Comments by "Colonel K" (@Paladin1873) on "Air Raid on Bari: the \"Little Pearl Harbor.\"" video.

In the 1980s I became associated with a colorful character by the name of Vito Cellini. He was born in America of Italian immigrants, but his family moved back to Italy when he was still a young boy. Nevertheless, Vito rightfully considered himself an American. During WWII he was drafted into the Italian Army and sent to fight in the Balkans. Vito was very disgusted by the behavior of many Italian troops, so he stole a light machine gun and a motorcycle, then headed into the mountains to join the Partisans. He fought with them until November 1943, by which time he longed to return to Italy and check on his extended family. He was finally able to cross the Adriatic Sea in a small cargo vessel and arrived at Bari the day after the devastating Luftwaffe raid. Vito saw firsthand the carnage the Germans had created and he mingled among the many people still suffering from the effects of mustard gas, though at the time nobody understood what was happening. Over seven decades later he described this incident and much more in a biography of his life.
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@tundralou The USA did not ratify the 1925 Geneva Gas Protical until 1975. At the time of its signing, several major powers, including the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, explicitly reserved the right to use the forbidden weapons for retaliatory purposes. Also, the 1925 document failed to address the production, storage, testing, and transfer of the forbidden weapons, a failure that allowed countries such as the Soviet Union and the United States to amass large supplies of chemical and bacteriological agents.
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