Wartime Memory

I wonder if any reader remembers a bizarre experiment which took place in 1941/2. Large containers of diesel, or some sort of oil, were placed at intervals outside houses on the grass verge. a short chimney was attached & topped by a disc with 3 prongs. at night members of the Pioneer Corps lit a plug, which caused a black, smelly cloud to roll out. If the idea was to blank out the blast furnaces it was completely ineffective & must have aggravated anyone with chest problems. I lived on thoroughsale rd &I can remember it took years for the verges to recover.No healthy & safety then! One good spin off, a soldier from, the Pioneer Corps met & married a friend. The blast furnaces couldn't be made invisible. The Germans who built the Bessemer Plant prior to returning home just before the war, held a party for the local children in the wooden 'hut' behind Our Lady's Church on Occupation Rd. The hut served as the church before the proper church was built.