Death by mustard gas : how military secrecy and lost weapons can kill / Geoff Plunkett.

Collection type	Library
Author	Plunkett, Geoff, author.; Australia. Department of Defence contributor.;
Call Number	358.340994 P737d
Document type	Monograph
Year	[2014].
Pagination	xxiv, 228 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, maps, portraits, photographs ; 24 x 16cm.
Publisher	Big Sky Publishing,
Note	Includes bibliographical references and index. "In 1943 a top secret consignment of chemical weapons, including deadly mustard gas, arrived in Australia by ship. But there was a problem it was leaking. Military authorities quickly realised this but, in the interests of secrecy, sent unprotected and unsuspecting wharf labourers into a lethal environment. The result was catastrophic: permanent disability and death. This shocking narrative includes accounts of official deceit, intimidation of gassed labourers and denial of natural justice. The truth, bur ied in classified documents and the testimony of the few survivors, is that human life was sacrificed for the sake of secrecy. Almost 70 years after war stocks of chemical weapons were apparently totally destroyed, mustard gas is still present on the Aust ralian mainland, in her oceans and along her coastal fringed. The total destruction of chemical stocks is simply another military assumption. The truth is that these deadly weapons were incompletely destroyed, buried or simply lost. Many retain their effe ctiveness despite the passing of time, a fact that cost one man his life and saw staff and children at a school badly burned. Mustard gas weapons have been retrieved as recently as 2012 and more may lie in shallow graves waiting to be uncovered. This is a very real lesson for the military today."--Back of book jacket.
Place made	Newport, NSW :

Abstract

Ch. 1. Group 13 cargo -- Ch. 2. Worse than the Somme -- Ch. 3. The devil's hour -- Ch. 4. Green vomit -- Ch. 5. A fall -- Ch. 6. Hell hold -- Ch. 7. The tunnels -- Ch. 8. The clean-up -- Ch. 9. The fall guy -- Ch. 10. Aftermath -- Ch. 11. Security reasons -- Ch. 12. Conclusion -- Ch. 13. Nandor Somogyi -- Epilogue - The Idomeneus -- Casualty roll call.