R.A.F.'s "SECRET WEAPON"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24450, 8 November 1940, Page 10

R.A.F.'s "SECRET WEAPON"

SELF-IGNITING LEAF CELLULOID LIQUID MIXTURE > (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Sept 12. The R.A.F. has produced a new • secret weapon." It was learned from an authoritative source that it is using a form of incendiary which could be described as a self-igniting "leaf." It is designed to set fire, for example, to military, stores standing ip the open to an arsenal or ammunition factory, to a dump of engineers' stores in the field, to military supplies m an open railway truck in a marshalling yard, to a park of military lorries or similar objectives. . It will also set light under suitable conditions to a wood in which a military unit, a depot, or an ammunition plant has been concealed. It is known that the enemv has' concealed such targets in woods. , The accusation made by the Germans that the "leaves" cause poisoning is false. The "leaf" is not poisonous but. if handled it would, of course cause burns, just- as every other incendiary bomb would Berlin radio announced that the RAP. has yet another new device. "The British Air Force." said the announcer, "is usinp a new arm of attack against Germany. It has been used a lot in the last few days. "This new arm. which has as its base a celluloid liquid mixture, is thrown from the British planes not only when they are flying over towns, but when they are over fields of crops and agricultural villages. " It is the usual practice to drop this special mixture when the planes are over Germany at night. When the sun rises in the morning and comes into contact with this mixture fires break out in all directions "These fires are very difficult to deal with, and only the extraordinary efforts of the German A.R.P. have put out the conflagrations. o#en fields of crops and villages have been destroyed. This is one of the chief reasons why the German planes are at present retaliating over London."