{"title":"Geoff Plunkett","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"death-by-mustard-gas-book-geoff-plunkett-9780987427915","title":"Death By Mustard Gas","description":"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 fringes. 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 in 1964. 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 of today. This book is a volume in the Australian Army History Collection, published by the Army History Unit (Department of Defence, Australia). It featured on the 7pm ABC news on 28 November 2014.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51010797175057,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51010800419089,"sku":"NIN9780987427915","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0987427911.jpg?v=1751298979"},{"product_id":"whiskey-au-go-go-massacre-book-geoff-plunkett-9780369391445","title":"The Whiskey Au Go Go Massacre","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52673595605265,"sku":"NLS9780369391445","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52735172739345,"sku":"NIN9780369391445","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780369391445.jpg?v=1762297463"},{"product_id":"chemical-warfare-in-australia-book-geoff-plunkett-9780987427908","title":"Chemical Warfare in Australia","description":"This Meticulously researched book unearths a sixty year secret. As the Japanese swept south towards Australia in late 1941, they carried chemical weapons, already used with deadly effect in China. Forced to counter the chemical warfare threat, Australia covertly imported 1,000,000 chemical weapons - including 16 types of mustard gas - and hid them in tunnels and other sites around the country. This book tells the story of the importation, storage and 'live trials' of the deadly weapons. It reveals details of the chemical warfare agents themselves, Australia's retaliatory plans, the involvement of the USA, the lack of training of the weapons handlers and, finally, the dangerous disposal of the volatile agents. Most of all, this is the story of the men who lived with the deadly weapons on a daily basis, handling them constantly despite the immense risks and suffering as a consequence. They were the Chemical Warfare Armourers and almost every armourer suffered physically and often mentally from the effects of the weapons and the terrible burden of maintaining secrecy. This remarkable book contains over 300 photographs - many taken surreptitiously - that illustrate all too starkly the conditions and the danger to which these men were exposed. This is an unprecedented visual history. This book is published in association with the Army History Unit and is a volume in the Australian Army History Collection.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740818239761,"sku":"NIN9780987427908","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780987427908.jpg?v=1763485061"},{"product_id":"let-the-bums-burn-book-geoff-plunkett-9780987427939","title":"Let The Bums Burn","description":"In 1966 a fire ripped through Melbourne's William Booth Memorial Home for destitute and alcoholic men. Although it remains Australia's deadliest building fire, it is, like the 30 men who died in that fire - forgotten. This shocking narrative describes the inferno's origin and progression, the slowly festering blaze that developed into an explosive backdraft. It recalls the efforts of the firemen who tried, against impossible odds, to rescue the dying men. They alone do not forget the caged men, the makeshift mortuaries and the anonymous burial of the 'nobodies'. As if cursed, the Salvation Army were struck with another deadly building fire in Adelaide in 1975. Seven men, trapped in a suspended alley hellfire, were lost when it crashed to the ground. Since the William Booth tragedy 163 people have died in building fires in Australia, the latest in the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in 2011 where 14 died. Thousands have died worldwide and all of these deaths could have been prevented. To this day the main lesson has not been learnt. A lifesaving device, available before the invention of the light bulb, is still absent in many buildings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740981752081,"sku":"NIN9780987427939","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780987427939.jpg?v=1763485725"},{"product_id":"death-row-at-truro-book-geoff-plunkett-9781038720788","title":"Death Row at Truro","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52812118720785,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52812119736593,"sku":"GOR014626646","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781038720788.jpg?v=1764251759"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-geoff-plunkett.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}