V2 BOMB FACTORY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 151, 28 June 1945, Page 5

V 2 BOMB FACTORY

Thousands Of Slave Workers Died In Germany SECRETS WERE WELL KEPT Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, June 27. It is estimated that 20,000 foreign slave labourers died constructing a huge underground factory in the Harz Mountains near Nordhausen where VI and V 2 bombs were manufactured, says the Associated Press cor.respondent at Nordhausen. Two main tunnels, each 2000 yards long and about 250 yards apart and wide enough to take railway trucks, lead through the mountains, and 46 minor tunnels lead off them at right angles. They contain stock and store rooms, welding and drilling machines, presses, tool shops, heating and air conditioning plants and assembly lines.

Former workers state that the noise of machinery was deafening, as the tunnels acted as sound conductors and amplifiers, causing nervous breakdowns.

The Americans have taken 110 complete V 2 bombs from the factory in the past few weeks for testing and scientific work. The British and French have also taken many samples, but there were plenty of specimens left When the Russians occupied the factory. The variety and quantity of the materials in the factory stagger the imagination. The Germans worked the slave labourers two 12-hour shifts, with 30,000 on each shift. The workers' movements were limited within the section of the plant where they were employed, hence there was no knowledge of how a complete V 2 was made.