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Title (Dublin Core)
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The nine lives of Leuna
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Title: The nine lives of Leuna
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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FOR ten months, American and British
airmen fought to deprive Hitler of the
output of about three square miles of land
deep in Germany—the site of one of the
most productive, versatile, and formidable
war plants ever built. This plant at Leuna,
23 miles east of Leipzig, was a gigantic
monument to German chemical wizardry.
Knocking it out was like killing a cat; it
had to be done nine times to make it stick.
Repeatedly, American newspapers re-
ported that hundreds of planes were attack-
ing this target—all told, 6,630 bombers took
off to destroy Leuna—but the whole story
of this historic battle could not be told
while it was being fought. Much more of
the story of this enormous factory's battle
with the bombers can be read now in the
records of German home-front war lords
and in the ruins of the plant.
Leuna was originally a fertilizer factory,
but the Nazis expanded her into an arsenal
such as the world had never seen before.
She became the second largest source of the
Germans’ synthetic fuel, and also their
second largest chemical works. She pro-
duced tremendous quantities of scores of
different necessities of war, including gaso-
line for the Luftwaffe, lubricants for the
Tiger tanks, raw materials for synthetic
rubber, and acids for explosives. She was
suspected, too, of producing materials used
by German scientists in their efforts to
perfect an atomic bomb.
She made all these things, furthermore,
mainly from coal, air, and water. Millions
of tons of low-grade coal were scraped off
the earth near by, and billions of gallons of
water flowed into Leuna from huge water-
works less than a mile away. Hundreds of
miles of underground cables, overhead pip-
ing, streets, sewers, and railroad tracks
wove her 250 buildings together, and about
25,000 Germans and 10,000 slave laborers,
skillfully guided by a few hundred chemists
and engineers, were employed in this two-
mile-long maze of machines and tanks.
Leuna’s products were so numerous and
various that the I G. Farbenindustrie,
which owned and operated this industrial
monster, did not attempt to measure her
production in tons, cubic yards, or money.
Instead, the technicians judged her activity
by simply taking her pulse. This was done
by counting the revolutions made per minute
by the plant's scores of compressors. This
figure was a fair indication of Leuna's
productivity, because nearly all of her work
required the use of gases—hydrogen, nitro-
gen, and carbon monoxide. |
Leuna consisted of machines to produce
and purify these gases, apparatus in which
they could be synthesized, and the equip-
ment needed to finish the various products |
obtained by bringing gases together. The
gas-producing units were similar, so they
were interchangeable; the synthesizing tech
niques were similar, so much of the appa-
ratus in this category could also be adapted
to various purposes; and Leuna had plenty
of spare equipment such was used to finish
each of her most important products.
These facts are pertinent to the story of
her nine-round bout with the bombers, be-
cause they explain Leuna’s astonishing
ability to recover from aerial attacks. She
was a man-made creature with a set of
interchangeable hearts. Hence, there was
no single, obvious place in which she could
be fatally wounded. If one part of the plant
was destroyed, some other part usually
could do its kind of work. And, if the
machinery needed for ome kind of war
production was destroyed, the remaining
facilities could be used to manufacture
something else.
Luna could bo Identified from the air by
the pools of water in the near by strip-ming
pita and the row of 13 high chimneys rising.
from the boar Rouse 1 the cantor of the
long plant. But sho had hundreds of special
ove which enabled her 15 conceal herself
With a screen of smoke, This screen, more-
over, could he hited from day to day m0
hat’ the plant lay under different parts
of It at different time.
‘Tho Germans also had investad several
yoars® work and millon of dollars air-
Fuld defenses before the Kighih Ale Force
nd the RAF went to work on Leon.
Within the plant there ere not only shel:
ters for the workers, but hlso heavy, Te:
Inforcad-conerata and brick shields over and
around much of the vital apparatus. Nearly
wo thirds of the plan's employees, more:
over, were members of an slaborate and
well-trained ‘airraid_ defense organization.
‘Outaide tho plant there were decoy suc:
tures Which looked sa. much like Luna
from the air that more bomba wero some-
men dropped on them than on the real
plant. ‘And Leun wa surrounded, in addi-
ion, with so many antiaircraft guns that
airmen considered attacking her one of the
moat dangerous of all missions.
“Tho RAR had dropped a fo small bomba
on Louna early in tho war, but the big
Battle did not begin until the spring of 1044,
“The tratogic bombers set out then to stop
Leuna and her sister planta from producing
any more fuel for Hitlers military forces.
Thin ‘waa dono so miccosstully that from
D Day to VE Day the Germans were
hampered by a shortage of fuel. But Lena
continued to resist the Airmen until the
ast fow weoekn of the war,
“Pirat Knockout. The Eighth Ale Force's
I-17 strexked across Germany, surprised
Loun's dotendors, and made’ the frst
American atiack on het in May 1044. They
bombed her in daylight from an aiituda
of About 20,000 fost, and hit her with 1500
of tho 500 bani that thay released that
ny. Her nnard were ripped and punctured
by nearly 100 tons of high-explosive bomb.
The shelters built {or tho workers wero #0
grossly Inadequate that 120 persons were
Kilod and threo men Oat” many were
wounded. Leuna's production stopped
abruptly.
Second Knockout, But the big plants
compressors were soon turning. again, #0
the Eighth Air Force sent out B24's and
socked the plant a second time two weeks
later, Fewer bombs were dropped in. that
Fal, but greater percentage of them hit
the works, and Leuna stopped breathing
Sgn. Tho “morning betoft this attack,
Dearly 6000 men had been busy repairing
amas do by th previous rit theme
Gy, cary about hai of them reported for
Soe
“Third Knockout. Nevertheless, by th frst
week ia July. Leta waa producing shout
Thre fourins us much as tore (hg bale
Dogan So the Tignth ‘Afr Force bombed
Ber orn third Gime, ming sl fewer
Doras ut coring bis with amost bal of
Theme ven sor ck. favored Loum ans |
She was hme out for aly tree dag.
