GIGANTIC BEACON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20652, 31 December 1941, Page 7

GIGANTIC BEACON

NAZI CHEMICAL WORKS BLASTED BY R.A.F. GREAT EXPLOSION (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press AHsn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 2.40 p.m. RUGBY, Dec. 29. Among the targets attacked in western Germany last night by aircraft of the Bomber Command was the great chemical works at Huls, near the Ruhr. Here the enemy’s costly rubber substitute, luma, is manufactured. The works stand isolated among a wood and fields and a strong force of Hampden bombers set out to attack this single vital objective. In cold, clear moonlight, the wide stretch of the works was picked out against the snow-covered countryside. The attack began soon after 8 p.m. Aircraft after aircraft dropped its load, the first few pointing the way with incendiary bombs, the rest following on with heavy high explosive bombs.

At 8.50 came the climax. The crews of the aircraft which at that moment were over the target, the crews of planes which were over 100 miles on their way home, and the crews of approaching aircraft still 20 miles from Huls united in reporting an explosion of great violence which shot flames many hundreds of feet into the air. The crews which were over or near the target at the time of the explesion saw that it leaped from the centre of the factory and that from then on fires burned unchecked among the numerous buildings of the great plant. For the remaining bombers the target had become a gigantic beacon and they piled their high explosives on it.