WW2 AERIAL RECON STUDIES
The Dyhernfurth Chemical Weapons Plant, Poland
Facilities & Installations
The Dyhernfurth Chemical Plant produced the nerve gas Tabun, which was part of the 'Grun 3' chemical weapons program. The plant, in what is now Brzeg-Dolny, Poland, was run by Anorgana GmbH, a branch of IG Farben (Graphic). Production began in 1942 and in 1944 was expanded to produce the even more lethal compound, Sarin.
Two subcamps of Gross-Rosen concentration camp supported plant operations: Dyhernfurth 1 housed inmates employed in filling bombs and artillery shells with Tabun; Dyhernfurth 2, a larger camp, was opened in 1943 to support expansion of the plant. In early February 1945 Dyhernfurth was the site of a famous Wehrmacht operation to destroy stores of Tabun after the town was overrun by Soviet troops.
Apart from production of Tabun, the heart of the Dyhernfurth plant was the weapons loading and shipping “factory” where bombs and artillery shells were filled with chemicals (Graphic 2). The factory and associated Labor Camp 1 were located at the north end of the complex along a forest. A sketch of the factory indicates that it was composed of a large rail-served factory-type building and a warehouse (Graphic). One track brought in materiel for filling and the other was for the shipment of finished armaments.
An underground facility with probable Taubn storage tanks was located next to the labor camp and a probable scrubbing/venting building with a large stack. Analysis of the September 1943 coverage shows the facility with three probable vents on top of the bunker and several underground access points that were readily accessible to the labor camp (Graphic).
Two available sketches including one by a former prisoner show a detailed layout of the “Factory.” A more detailed map was produced by the CIA in 1951 (Graphic).
Two large buildings in the Taubn production area were camouflage net-covered (Graphic). According to the CIA map, these buildings were used for storage of Sodium Cyanide.
The new plant section, which was under construction at the south side of the plant, was for the planned large-scale production of Sarin (Graphic). Part of the plant's original fence line had to be removed for the new section.
Labor Camp 2 was located in the forest north of the facility (Graphic).
Another Anorgana plant at Gendorf, Germany 90km east of Munich (Graphic) produced Mustard gas in addition to other chemicals. All of the major buildings were either camouflage painted or covered with netting; no labor camps were identified.
References:
1. Dyhernfurth – fabryka smierci. (2016, April 19) Retrieved. http://pierwszyzbrzegu.pl/historia/gmina-brzeg-dolny/1953-dyhernfurthfabryka-smierci.html
2. Tucker, Jonathan. War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda. Anchor Books, New York, 2007. Google Book Search. Web. May 24, 2016
3. Jacobsen, Annie. Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America. Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2014. Google book Search. Web.