History Trivia -oil patch warriors

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History Trivia -oil patch warriors

Post by Puma » 2022-09-08 08:01, Thursday

Seventy-five years ago this month, a Band of Roughnecks went abroad on a top-secret mission into Robin Hood's stomping grounds to punch oil wells to help fuel England's war machines.

It's a story that should make any oilman or woman proud.

The year was 1943, and England was mired in World War II. U-boats attacked supply vessels, choking off badly needed supplies to the island nation. But oil was the commodity they needed the most as they warred with Germany.

The book "The Secret of Sherwood Forest: Oil Production in England During World War II" written by Guy Woodward and Grace Steele Woodward was published in 1973 and tells the obscure story of the American oil men who went to England to bore wells in a top-secret mission in March 1943.

England had but one oil field in Sherwood Forest of all places. Its meagre output of 300 barrels a day was literally a drop in the bucket of their requirement of 150,000 barrels a day to fuel their war machines.

Then a top-secret plan was devised: to send some Americans and their expertise to assist in developing the field. Oklahoma-based Noble Drilling Company, along with Fain-Porter, signed a one-year contract to drill 100 wells for England, merely for costs and expenses.

42 drillers and roughnecks from Texas and Oklahoma, most in their teens and early twenties, volunteered for the mission to go abroad.

The hands embarked for England in March 1943 aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth. Four National 50 drilling rigs were loaded onto ships, but only three of them made landfall; the Nazi U-boats sank one of the rigs en route to the UK.

The Brits' jaws dropped as the Yanks began punching the wells in a week, compared to five to eight weeks for their British counterparts. They worked 12-hour tours, 7 days a week, and within a year, the Americans had drilled 106 wells, and England's oil production shot up from 300 barrels a day to over 300,000

The contract was fulfilled, and the American oilmen departed England in late March 1944. But only 41 hands were on board the return voyage.

Herman Douthit, a Texan derrick hand, was killed during the operation. He was laid to rest with full military honours and remains the only civilian buried at The American Military Cemetery in Cambridge.

"The Oil Patch Warrior," a seven-foot bronze statue of a roughneck holding a four-foot pipe wrench stands near Nottingham, England, to honour the American oil men's assistance and sacrifice in the war. A replica was placed in Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 2001.

It is by no means a stretch to state that without the American mission, we might all be speaking German today.

Special thanks to the American Oil and Gas History.
BaseKorp Efile

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Re: History Trivia -oil patch warriors

Post by Parabellum » 2022-09-08 13:51, Thursday

Completed CCs: 1x4, 2x5, 3x3, 4, 5x3, 6, 7x2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17x2, 18x3, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56x3, 57, 58, 59, 60x3, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67x2, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72x2, 73, 74, 75x2, 76x5, MTC I
Completed CCCs: #8

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Re: History Trivia -oil patch warriors

Post by Ale » 2022-09-08 14:50, Thursday

not so important for the text (nor your subject in that sense) - I praise any activity here, historical or modern times :yes - but must just add that I (as person from Serbia so it is not my lingiustical thing) find terminology interesting. England ; but also why so many historians often use term "Nazi" for units and people which were basically German army and not political organization ; i.e. always found it strange to say "Nazi army" for "German army" of the era

but as said not important, just interesting from someone who is from another part of the world and do not share same historical realities as people in other parts of the world... as said thumbs up for activity, hopefully others will join and some "younger forces" (if all not all into sexy posts only)) and other part of the world...

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