Hercules Powder plant disaster

The Hercules Powder plant disaster was an explosion at an armaments factory in the Kenvil section of Roxbury, New Jersey in 1940.[1] Around 52 people were killed and 100 injured.[1] This was one of three explosions at the plant owned by the Hercules Powder Company – the others killed six people in 1934 and shattered windows across the town in 1989.[2]

Oscar C. Pfaus laid the groundwork on behalf of the Abwehr for Nazi connections with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in America and an agent, Karl Franz Rekowski, was then sent to the U.S. where he arranged for the IRA to carry out sabotage attacks.[3] Rekowski alleges the IRA carried out the attack on the plant.[4] It remains unclear whether the explosion was an industrial accident, or was sabotage carried out by the IRA or a group of German Americans living in Sussex County.[4]

References
  1. Petriello, David. (2014). Military History of New Jersey. Charleston: History Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-62585-158-1.
  2. Hochman, Louis C. "Long-vacant Hercules plant site could get transit village, warehouses", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, September 15, 2014. Accessed July 21, 2016. "Hundreds of residents manufacturer high explosives at the Hercules Powder Factory, according to the Roxbury Township Historical Society. Two explosions killed six workers in 1934. Then, in 1940, more than 297,000 pounds of gunpowder blew up at the factory in a series of explosions and fires, leveling 20 buildings in the nearby area. That explosion killed 51 people and injured and burned 200 others, according to the historical society."
  3. "Ethnic Germans as an Instrument of German Intelligence Services in the USA, 1933-45" by Cornelia Wilhelm in Heike Bungert, et al. (Eds.) (2003). Secret Intelligence in the Twentieth Century. London: Frank Cass. pp. 35-57 (p. 37). ISBN 978-0-7146-5395-2.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. Petriello, David (2014). Military History of New Jersey. History Press. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-1626196278.

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