NEW ALLIED EXPLOSIVE - The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954) - 27 Sep 1943 (original) (raw)
'RDX' stands for Research
Department, Formula X. It is
not new. but difficulty was ex-
perienced in making it on a use-
ful scale. The War Office Re-
search Department achieved this
just before the outbreak of war.
It was used for the first time
In April, 1941, when a Welling
ton bomber dropped a 40001b.
block-buster on Emden. The re-
sults confirmed the most opti-
The colour and smell of RDX
suggests a sweet more than an
explosive. Actually it looks like
When the first process of fill-
ing a shell with the explosive
at Woolwich Arsenal was going
forward, something went wrong.
A group of men watching the
process through mirrors from
behind a blast wall saw what
was happening and ran into the
They were too late, and there
was a tremendous explosion. A
roll-call had to be made for
identification of five victims.