POISON GAS AND BOMBS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 60, 8 September 1945, Page 8

POISON GAS AND BOMBS

DISPOSAL BY BRITISH

LONDON, September 6. The 6000-ton ship Empire Simba, loaded with 8000 tons of poison gas, will be scuttled in the Atlantic soon. She is being loaded with the greatest secrecy, and only the highest authorities know her exact sailing date from the little Scottish port of "Carnryan, near Stranraer.

More dumpings will follow. Army experts decided that this was the safest way of disposing of the enormous stocks of poison gas which were held ready in case the Germans used gas. Special trains, travelling at night and given a clear run to prevent accidents, are at present loading the poison gas at ammunition dumps throughout Britain. Disused railway tunnels or country branch lines were used to store the shell containers throughout the war. The R.A.F. bomb disposal branch in Germany recently blew up 800 tons of aerial bombs in two minutes—the largest tonnage of bombs destroyed in one operation in Europe. The bombs, which were mainly of 5001b and 10001b, were stacked in shafts driven into a hillside.

R.A.F. officers set off demolition charges from a distance of 1400 yards. Four giant explosions occurred. One piece of concrete weighing scwt flew through the air over the officers' heads and crashed two miles away on a train carrying other bombs. Apart from destroying one truck and knocking the fins off some of the bombs, it did no damage. It is estimated that 600,000 tons of bombs require disposal in the British area of occupation, of which 40,000 tons are gas missiles. Large numbers of these, which are classed as immediately dangerous, have already been destroyed or dumped at sea.