Transcripts For CSPAN2 Jennet Conant The Great Secret 202407

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Jennet Conant The Great Secret 20240711

About her new book the great secret the classified world war ii disaster that launched the war on cancer. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. I also want to thank the museum for inviting me to be with you tonight, alas its virtually but i will do my best. It is my first soon presentation so bear with me everyone. Ive had a lot of coffee and im thinking about now i shouldve had a lot of wind, but anyway here we go. Im going to start us off with a quote from winston churchill. He had a way with words. He once observed, may occasionally stumble across the truth, but most of them picked themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. Lieutenant colonel stuart alexander, the remarkable hero of my book, did not hurry off. In fact, he refuse to leave the scene of the military disaster even when churchill himself warned him to. He stayed, he paid attention, he investigated, and as a result he recognized the never before seen symptoms in a group of dying sailors that might have lifesaving implications for others in the future. This is a story of one intrepid army doctors alert mind and how it turned i chemical weapons report into a stepping stone and a horrific world war ii tragedy into a medical triumph. I am going to take you back to the night of december 2, 1943, the old port town on italys adriatic coast was bustling. The british had taken the capital in september and the front light on 150 miles to the north, the Medieval City with its massive cliffs cradling the sea had escaped the fighting almost unscathed. Only a few miles outside of town lines of women and children were begging for black market food. But in the city the shops were full of cake and bread and rolls again couple strolled arm in arm like in the old days and ice cream vendors are doing brisk business. It was a critical medic Training Service have and alan forces had made sure it stayed protected pick it was supplying both the americans fifth and british eighth armies which comprise the better part of the 500,000 allied troops engaged in driving the germans out of italy. We can show that first flight of the waterfront here. The liberating british tommy sabri chased the nazis from the skies over italy and the british who control the port were so confident they had won the air war that marshall announced that it was all but immune from attack. I would regard it as a personal affront, and insult if the transfer should get any significant action in this area, he announced earlier that day. If the luftwaffe should get any significant action. The american liberty ship john harvey pulling with the third a la chipped cramming the harbor, packed against the seawall nose to nose along the pier. Their holes were laden with everything from food and medical care the engines, corrugated steel for landing strips and tons of fuel oil for the planes. You could see on the upper decks were tanks, armored personnel carriers, jeeps, ambulances, everything. Bright lights, huge cranes, the doctor to working around the clock to unload the supplies for the next big push, the advance on rome. Allied to strategy hinged on making steady progress up the rugged mountainous peninsula of italy and culminating a proposed Amphibious Attack about 32 miles south of rome. The success of the advance depended on the long supply lines sustaining the mince marched northward. Because of the urgency to keep the incoming stream of warm material moving to where it was needed most, the usual blackout orders were suspended. The lights blaze in the harbor all night long. At 7 35 p. M. A blinding flash was followed by an terrific bang. The ancient port single antiaircraft battery open fire, then came an earsplitting explosion and then another and another as a german plane flew info over dropping bombs or smoke and flames rose from the winding streets. The lead pathfinders have dropped a window a new kind of jamming technique using foil strips designed to confuse allied radar, and as as a resut they achieved almost complete surprise. As the incendiaries rained down on the harbor it turned night into day. Gunners aboard to be a good ships scramble to shoot down the enemy but it was too late. There was virtually no opposition to the attacking german planes holdout unchallenged by allied fighters. Although the rate lacks a less than 20 minutes, results were devastating. A tremendous roar came from the harbor and exploding ammunition takers said huge rolling mass of flames 1000 feet high. A reporter from Time Magazine described a fiery panorama. Eight ships were burning fiercely. The entire center of the harbor was covered with burning oil, he reported. A ruptured fuel line sent thousands of gallons gushing into the harbor where it ignited into a gigantic sheet of flames engulfing the entire north side of the port. Like a prairie fire the flames spread across the surface of the water leaping from ship to ship. The crews worked frantically to save their vessels before the raging fires force them to jump, swim for safety. The distant cries of men yelling for help echoed in the ruined harbor. News of the night raid on bari, one of the worst naval catastrophes of the work, was heavily censored. General Dwight D Eisenhower is First Community care from air force headquarters in algiers on december 4 stated only that damage was done. Adding insult to injury, the first real account of the air raid came from the germans, a berlin propaganda broadcast on december 5 gloating over the missions spectacular success, stating that the crowded harbor was so poorly protected that german bombers have been able to pick off the outlet ships like sitting ducks. The sneak attack on bari which the present of the little pearl harbor shook the complacency of the allied forces who had been convinced