OIL REFINERIES BOMBED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21816, 20 November 1940, Page 7

OIL REFINERIES BOMBED

Nightly Assault On Germany Many Targets Found British Official Wireless RUGBY, November 18. “The main force of our bombers’ attack last night was on the oil refineries at Gelsenkirchen,” states an Air Ministry communique. “Other aircraft bombed industrial targets in the Ruhr, rail and river communications in western Germany, the naval base of I’Orient in Brittany, and aerodromes in occupied territory. All our aircraft returned.” The Royal Air Force began its attacks on the main target of last night’s raids at an exceptionally early hour, states the Air Ministry news service. The main objective was the Scholven synethetic oil plant at Buer, in the neighbourhood of Gelsenkirchen. This is one of Germany’s most important hydrogenation plants for the manufacture of synthetic aviation petrol from coal, and it is designed to produce 300,000 metric tons annually. The first British aircraft arrived before seven o’clock. Cloud made it difficult to find and observe the factory buildings, but these first squadrons rema med for nearly an hour, during which they found the opportunity to place many high-explosive bombs and nearly 1000 incendiary bombs on the target. All but one of the pilots reported fires and saw a magnificent conflagration which quickly spread till it covered an area of half a square mile. It was still burning fiercely 15 minutes after the attack. Fires and Explosions Caused After about an hour’s interval more bombers arrived over the same plant. They found the weather far from perfect. There was a certain amount of ground haze and the anti-aircraft fire was well aimed, but not particularly intense. There was a great concentration of searchlights. The second raid lasted for nearly two hours. Many fires and explosions were seen, and direct hits were noticed on various large buildings. Another synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen, only second in importance to the Scholven refinery, was raided at intervals from soon after dusk till fairly late at night. Here there was thick ground haze and cloud during certain periods, though at other times the weather, apart from the haze, was quite favourable. Six fires resulted from this attack, and explosions were caused by the fires. Yet another oil refinery was attacked towards midnight. Though there was cloud, this was not enough to prevent observation. Bursts from one aircraft were seen to cause two major explosions five minutes after the bombs had fallen. About 500 incendiary bombs were dropped, and many subsequent fires were seen. Railway Yards Bombed A railway junction north-east of Gelsenkirchen was hit with heavy high-explosive bombs, and at another railway station among the Gelsenkirchen collieries —for Gelsenkirchen is the chief seam in the coal-mining centre in the Ruhr basin, as well as the locality of many oil refineries—incendiaries started a long fire and a smaller fire which were seen to be spreading rapidly. The railway yards near the main railway station at Gelsenkirchen were raided, and bombs were seen to straddle the western end of the yards. The aerodrome at Buer, near Gelsenkirchen, was also attacked. Incendiary bombs started fires, but ground haze made observation of the full results impossible. Other aircraft were operating far and wide over western Germany. Five large fires were started among the wharves at Duisbergruhort, an island port on the Rhine, and in spite of thick haze the Royal Air Force pressed home the attack. Many fires broke out and were followed by formidable explosions. Fires and explosions at Hamm were observed through a gap in the clouds. An aerodrome north of Dusseldorf was also heavily bombed, three fires merging into one large blaze. A number of other industrial targets were attacked, and bombs were also dropped on the dock areas at Den Hilder and I’Orient, starting fires.