Bomb-blasted Nazi oil plant.

Bomb-blasted Nazi oil plant. Bomb-ripped and flattered storage tanks for synthetic oil are surrounded by other destroyed installations and debris in the captured Brabag synthetic oil plant at Zeitz, Germany. The plant normally produced 20 to 25 tons of oil products monthly, its chief products being paraffin, benzine, diesel and lubricating oils. Production dropped rapidly following the commencement of the combined Eight U.S. Air Force and RAF onslaught against Nazi fuel supplies in the Spring of 1944, By March, 1945. the monthly output was only 15 per cent of the February, 1944, level. The Nazis moved a slave gang into the area to help rebuild the battered plant, From 17 different countries, the slaves numbered from six to seven thousand. When troops of the First U.S. Army occupied Zeitz April 13, 1945, they found the prison colony included 104 American soldiers who were malnourished and showed signs of mistreatment. Eight of the U.S. prisoners died.