I also take exception to Mr. Neumann's characterization of material treated in my essay (at least I assume this) as being too technical. This vast factory, said to be the biggest in the world at the time, … By late 1942, the war had. By the way, if any reader of this would like to know more about Wallace E. Pratt, one of the greatest petroleum geologists ever and an ardent conservationist, see my sketch of his life on American National Biography at www.anb.org (2001). Both lines originated in Texas and extended to the East Coast. I find Mr. Neumann's comments nearly farcical. That man was Burt E. Hull of the Texas Company (Texaco). The article is very interesting, but it is focused on American issues, and on technicalities. It caused that there were waged the most important battles of the WWII: Caucasus and Stalingrad, North Africa and Alamein. Then the Germans invaded the the Low Countries a… Will printing more money during COVID cause hyperinflation? To head that agency Roosevelt appointed the very capable Harold L. Ickes, who had been Secretary of the Interior. For much of the war Germany relied on synthetic oil made from low grade coal (by hydrogenation). One oilman should be singled out so far as the laying of the Big Inch is concerned. Keith Miller. The German term for this kind of refinery plant is "Hydrierwerk". These lines could deliver almost 900 thousand gallons of fuel per day. His tanks were moving so fast as they approached the Seigfried Line of Germany, they all ran out of gasoline. I don't know of a any magic website that distills this information. The leaders of every nation involved in World War II were aware of how crucial oil supplies were to their war plans. Table 10), published by American Petroleum Institute in 1999. @jwentingThe Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran took place in Sept 1941. On 28 May 1941, even then before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established by a letter what became known officially as the Petroleum Administration for War (PAW), on 2 December 1942. Generally, natural or crude oil and petroleum are extremely crucial to the existence of the Third Reich during the World War II (1939–1945). He lauds companies like Standard Oil for their cooperation, apparently unaware that the company refused to allow US companies to use their process for making artificial rubber because it was already exclusively licensed to IG Farben. The largest supplier of oil for Germany was the Ploiești oil refineries in Romania. The Treason of Standard Oil (Exxon) During World War 2 We have reported on Wall Street’s financing of Hitler and Nazi programs prior to World War 2 but we have not given as much attention to its treasonous acts during the war. Should I leave fallen apples (windfall) to rot under the tree? This demonstrates how the Swiss were keen to stay on good terms with Germany to continue their vital trade. Due to heavy bombing most of the capacity was destroyed until March 1945. Interestingly enough, the PIWC held its first meeting,"'one of the great coincidences of history,'" (as Ickes referred to the matter in his fine book Fightin' Oil), the day after Pearl Harbor. Small bore trombone in philharmonic orchestra - Berlioz symphonie fantastique. So, while Mr. Neumann's reference to oil in the Caucasus, or, really it would have been better to have said, from the Baku peninsula bordering the Caspian Sea (where oil was known from Old Testament times), the Germans were never able to get this oil! Germany had very limited oil resources. How close did Germany come to interdicting Soviet oil shipments from the Caucasus in 1942? Moreover,Hitler wanted to exterminate the “racially inferior” Russian peoplefrom Leningrad, Mos… To reiterate the vital role of U. S. oil in winning World War Two, consider this from Carl Coke Rister's Oil! Stalin and the Allies knew that once Hitler had access to those fields, there would be no stopping him, which was why the battle turned out to be so gory. By the outbreak of World War II, coal-derived synfuels accounted for nearly half of Germany's peacetime oil … It didn’t take long for a gasoline shortage to develop on the US East Coast. Without it World War Two could never have been won. Didn't quite work out either when Turkey (who'd been their ally in WW1) turned out to be less than friendly towards them. Much of the rest came from the efforts of Shell Oil. But Germany's war efforts were still dependent on oil resources, and it came from a variety of sources, some external to the German border. Can vice president/security advisor or secretary of state be chosen from the opposite party? There's a fairly exhaustive article in the German Wikipedia about it, but unfortunately it hasn't been translated to other languages: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_synthetisches_Benzin. Too much writing, even in history, depends too much on generalizations, unsupported by detail. That had to be achieved, because the Japanese, in occupying the Netherlands East Indies, controlled 90 percent of the world's natural supplies of rubber. The WWII Axis governments had no direct territorial access to oil. This appointment by Ickes, along with a meeting of 1,500 influential oilmen, dispelled any doubts about the willingness of Ickes (who had, before the war, made some harsh judgments regarding America's oil industry) to cooperate fully with oil industry leaders and their companies, great and small. It is not currently accepting answers. Wallace E. Pratt and Dorothy Good (1950), pp. To produce synthetic rubber required the making of butadiene, its basic raw material. And in 1940, Socony-Vacuum sent William Mosetti to Argentina. And the Persian corridor was important to getting British aid and American lend-lease through to the Red Army fighting at Stalingrad. Though it is true that the yield of oil from the Middle East increased during the war years, it never amounted to much, when compared with the output from U. S. For example, the greatest production in any one year during World War Two from the Middle East (that of 1945) was only 194,258,000 barrels. The truth is--oil was the indispensable product, in all its forms, to the Allied campaigns around the world. Standard Oil of New Jersey sent a young lawyer from their legal department to Venezuela, full of petroleum. But by that time, Germany's best chances to come out on top had long since been blown. Why Germany Really Lost World War II. Oil tankers were their favorite targets. WW2 Axis powers had enough successes early in the war to make dramatic gains in the European and Pacific theaters of war, but enough failures to doom themselves to ultimate defeat.. Britain’s policy of appeasement had failed to stop Hitler. Life magazine of February 19, 1940, has a picture of Rumanian oil being loaded into oil tank cars. To provide all the oil, or at least most of it, for the Allied war effort, the United States enlisted the aid of American oil companies, all of which responded without hesitation to the challenge. After World War II, the vast oil fields of Arabia made it uneconomic for most free nations to pursue the technology. A four inch line (avgas) and a six inch (mogas) line ran up the Rhone Valley from Marseilles. I believe there were eight lines there. Let me close with a refernce to a superior officer on the other side, Field-Marshall Karl Gerd Von Rundstedt of Germany. Lend-Lease and Military Aid to the Allies in the Early Years of World War II. Now for a brief account of the Little Big Inch. Why are some snaps fast, and others so slow? But, that source of oil for Germany was soon curtailed severely. Nonetheless, the early successes were spectacular. Oil and the origins of the ‘War to make the world safe for Democracy’ By F. William Engdahl, 22 June, 2007 . For example, in 1942 Germany consumed 9,500,000 t (estimated), and produced 4,920,000 t from coal. Then, toward the end of August 1944, Russia captured the Rumanian oil fields, which meant the Germans could no longer get even what little remaining oil production there was still coming from that country (see Popple p. 160). For oil, once processed or refined in various ways, became the source or indispensable material for laying runways, making toluene (the chief component of TNT) for bombs, the manufacturing of synthetic rubber for tires, and the distilling into gasoline (particularly at 100-octane levels) for use in trucks, tanks, jeeps, and airplanes. Besides, without the outstanding cooperation of the Petroleum Administration for War with the numerous oil companies of America, World War Two very likely would never have been won by the Allies either. 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