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. Around 52 people were killed and 100 injured. 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.
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. Rekowski alleges the IRA carried out the attack on the plant. 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.