I've been an active user of the Pacific Wrecks website for several years, but I'm new to this forum. I got started trying to learn more about my father's WWII service as a "Toxic Gas Handler" in India, which included dumping unused toxic chemical munitions into the Bay of Bengal. My current interest is focused on the 760th Chemical Depot Company (Aviation), which ran a chemical weapons depot, first in Queensland, Australia and later near Oro Bay, New Guinea. I've gotten deep enough into the topic to have their Organizational History Reports (which were kept secret until 2009) and to have worked with the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery to obtain photos from 2023 that show bombs still piled above ground. It's a serious subject since some of the bombs the 760th describes leaving behind in June 1945 were filled with cyanogen chloride and other toxins that can still be very dangerous.
The archived reports from the 760th say the soldiers' final work before they were transported north to help supply incendiary bombs bound for Japan was “300 CK [cyanogen chloride] M76 bombs moved to a new location,” pressure testing of “147 ton containers, Mustard and Leusite,” and destruction of “200 CK M76 bombs."
Pacific Wrecks has follow-up on some of those bombs at Embi Strip 12.
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