BIG OIL TARGET HIT BY LANCASTERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 304, 23 December 1944, Page 5

BIG OIL TARGET HIT BY LANCASTERS

ABLAZE AFTER RAID Enemy Defences Tricked By Bombers British Official Wireless st.ec,; 1 p.m. ; RUGBY, Dec. 22. Last night a strong force of R.A.F. Lancasters attacked the great German synthetic oil plant at Politz, near Stettin. This plant and that at Leurna, near Merseburg, are the two largest in Germany, and together produce a large proportion of the oil still available for the armed forces. The Germans have been driven to a desperate expenditure oE anti-air-craft weapons to protect these plants, batteries having been moved from industrial cities for the purpose. The Politz plant covers about three-qtfarters of a square mile and it is believed to produce about 600,000 tons of oil a year by the Bergius process. The Germans began building it in 1938, but did not produce 'oil till 1940, and reached full production in 1943. To achieve surprise the Lancasters took a round-about route, and in all flew about 2000 miles. The sky was clear, though there was ground haze. The flak was often intense, but no fighters appeared to reach the target area in time to counter-attack. : Three bombers are missing. Volumes of black oily smoke were seen rising from the plant when a reconhaissartce aircraft was over Politz to-day, 12 hours after last night's attack.