concern of the American and British high commands that the event would negatively affect morale and were concerned of publicizing that the allies had mustard gas at the ready in a battle zone. Winston Churchill was particularly opposed to any public disclosure. The attack and some of its effects were announced a year later, but the release emphasized that the mustard gas bombs were for retaliation to a German gas attack, only. The allies would have not initiated such an attack, they emphasized. Several monographs or books (e.g. Bari 1943; the second Pearl Harbor by Francesco Mattesini) have been written about this event and, yet, it remains a little known disaster.
von Richthofen died of cancer in Allied captivity in 1945 and Kesserling was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for war crimes committed in Italy.