PETROL FOR WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25853, 25 May 1945, Page 5

PETROL FOR WAR

PIPE LINE UNDER CHANNEL BRITISH ACHIEVEMENT RUGBY, May 23. One of the outstanding achievements of British engineering during the war is revealed by a congratulatory message from Mr Churchill to British engineers on “ Operation Pluto ’ which was the transfer of petrol from England to the Continent by submarine pipe line. The British engineers developed a metal pipe line that could be wound on a drum and unrolled into the sea, with the result that a few weeks after D-Day all the fuel required by Field-marshal Montgomery s forces was being pumped from Britain to where it was required on the Continent. . „ ... “ Operation Pluto was a wholly British achievement, and, as Mr Churchill said in his message: This is a feat of British engineering of which we may well be proud.” Writing on petrol warfare, a correspondent recalls that it was recently revealed that petrol was being piped across Britain from the west coast poHs. A pipe line under the English Channel meant that this oil could be sent from these ports to the British forces on the Continent. More than 1,000,000 gallons a day were delivered over a period of *some months suificient to meet the entire requirements of Field-marshal Montgomery’s armies. “Operation Pluto” thus represented a climax in the battle for °il supplies which had been waged against the enemy since the outbreak of the warThe germ of the idea was planted in 1940, when. Lord Louis Mountbatten asked Mr Geoffrey Lloyd, Minister m Charge'of Petrol Warfare, if he could lay a S pipe line across the Channel. Mr Lloyd at once consulied experts, who qaid it would be impossible, but a few days MeL Mr A.CI Hartley chief engineer of the Anglo-Iraman Oil Com pany suggested a pipe line that could■ be laid like a cable A trial length was manufactured and laid from a cable ship. This 2in pipe was then increased to 3in, and strengthened to withstand working pressures in excess of 12001 b to the square inch. The experimental line was laid from Swansea to Ilfracombe, across the entrance to the Bristol Channel, where the currents are similar to the English Channel. Afer considerable difficulties had been overcome oil was delivered with such success that a staff needed for sending fuel to the Continent was put into training and large supplies of cable were ordered wound on drums 30 or more feet in diameter Ships were also prepared for the work of laying the pipe line, and as soon as mines were swept up after D-Day tne installation began across the narrowest part of the Channel available to the British. , , , « The success of the operation not only assured a safe supply of fuel for the British forces, but it also released a large number of tankers for use in the Pacific war.