SECRET GERMAN WEAPONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 7 January 1944, Page 5

SECRET GERMAN WEAPONS

SWISS EXPERT CONTEMPTUOUS NO GIANT ROCKET GUNS London, Jan. 6. Stories of an enormous German rocket gun designed to shell London from France are ridiculed by the famous Swiss explosives expert. Dr. Alfred Stettbacher. He is equally contemptuous of other “secret weapons.” “Rocket guns and secret weapons are nothing but a nerve war to scare credulous laymen,” said Dr. Stettbacher. Secret weapons are only effective if the public believes in their existence. Hitherto all these super secret rockets, uranuim bombs and new devastating explosives have produced effect only on the civilian mind. No rocket gun could possibly fire 120 miles to London from France, nor use 12 tons of shell. Rocket shells used by the Germans against Allied bombers weigh 22 pounds with a range of only about a mile and a-quarter. “It is surprising how even trained scientists should fall for such fairy tales as uranium bombs which are to destroy all living beings within an area of 200 miles. No human being has yet invented such a bomb and nobody will for a very considerable time. The most terrific explosive known is called Te-tranitro-methan-benzol, of which all army headquarters know.