INDUSTRIAL LIFE IS DISLOCATED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 205, 29 August 1940, Page 7

INDUSTRIAL LIFE IS DISLOCATED.

POSITION OF GERMANY

R.A.F. Extending Sphere Qf Operations. British Official Wireless. (Reed, noon.) RUGBY, Aug. 28. The dislocation of industrial life iii Germany and damage to industrial plant, and, in particular, to German synthetic oil works, by repeated Royal Air Force attacks, is commented upon to-day in official circles in London. Since the beginning of the war, at least 170 attacks have been made by the R.A.F. against various oil targets in Germany, and these attacks, it ie felt, must unquestionably have further considerably increased Germany's difficulties ae regards oil supplies. Already, her wartime requirements of oil have far exceeded both what she herself hae produced and what she has been abje to import from European countries. Excluding the Soviet Union, European production of all kinds has amounted in Hhe past to 11,280.000 tone annually, but, even in peacetime Greater Germany was consuming 20,000,000 tone, and her wartime requirements must have considerably raised this figure. German synthetic oil plai.ts are distributed between Western Germany, from which usually comes 40 per cent of her synthetic oil production, Central Germany, which produces 50 per cent, and Eastern Germany, producing 10 per cent. Naturally, R.A.F. activity hae, so far, been directed mainly against Western Germany, where not only 40 per cent of the German synthetic oil supplies are located, but also where 2,500,000 tone out of a total capacity of the German oil refineries of 3,000,000 tons are to be found. A large, percentage of the German oil storing capacity ie also located at these refineries, which are highly vulnerable to air attack and which, indeed, have been repeatedly successfully attacked. With the coming of longer nights, R.A.F. raiders have been further afield, and raids have been made against oil plants in Central Germany, where onehalf of Germany's total synthetic oi; is produced or located. One. of the principal oil plants in Germany, that at Leuna, Central Germany, has "been the object of successful R.A.F. attacks, one as recently as Monday night. Replacement Power Seduced. Turning to industrial targets in Germany, other than oil. it is pointed out that* though the bulk of the German aircraft production is located fairly far afield, the assemblage is carried on largely in Western Germany, and it is believed -that Germany's power to replace, aircraft losses sustained in raids over Britain has already been appreciably reduced by bombing attacks on these plants and others engaged in the. production of aircraft materials. Longer nights have enabled the R.A.F. to follow up these preliminary attacks with heavier and even more damaging raids on larger works, which are situated further into the interior, such as Dessau and Augsburg. The Messerschmitt factory at Augsburg was raided last night.

German transport has undoubtedly severely suffered from R.A.F. raids, which hare caused considerable damage to docks at Hamburg and Bremen, and must seriously hamper OJerinany's seaborne transport. Airships now largely have to use port* further east, aiuj the destruction caused at j>orts necessitates further recourse to the already overstrained German railways system. Still further demands have had to be made on the railways owing to the destruction of the vitally important aqueduct, Jthe Dortmund-Ems Canal, which has'formed the chief transport link between the Rhineland and northwest and central Germany. Goods to the equivalent of 400 trainloads, which used to daily cross the aqueduct in barges, now have to be transported by rail, but the railway system itself has also been damaged. The great marshalling yards at Hamni have been attacked almost nightly for many weeks. In particular, heavy industries in the Ruhr have been affected by the tremendous strain put on them by the German railway system. The constant supply of materials is essential for their continuation. So frequent have been the R.A.F. raids on industries in the Ruhr that a large ]>ercentage of the inhabitants have been evacuated west into France. MANY EXPLOSIONS. BERLIN RAID REPORT. (Reed. 1.30 p.m.) LOXDOX, Aug. 28. The Berlin radio stated that seven British 'planes dropped 100 incendiary bombs on Berlin on Sunday night, destroying a house near the outskirts.