JET-PLANE FACTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 91, 18 April 1945, Page 5

JET-PLANE FACTORY

HUGE GERMAN PLANT

LONDON, April 17. A tremendous jet-plane factory 900 ft underground, with a planned production of 700 jet-fighters a month has been uncovered by the 9th Army near Magdeburg. The factory is in an active salt mine, with nothing to indicate its presence. The plane being built in the factory was a single-engined fighter, the He.162. which, according to the factory director, has a speed of 600 miles an hour with one hour's fuel. Dozens were still on the assembly line in tunnels fitted with the latest machine tools and lathes. The director stated that the factory was producing more jet-planes than the Germans had pilots or Diesel oil to fly. The 30th Infantry Division has taken one of the richest prizes of the. war—an important testing range for German artillery—six miles north of Magdeburg with over 2000 pieces of artillery. American artillerymen had never seen some of the types captured. Pieces of some giant guns there were far larger than anything seen in action. British and American experts will require weeks to catalogue and examine the weapons.