Death by mustard gas : how military secrecy and lost weapons can kill

Resource Information

The work Death by mustard gas : how military secrecy and lost weapons can kill represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Death by mustard gas : how military secrecy and lost weapons can kill

Title remainder

how military secrecy and lost weapons can kill

Statement of responsibility

Geoff Plunkett

Creator

• Plunkett, Geoff

Contributor

• Australia, Department of Defence

Author

• Plunkett, Geoff

Subject

• Chemical agents (Munitions) -- Toxicology
• Chemical warfare -- Health aspects
• Chemical warfare -- History -- 20th century
• Chemical weapons -- Australia -- History
• Chemical weapons -- Health aspects -- Australia
• Chemical weapons -- Safety measures
• Chemical weapons -- Southeast Asia -- History
• Chemical weapons disposal -- Australia -- History
• Mustard gas
• Phosgene -- Toxicology
• Railroads and state -- New South Wales | Blue Mountains (Mountains) -- History
• Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Area Health Service (Sydney, N.S.W.)
• Stevedores
• Weapons of mass destruction
• World War, 1914-1918 -- Chemical warfare
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Chemical warfare
• Australia, Royal Australian Air Force
• Blue Funnel Line

Language

eng

Summary

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, buried 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 Australian 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 effectiveness 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

Member of

• Australian Army history collection

Dewey number

358.34

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps
• portraits
• plates

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Series statement

Australian Army history collection

Target audience

adult