18/05/2024
Pictured is the aftermath of one of the many maximum effort missions to the infamous Leuna Oil Plant outside Leipzig, Germany.
The IG Farben Leuna works, headed by Heinrich Bütefisch, was N**i Germany’s second-largest synthetic oil plant and its second-biggest chemical operation. Leuna was the first plant to test the Bergius process, which synthesized oil products from lignite (brown coal tar) in 1944. Spanning three square miles and comprising 250 buildings, including decoy structures outside the main plant, Leuna employed 35,000 workers, 10,000 of whom were prisoners and slave laborers.
The 14th Flak Division, tasked with protecting Leuna, consisted of 28,000 troops, 18,000 RAD personnel, 6,000 male and 3,050 female auxiliaries, 900 Hungarian and Italian ‘volunteers,’ 3,600 Russian Hiwis, and 3,000 others, totaling 62,550 individuals. More than 19,000 of Leuna’s workers were part of the air raid protection organization, operating over 600 radar-directed guns. The fire-fighting force included 5,000 men and women.
Leuna endured 6,552 bomber sorties over 20 Eighth Air Force and 2 RAF attacks, during which 18,328 tons of bombs were dropped. As the most heavily defended industrial target in Europe, Leuna would become so dark from flak, German smoke pots, and exploding oil tanks that “we had no idea how close our bombs came to the target,” according to Tom Landry, a B-17 co-pilot and later Dallas Cowboy coach. On clear days, only 29% of the bombs aimed at Leuna landed inside the plant gates; on radar raids, the number dropped to 5.1%.
During the first raid of the Oil Plan, 126 Leuna workers were killed. However, after defenses were increased, only 175 additional workers were killed in 21 subsequent raids. The bombing of Leuna from May 12, 1944, to April 5, 1945, cost the Eighth Air Force 1,280 airmen. In three separate attacks by the Eighth, 119 planes were lost, and not one bomb fell on the Leuna works. The Eighth Air Force dropped 12,953 tons of explosives on Merseburg.