of their air superiority in the area. All told, the nazis sunk 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 and an untold number of civilians. Rumors abounded that officials were coming up an embarrassing incident. There was talk of a new german secret weapon, a rocket driven glide bomb. Congressional concern over the debacle was underscored by eisenhowers announcement that he asked a special Senate Subcommittee to investigate. Where admiral emery scotland responsible for u. S. Merchant marine fleet across seven seas angrily told Time Magazine, youre going to more about that raid before you hear less. But that was the last official word on the matter and the bari incident remained shrouded in misty. In the crucial days that followed, the task of treating the gravely injured sailors would be made even more difficult by wartime secrecy. And a determined effort to the american and British Government to cover up the incident so as to not endanger preparations for the most important operation of the war, overlord, the allied invasion of germany occupied france planned for the spring. Lieutenant colonel alexander was asleep in his headquarters. He was awake at the first jangle of the telephone. The summons came in the middle of the night. There appeared to be a developing medical crisis, too many people men dying. The symptoms were unlike anything the local military physicians and seem before and began to suspect an unknown weapon, poison gas. With a number of mysterious death increasing rapidly with each day, the british placed a lightbulb alerting air force headquarters in algiers. There was an urgent request for assistance. Alexander was dispatched immediately to the scene of the disaster. He looked young for a combat physician. He was 5 foot 8 and skinny, 29, his hair was thinning at the templeton that lent him the only air of authority he could find. He was popular with the troops. His gentle bedside manner was best suited to a pediatrician and was tougher than he looked, through north africa under Major General george s patton. He proved himself to be competent, determined and resourceful. His superiors knew he had a good head on his shoulders. He could have sat out the war at a statewide hospital and the desire to serve deep in his family. He was defended from selfmade immigrants who had fled famine and persecution in europe in the United States in the 1880s and were forever grateful. Alexanders doctor was a partner with doctor in new jersey and it was his ambition to follow in his fathers footsteps. He excelled at the Stanton Military Academy and entered dartmouth at 15, a standout, he was allowed to advance direct me to medical school and graduated at the top of his class in 1935, earned his md in columbia. After completing his residency he went back home and his shingle next to his fathers full of pride. In spring of 1940 as he began his march across Europe Alexander volunteered for duty. He felt strongly this was a war in which he had to participate, notified the draft board he would be available at any time. He was called up in november and spent time with the sixteenth infantry regiment stationed at Gunpowder Creek in maryland, which happen to be home, and before long he decided to contact Chemical Warfare Service Within inundated new design he had come up with for spectacles that could fit in the face piece of a gas mask. It happened that alexander suffered extreme myopia. And flunked his first physical. When the army doctor went back, memorized the first few lines of the eyechart, and he was pretty fearful that if there was a gas attack during the war he would have to choose between wearing his glasses and a gas mask because the gas masks left over from the previous war came up with a new design. So impressed his superiors of the Chemical Warfare service that he offered him a job. Transferred to Edgewood Arsenal he underwent crash course in poison gas in every case of the war, he became a newly minted expert in the field. And to evaluate toxic agents and develop forms of treatment and protective gear. 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, at the medical research territory, when general eisenhower concerned about the threat hitler might want to get attack in europe, and the Chemical Warfare background, Young Alexander was sent to allied force headquarters in algiers. At 5 00 pm, after the attack, alexanders plane touched down, waiting for him were a group of senior british doctors. They were immediately agitated and he was taken to the hospital at once, he wrote in his diary. The situation was grim. Five plan american Field Hospital sunk in the air raid. All the doctors were safe and scrambled to open the 20 sixth American General hospital the morning after the raid following advantages to help care for the scores of bombing victims. We have a picture of the hospital. The lack of medical supplies was going to compound the tragedy. By some miracle, the 90 eighth General Hospital has been spared but they had taken a beating, and the brecht up wall scattered their bricks like hail. A concussion blast knocked out the power, they were working by lamplight. The first of the wounded began to arrive, hundreds and hundreds of bloodied and battered sailors suffering shock and exposure. The litter bearers, carrying the most seriously injured. Or slung through pools and flaming oil. A death warrant was set up in the back room for those beyond help. A makeshift mortuary, local carpenter was knocking together rough pine coffins as fast as he could. The town ran out of caskets in only the first few hours. There was no time to get most of the wounded sailors out of their duty dirty clothes but the nurses did but they could. Immersion cases, shivering boys fetched from the freezing water received the standard emergency treatment, a shot of morphine, blankets to keep them warm and strong, hot, sweet tea. That was attributed to the large fires, they were discounted at the time. Most were aware the surgical cases would be given priority. The first unusual indication the doctors told alexander, they do not present typical symptoms are in the typical manner. Men complained of being thirsty. Suddenly they started ripping off their clothes and bandages in a frenzy, complaining their skin was on fire. Overnight the majority of the immersion cases developed red, inflamed skin and blisters as big as balloons. This had widespread nausea and vomiting, leading doctors to think the cars might be form poisonous fumes from fuel oil perhaps explosives. 