Knapsack is a locality of

Hürth Hürth is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hürth shares borders with the city of Cologne and is about 6 km to the southwest of Cologne city centre, at the northeastern slope of the natural preserve Kott ...

, Rhine-Erft district,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

, Germany. On Wednesday 17 October 2007, King Harald of Norway opened Statkraft's first gas power plant at Knapsack in Germany. The plant will have an installed capacity of 800 MW.

History

Knapsack, its first documentary mention in 1566, started to emerge into a notable village after 1900 due to establishment and development of industry (1906 the Knapsack-Griesheim AG, later part of the

Hoechst AG Hoechst AG () was a German chemicals then life-sciences company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with Sanofi-Synthélabo, it became a subsidiary of th ...

; 1913 construction of the brown coal power plant Goldenberg-Werk) During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

bombed the Knapsack power-station several times. The first raid was a low-level daylight raid on 12 August 1941 by 54

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Bristol) which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until ...

s under the command of Wing Commander Nichol of No. 114 Squadron RAF. The Blenheims hit their targets (the Goldenberg Power Station in Knapsack and the Fortuna Power Station in Quadrath) but twelve of the Blenheims were lost during the raid, 22 percent of those that took part which was far above the sustainable loss rate of less than five. A further raid took place on the night of 2/3 October 1943 with 12

OBOE The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

Mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

s,RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary
,

. Accessed 18 July 2008 and a second attack that year was another night attack on 21/22 December 1943 by 4 Mosquitos.RAF History - Bomber Command 60th Anniversary

. Knapsack Power Station, Germany, 7 April 1942The Science & Society Picture Library
Accessed 22 July 2008. A Photo reconnaissance picture of the power station. Due to environmental constraints, 4000 citizens had to be resettled between the years 1969 and 1979.

References

{{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia

History

See also

References