How They Did It

A report from Germany told again of the Nazis' shrewd, methodical scheming to overcome their shortages of strategic materials--shortages which once were supposed to make "a long war" practically impossible.

Back in 1931, in the Tien Shan Mountains, a young Soviet scientist discovered a dandelion-like weed whose roots yielded a gummy juice suitable for making rubber.* Russia promoted the lowly kok-sagyz to the dignity of a cultivated crop, by 1939 her farmers had planted 62,000 acres of it.

After the invasion of Russia, the Germans formed two corporations for a continent-wide exploitation of the fast-growing herb. They transplanted kok-sagyz to Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, the Balkans. Best results were obtained along the Danube. Now that blockaders are sinking more & more rubber-runners from Japan, and bombers are drastically cutting buna-S production at home, kok-sagyz from Russia is paying off for the Nazis.

*Years before, Thomas Edison had concluded that at least 1,200 plants yielded substances convertible into commercially satisfactory rubber.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.