6 hours after the attack patients began complaining of severe eye pain and by the end of the day, with their eyes swollen shut. Has the staffs and use deepens, there was a possibility of a blister exposure. The hundreds of burn patients, would be classified dermatitis, nyd. Pending further instructions, and the nonurgent cases to appear in Good Condition were sent away, most still in their wet uniforms. The next morning they return clearly needing treatment. They were in a horrible state. So many of the boys were conscious throughout their ordeal. Warren brandonsteiner for the American Leadership that is liberty ship could not understand why his vision was becoming blurrier with each passing hour. That is when rumors about poison gas started to spread. When an official looking group came to the hospital ward and confiscated all the clothes, shoes, belts, uniforms, everything. There was no explanation given. That created a panic, they feared their fates resealed. The first unexplained death occurred 18 hours after the attack. Within two days there were 14. Alexander noted the startling downward spiral of the patients, they appeared in Good Condition in a matter of minutes would become more of that. The british doctors were mystified. Any of those in their case history, poison gas with one. They could find no similarities with medical textbooks or the manual issued by the Chemical Warfare. If the toxic agents with mustard gas, because of the unpleasant garlicy order, respiratory complications were more prominent but they worked. He gently lifted blankets to study their burns, extraordinary delicacy he probed the thick and red skin, spoke to each man in turn asking how he had come by his injuries. How did he come to be rescued. Did he receive any firstaid, when he got to the hospital, one sailor after another, caught in a firestorm of pandemonium that followed, somehow making it to the hospital. There they waited to swell and 24 hours in their wet uniforms before receiving treatment. Alexander studied the burns on the otherwise healthy muscle body. The sailor said he had been aboard a pt boat when the german bombers flew over. A loud boom, a spray of oily liquid land on his neck. Shown in alexanders report, he observed the outline of red, gray skin shine with ointment, anywhere he had been sprayed as if imprinted on his flesh. The Burns Alexander had seen on other patients were varied but already distinguished between chemical burns and thermal burns by fire and heat. Certain patterns were impressive depending on when the individual had been exposed. It appeared to alexander sailors had been thrown and burned extensively over 90 , there were superficial burns whenever the toxic soup had hit them. Some men, in lifeboats, had only burns of the buttocks. They will wipe off the oil the next are the first nice, had only minor injuries. As he made his rounds, increasingly clear, most patients had been exposed to chemical agents. He noticed after he meant the hospital, he had an odor that kept banging away at him and he could pick it up in various places and stood out from the usual smells of burnt flesh. The owner planted himself, was mustard gas. It had been 5 days since the initial exposure and any chance of saving the lives of the hundreds of sailors lying in bed plus the italian civilians. He knew he had to act that is needed to act swiftly. He questioned the hospital director, put the question to him. He had his own suspicions, i feel these men may have been exposed to mustard in some manner. Any idea how this might have happened . None, came the hospital directors reply. As the Chemical Warfare consultant alexander was clear to the highest degree he knew the allies had become secretly stockpiling poison gas in the mediterranean in case germany had its back to the wall to Chemical Warfare but even skeptical the allies would have shipped mustard shells into a busy port so close to the local population and allowed the toxic cargo to sit there as a prime target for enemy strike but he couldnt afford to rule it out. Have you checked the shipping masks, and carrying mustard. And it is possible. Alexander had his doubts. It sounded to him like the british are trying to manage his investigation. He did not believe he is getting a full story or their full cooperation. The burden of proof rested on him, a series of tests for patients were still alive and insist on a series of careful and complete autopsies of those who died under mysterious circumstances. He had the water collected and analyzed, borrowed personnel from displaced American Hospital unit and put them to work gathering data, forming lab tests on tissue samples and compiling pathology reports, suspecting the british officials were dodging questions alexander visited the navy house, the admiraltys local headquarters. Again he demanded to be told there was mustard gas, it was absolutely denied. He left them convinced. What he needed was proof but also he knew something else, this was a new horror, he wrote, not the familiar menace he had studied at Edgewood Arsenal. This was mustard gas poisoning through different guys 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 official interference as possible. He picked his way through the mounds of rubble and surveyed the twist

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