Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)

Valentin Cseh: Allied Air-strikes against MAORT's Facilities in 1944

were destroyed for the most part. Difficulties were capped off by the backup food warehouse in a nearby forest also being bombed, with 75°/» of the groceries deposited there destroyed, along with the buildings and equipment of the manor that MAORT leased, moreover bombing caused significant damage in the produce and fodder that were stored there. A damage report record from 1947 (!) lists the damages of the following buildings in Bázakerettye among others: grocery storeroom, pump-house, BT-4, finance guard ready room, gendarmerie barracks, oil warehouse, abattoir, main pump-house, pipeline repair workshop, oil reclaiming unit, ardllery kitchen, central materials warehouse, butane loader, compressor house. The generator-, boiler-, and water pump-house at the gasoline plant, as well as the machine workshop's instrument house adjacent to the carbon black production house and the rotary saw house.'

9 As a consequence of the bombing, MAORT was forced to post 2828885 Pengő, while private persons 334500 Pengő in damage to assets and real-estate property. Another 11 houses collapsed in the village in addition to the above mentioned, and 11 others were damaged, while 18 heads of livestock and 300 poultry died. After the bombing, vitéz Béla Count Teleki, Zala County's lord-lieutenant, vitéz dr. László Hunyadi, the county's deputy-lieutenant and deputy chief notary, and Dr. Simon Papp, MAORT's Director General (he came from Nógrádverőce) hastened to the site so as to gather information about the situation that developed, and assist in solving the problems. Restoradon work was also started. In the weekly MAORT production report, dr. Ernő Hauer writes about interruptions that developed in production, saving that the Budafapuszta field came to a complete halt, along with the Lovászi field, with the exception oi 3 wells. Gas reinjection broke off, the production of gas, gasoline, and propane-butane was stalled at the Budafapuszta field, and though gasoline production went on in Lovászi, they were counting on a 50% loss of production. The status ot working procedures was gradually restored to its preattack condition ewer the course of the following weeks. In his report of August 7, dr. Ernő Hauer complained about labour battalions requested for rebuilding still having failed to arrive, at the same time he reported that Dr. Köhler, German reconstruction expert inspected damage on August 3, and promised to send machinery which could not be sourced in Hungary' from Germany. The remaining part of the year passed with reconstruction, primarily because of the damage in buildings. Another air-strike was directed at this region at 5 PM on August 2, this time there were 4 P-38 Lightning fighters that engaged the workers of bore H-27 near Pusztaszentlászló from an altitude of 50-60 metres; the top of the derrick's engine room caught fire, along with a presshouse 50 metres away as a result of the attack, but the derrick's crew extinguished these flames. The same fighters opened fire on workers making their way to tank station BT-1, as well as the locomotives of the Esterházy estate's small-gauge railway close to Bázakerettye, practically riddling the latter with bullets. Two of the Esterházy estate's workers were wounded in the two attacks. Fortunately there were not any serious bombing raids or sorties flown during the following weeks, but in the attack against the MOLAJ refinery in Szőny of August 21, the pipeline and the pigging station suffered damage. Then on the next day, the 22nd (according to the plan, US forces engaged oil industry targets in ( )detal, Bleckhammer and Löbau in Silesia), 4 bombs fell MOL-Z356-9cs-69t.