The Smithfield Explosion - March 7, 1942 Traditional Cache
The Smithfield Explosion - March 7, 1942
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Size: 
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You seek an altoids tin, filled with log and swag, at the site of a legendary disaster from the early days of World War II.
In te early hours of March 7, 1942, in an America still reeling and jittery from it's rapid entry into World War II only four months previously, a large truck filled with 30,000 pounds of munitions bound for Fort Bragg collided with a car at this intersection.
The Following was reported in the Syracuse News Journal the following day and reprinted on the excellent website www.gendisasters.com:
EXPLOSION STREWS WRECKAGE OVER 2 1/2 MILE AREA.
Smithfield, N.C., March 7 (AP) -- Like a gigantic time bomb which dealt death and destruction after attracting a crowd of the curious, a blazing truck and trailer loaded with 30,000 pounds of munitions exploded here early today, killing at least four and injuring approximately 100.
The explosion occurred two hours after the truck was in a wreck with a sedan, three miles from here. Both vehicles caught fire.
The blast demolished a roadside hotel, wrecked a tavern, leveled a row of filling stations, pock-marked two rows of brick tourist cabins and broke virtually all the windows in Selma, a small town a mile away.
Wreckage was strewn for two and a half miles. A hole 30 feet deep and as long as a railroad car was ripped in the cement highway. Windows here were broken. A man standing half a mile away was seriously injured.
The blast was heard for 50 miles.
Immediately after the impact, both vehicles started to burn. Fire departments from Smithfield and nearby towns batted the blaze for two hours. Crowds of spectators gathered. They were warned to keep back, but they didn't keep back far enough.
Immediately after the explosion, telephone calls were received here from nearby communities asking whether there had been an air raid, and which way the planes were headed.
As ambulances with siren open, screamed through the streets, many persons thought "the Japs had come."
Johnston county's newly organized civillian defense unit immediately went into action. Volunteer doctors and nurses went to their posts at the county hospital. Goldsboro, Raleigh and other cities volunteered their hospital facilities.
Syracuse Herald Journal New York 1942-03-08
Pictures of the wrekage of the Catch-Me-Eye,a popular tavern destroyed by the expolsion can be found on the Johnston County Historic Archive's website here:
(visit link)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
urycvat gb cerirag zber nppvqragf urer...