Bibliograph

The great secret, the classified World War II disaster that launched the war on cancer, Jennet Conant

Type

Label

The great secret, the classified World War II disaster that launched the war on cancer, Jennet Conant

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The great secret

Responsibility statement

Jennet Conant

Sub title

the classified World War II disaster that launched the war on cancer

Summary

On the night of December 2nd, 1943, the Luftwaffe bombed a critical Allied port in Bari, Italy, sinking seventeen ships and killing over a thousand servicemen and hundreds of civilians. Caught in the surprise air raid was the John Harvey, an American Liberty ship carrying a top-secret cargo of 2,000 mustard bombs to be used in retaliation if the Germans resorted to gas warfare. After young sailors began suddenly dying with mysterious symptoms, Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Alexander, a doctor and chemical weapons expert, was dispatched to investigate. He quickly diagnosed mustard gas exposure, which both Churchill and Eisenhower denied. But Alexander's breakthrough observations about the toxic effects of mustard on white blood cell were instrumental in ushering in a new era of cancer research

Classification