“howrth Taockodt, She was more an |
naltway back io normal on uy 30, when
the Americans bombed be for the fourth
lime an Jf ber breathless or fe dave.
Sich quick. comevarks wore pose be.
cue he” Germans put mough men to
Work 0 patch Leuns up moet as ast 33
he bombers were tearing her apart But
he day was coring when she armen oud
Inlet damage faster than coud be re. |
pair.
Fen Enockout By Juy 2, the bg cid |
cat ‘was producing snout a thre of ber |
oral output. The Eighth Aur Force then
ticked her bie, wing $50 planes oo0
Gay and 54 planes the met day Tn those
iw Taian, more’ bombs were inn at |
Lung th bad een released nthe prions
four rain, and TG. Farben catimbied the
mage done Dy this Two tack 1 She
530000 Reknmarka (Common Jaber wis
Paid less than one mark an hour) Leumn
Then was such a mem in Tuck al 1 ook
her managers tw weds o draw up plans
10 put her on he fot again, Those plana
cule for production at about ale of the |
Sora rule by the mide of November,
Butte plans bad to be revised and he ante
Set back a month, becuuae the Americans
Com Back an socked Lown sveret more
mcs In the meat thre moni,
Bath Rnorkout, Nevernelss, Gbpte |
move Taide and many tule arms, bows
rugged back nto tho fray for the sh
SmeSony to’ be Joockea out again on
November 25, Wale she was down ts |
lime, the was severely wounded by two
mort bombings. Some of Ber most vim
Heavy oquipment was te. Bat the Nass
{hen counted on ber versatility © prolong
her wnehuness to ther They peut mort
Cxptosves 32 well 35 mors Teh amd orders
ere Issued to shift mh of Lena's fac.
Tes trom fuel production to mamutscturs
oF aia fo Sxplbave.
Seventh nvckout BY December, Levna |
was back on the job but mot producing
much yet. Both the RAF and the Eighth
Air Force attacked her then, with several
thousand bombs, including 30 dozen of the
RAF’s powerful 4,000-pounders. The result
was a 24-day shutdown.
Eighth Knockout. By New Year's Day,
Leuna had been raided 19 times. Her air-
raid shelters had been so improved that
there was not a single casualty within the
plant during the heavy attacks in December,
but the plant's ability to recuperate had
gone the way of the Old Gray Mare—it
wasn't what it used to be. When the RAF
attacked her for the twentieth time, her
compressors were making only about a
sixth of the normal number of revolutions
per minute. Nevertheless, the RAF socked
her with more than five times as many tons
of bombs as the Luftwaffe had dropped in
the heaviest of its raids on London. This
mighty cargo of destruction, moreover, in-
cluded nearly 500 of the 4,000-pound bombs,
which wrecked tanks and structures that
smaller bombs did-not damage seriously.
This wallop left Leuna breathless for more
than five weeks.
Ninth Knockout. Despite all this punish-
ment, the Germans concocted a plan in
February to revive Leuna for the ninth
time. Two days later, some of her wheels
began to revolve again, and by April 4 she
was turning out products at about a fifth
of her normal rate. The RAF returned
then with a couple of its new 12,000-pound
bombs, a half dozen of its 8,000-pounders,
200 two-tonners, and 2,000 smaller bombs,
Leuna passed out then for the ninth time—
and was still inert a few weeks later when
the American ground forces arrived.
By then, the Allied airmen had hurled
more than 85,000 bombs at this one target.
Leuna had been defended so grimly that
128 bombers had been [ost in the 21 attacks
on her. I G. Farben's experts estimated,
however, that restoring Leuna would cost
280,582,000 Reichsmarks. Even more signifi-
cant, however, was the record of Leuna's
operations. In the ten months that she had
been under attack, she had produced less
than a tenth as much as Hitler and his
trapped henchmen had expected from her.
Airpower had made Leuna of little use to
them at the very time that they needed
her most.
Leuna had been defended so well that
only about a tenth of the bombs launched
against her had hit her. Others, however,
had hit the waterworks, the mines, homes,
garages, and other parts of the industrial
community serving this mighty war plant.
About a sixth of the bombs that fell in the
plant did not explode immediately. Some of
these were delayed-action bombs. Others
were duds, but even the duds affected the
plant's production because they delayed re-
pair work. According to the Germans, it
took 17 days to remove the 142 unexploded
bombs that were discovered after ome
attack.
When the Americans arrived, the plant
had been damaged not only by detonating
bombs but also by many secondary ex-
plosions. These had resulted from the forma-
tion of explosive mixtures in the gas pipes
when operations were resumed after the
pipes had been broken and punctured by
bombs.
Fewer aerial attacks might have sufficed
to knock Leuna out if the big 4,000-pound
bombs had been used sooner. A single
atomic bomb from a single plane could have
demolished her.
But the Achilles’ heel of Leuna was
found by the airmen even though the
weapons they used now seem puny. The
monster's weak spot was her utilities—the
gas lines, water lines, electric cables, etc.
It had been possible to patch them up a few
times, but, as the attacks continued, the
difficulties became so great that even all
the devout Nazis, resourceful engineers, and
slave workers for Hitler had been unable to
put this Humpty-Dumpty structure together
again in such a way that it would stay
together.
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Volta Torrey (article writer)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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Eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1945-11
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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127-128,207-208
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public domain
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Sami Akbiyik
Popular Science Monthly, v. 147, n. 5, 1945
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