posted 10-12- 06:52 AM
Here we go. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/077101726X/customer-reviews/ref=ce_dpr_r_4/102-3744312-2968914#tab-link
A book about Canadas (and other allies and enimies) bio/chem weapons development.
Deadly Allies, Canadas secret war, 1937-1947.
Some crazy stuff, There was a munitions ship (John Harvey) that sank at Bari, a seaport town in Italy, a main supply route for the allied forces pushing north.
[This ship was only part of larger attack on shipping arriving and parking.]
It carried 100 tons of mustard gas in 100 pound bombs.
It contaminated the oily water and no one knew it was in the water, all the men on the JH died. So the people that weren't gravly injured were just wrapped in blankets and given tea for exposure, some didn't even remove their water and oil (and mustard gas as it turns out) soaked clothes.
Wacky stuff was happening and the mean wern't acting like people just suffering from shock. THe men would say they felt fine though but then slip again into apathy.
At midnight a man complained of irritated eyes. More and more did through the morning. At noon the first one died.
Death spread, men sat up and told the doctors they felt fine and who had no obvious signs of physical distress were dead 10 minutes later.
2 weeks later 69 were dead.
THey might have been the lucky ones.
The 559 that survived were much worse.
Men woke up screaming they were blind because there eyelids has swollen shut. THen broke out in blisters, great red or brown bubbles. Six, eight, ten inches long all over their bodies, but particularly in armpits and groins. Genitalia swelled grotesquely. Causing intense mental anguish, even through there was little pain. Somegimes great patches of skin sloughed off. Despite all the research that had been done, there was no effective treatments and there was nothing doctors could do.
In an official report by a US army medical corpsman. He noted that the disaster had taught the allies something new about an "old" gas. Not only did mustard gas cause incapacitating blisters, it was also a potent systemic poison. It could cause the body to completely shut down even before blisters appeared.
Men had sat in the soaked clothing and the gas had been given plenty of time to work. Those most effected just stopped living.
There was a huge cover up that followed, possibly directly covered up be heads of state and such.
Before this the allied had concluded in sea trials with oil and mustard gas, concluding that because the oil spread so rapidly, the mustard would become to diluted to penetrate clothing well enough to cause significant burns. Learning from this new event a whole new line of research was begun on foams that would keep the mustard gas afloat.
Although Canada didn't fear a catastrophe from enemy action on its own soil it was shipping hundreds of tons of all kinds of poison gas regularly between, Halifax, Cornwall, Toronto, Windsor, Winnieg, and Medicine Hat. Usually looked after by crews that were ignorant of what was being carried.
The Canadian authorities had more experince with mustard gas then either the United States or Britian - a lot more. By teh beginning of 1944 the medical staff at Suffield had seen hundreds of mustard burns, many of them were severe. They had seen men blinded in the same way as those at Bari. The difference was it happened in the name of research.
Banting, (yes the guy who is famous for insulin) worked on the project and even tested some on himself. He later regreted putting so much on. A 6.5 x 1.5 inch strip on his leg, it took over a month to heal.
Canada also worked with and produce many more bio/chem agents, including X, or Botulinus toxin.
Its at least 5000 times more efficiant then nerve gas in killing ability. One micron under the finger nail, in the eye or inhaled is sufficiant to cause death.
Thats a partical considerably smaller then the sharp end of a pin. It was estimated there was 32 million lethal doses in one gram.
It had been feild tested in Suffield in a Canadian-designed bomb in august 1944 and Murray's (a researcher if my memory serves correctly, its been years since I read this book) enthusiasm shows that it must have performed well.
This stuff was produced at a lab in Queens Uni in Kingston. (great location eh? 
Even though allies with the Russians the US, Canada and Britian didn't share this info
After the war a train heading across part of Canada carried more then a ton of the stuff. Enough if properly dispersed to kill the population of of Russia 10 times over and still have soem left to spare.
Anyways I could go on forever, I should read this book again. Freaking scarry stuff.
Some of this stuff is probly STILL around, as it was in 1989 when the book was written.
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posted 10-11- 09:43 PM
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