I also do WWII research and here is what I know as fact. The US Liberty Ship John Harvey was loaded with canisters of Mustard Gas and being positioned if needed to push/kill the Germans from Italy. Documentation shows that Allies believed the Germans already positioned their Mustard Gas there. The US John Harvey entered the Port of Bari under British control. Only two men on board the US John Harvey knew the gas was there and the British Harbor Master was also aware of the cargo. Not only was the harbor full with ships to be unloaded, other ships were anchored outside the harbor.

Because of its cargo the US John Harvey was moved up on the list to the number #3 slot to be unloaded. Research shows that a British LT (doctor) is the person who figured out why the US John Henry blew sky high and why so many men died on the ships on either side. He wanted to know why so many military and citizens of the village were ill. After examining soldiers in the hospital he went and spoke to those men who were still alive and reported to the Harbor Master. They told him what the manifest said. He then took this information and his diagram to his Commanding Officer and reported what he had discovered. The next day this doctor was gone, never to be heard from again. Churchill immediately sealed all information about this and convinced Eisenhower to do the same. They did not want the world to know about the Allies willingness to use gas if necessary.

Recently two Doctors have made public what soldiers were exposed to and how those still alive suffer. One is from the CDC and the other is a US Army doctor with a specialty in Toxicology.

There was nothing the Germans could have done for themselves at that point in the war anyway. The failure to take Britain out virtually guaranteed their eventual loss, and the twin insanities of attacking the USSR and declaring war on the United States meant that the inevitable would come quickly rather than slowly. Gas wouldn't have done them any good.