The United States had mustard gas munitions in the European theater in case they needed to retaliate against a first use of chemical weapons by the Germans. In 1943 the Germans launched a successful air raid on the port of Bari, Italy [1]. One of the ships destroyed in this attack was a U.S. freighter carrying mustard gas munitions. Many allied servicemen and Italian civilians were exposed to mustard gas in this attack, and their treatment was impaired because the military command absolutely did not want to reveal the presence of chemical agents to the Germans in fear that the Germans might use that as a justification for using their own chemical weapons.