WW2 Fuel Supplies

[pelowskicoli]

I am reading a book called Bomber Boys which tells Bomber Command's story. when you read that towards the end or the war some 850 aircraft bombed Germany on a nightly basis that was one heck of a lot of fuel per month.

As we did not have North sea Oil (or likely to much longer!), where did the fuel come from? If we had refineries here surely that would be an obvious target for german bombers plus how did the crude oil get here? There were no super tankers then. So where did we ship the crude from to avoid u-boat attacks?

[Cheeris]

Very similar to where we get it from today I believe - Iraq was 'secured' by the British in 1941 to guarantee its oil refineries to the allies. Russia also produced oil in the Caucausus and these two sources were shipped in tankers from the Persian Gulf around Africa and up the Atlantic (or through Suez and the Med once it was made safe). And obviously the USA produced a lot of oil, out of Texas, California etc.

[pelowskicoli]

Thank you Cheeris for your quick reply. Nothing changes does it still fighting over oil.

[dundurn]

Even during the war people sometimes forgot the true cost of getting their petrol.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jzec.htm

The same was true in other theatres of the war.

http://www.aviatorart.com/taylor/t-ohio.htm

[Hugh Spencer]

I used to live along the Thames Estuary where there were several oil refineries which were bombed by the Luftwaffe on several occasions.

[paddywak]

Perhaps this site will interest you
http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship .asp?id=12841
It shows the courage of the ordinary merchant seamen
who crewed (in this case a tanker) the thousands of ships that kept this country going through out the war

[Paul22118]

pelowskicoli, you are right that is a heck of a lot of fuel. But do appreciate that domestic consumption, unlike today, was minimal. We had full use of animal power and even buses with gas baloons on the roof. Only doctors and essential trades were given any petrol and that was seriously rationed.
But it was a lot of fuel.

[pelowskicoli]

Thanks to everyone for your answers. I found the story of The Ohio particularly interesting. It's something I knew nothing about.