by Bruce Wells | Feb 13, 2025 | Petroleum in War
Shelling of the Ellwood field at Santa Barbara created mass hysteria — and the “Battle of Los Angeles.”
Soon after America entered World War II, an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine attacked a refinery and oilfield near Los Angeles, the first attack of the war on the continental United States. The submarine’s deck gun fired about two dozen rounds, causing little damage — but it resulted in the largest mass sighting of UFOs in American history.
A February 1942 Imperial Japanese Navy submarine’s shelling of a California refinery caused little damage but created invasion (and UFO) hysteria in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy Goleta Valley Historical Society.
At sunset on February 23, 1942, Imperial Japanese Navy Commander Kozo Nishino and his I-17 submarine lurked 1,000 yards off the California coast. It was less than three months since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Los Angeles residents were tense. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Nov 4, 2024 | Petroleum in War
Secret WWII project sent Oklahoma drillers to British oilfield, adding one million barrels of oil production by 1944.
As the United Kingdom fought for its survival during World War II, a team of American oil drillers, derrickhands, roustabouts, and motormen secretly boarded the converted troopship HMS Queen Elizabeth in March 1943. Once their story was revealed years later, they would become known as the Roughnecks of Sherwood Forest.
The 42 volunteers from Noble Drilling and Fain-Porter Drilling companies taken before they secretly embarked for the United Kingdom on March 12, 1943, aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth, which had been converted into a troop transport ship. Photo courtesy of the Guy Woodward Collection, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
By the summer of 1942, the situation was desperate. The future of Great Britain — and the outcome of World War II — depended on the supply of petroleum. At the end of that year, demand for 100-octane fuel had grown to more than 150,000 barrels every day — and German U-boats ruled the Atlantic.
British Secretary of Petroleum, Geoffrey Lloyd in August 1942 called for an emergency meeting of his country’s Oil Control Board to assess the “impending crisis in oil.” (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jul 28, 2024 | Offshore History, Petroleum in War
Shipwrecks revealed during routine scan of Gulf of Mexico seabed for new pipelines.
During World War II, U-boats prowled the Gulf of Mexico to disrupt the flow of oil carried by tankers departing ports in Louisiana and Texas. Sixty years later, seabed surveys found U-166 — and its last victim.
Petroleum exploration and production companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico’s outer continental shelf routinely provide government scientists with sonar data for areas with potential archaeological value. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jul 26, 2024 | Petroleum in War
“Without the prodigious delivery of oil from the U. S. this global war, quite frankly, could never have been won.”
A government-industry partnership built two petroleum pipelines from Texas to the East Coast that proved vital during World War II. “Big Inch” carried oil from East Texas oilfields. “Little Big Inch” carried gasoline, heating oil, diesel oil, and kerosene.
The final weld on the “Big Inch” was made in July 1943, just 350 days after construction began. “Without the prodigious delivery of oil from the U.S. this global war, quite frankly, could never have been won,” proclaimed historian Keith Miller. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jun 27, 2024 | Petroleum in War
Navy admirals reluctantly switched from coal to oil — adding engine power and simplifying resupply.
Commissioned on March 12, 1914, the USS Texas was the last American battleship built using engines with coal-fired boilers. Converted to burn fuel oil in 1925, the “Mighty T” became even more dominant at sea during the worldwide maritime change from coal to oil power.
When the Industrial Revolution ended the “Age of Sail,” supplies of coal that fired the boilers of steam-powered ships became a strategic resource. Worldwide “coaling stations” were essential at a time when oil was used as an axle grease or resource for making lamp kerosene. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jun 1, 2024 | Petroleum in War
Towed “Conundrums” spooled off steel pipe across the English Channel soon after D-Day.
Secret pipelines unwound from massive spools to reach French ports and transport vital oil across the English Channel after the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings.
Wartime planners knew that following the Normandy invasion, Allied forces would need vast quantities of petroleum to continue the advance into Europe.
The secret 1944 pipeline mission featured a popular Walt Disney character.
Allied leadership also knew that tankers trying to reach French ports would be vulnerable to Luftwaffe attacks. A secret plan looked to using new undersea pipeline technologies. (more…)
