Newspaper cutting - Leuna oil left 'mass of flame'

Newspaper cutting - Leuna oil left 'mass of flame'

Article describing attack on Leuna synthetic oil plant and subsequent nights operations on three other targets. This was the fourth successive night attacks by the RAF on Germany.

One newspaper cutting

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

NWeedenRC170409-07

Leuna Oil Left 'Mass Of Flame'

LESS than 24 hours after 1,350 Lancasters and Halifaxes had left the Leuna synthetic oil works "a colossal mass of flames" on Wednesday night, an equally big force was over Germany again last night.

More than 350,000 incendiaries and a crushing load of high explosive bombs were hurtled down in three major attacks which made up Wednesday night's work.

It was the fourth successive night attack by the R.A.F. on Germany.

About 500 Lancasters of the total of 1,350 bombers – a massive force in these days of mighty bomb loads – concentrated on Leuna, which a few hours earlier, in daylight, was hammered by American heavies.

The bombers battled through electrical storms, snows, dense cloud, flocks of German night fighters, and flak to hit three targets – Leuna, Osnabruck and Giesson.

At least 17 German planes were destroyed – a high total for night combats – and 21 of our aircraft are missing.

Six aircraft were destroyed by R.A.F. Mustangs off the Norwegian coast yesterday when escorting Beaufighters and Mosquitoes of Coastal Command on anti-shipping patrols. One Mustang is missing.