[HN Gopher] Blood for Oil: The Quest for Fuel in World War II (1...
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Blood for Oil: The Quest for Fuel in World War II (1993)
Author : Lammy
Score : 27 points
Date : 2022-08-28 20:08 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.eiaonline.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.eiaonline.com)
| logicalmonster wrote:
| "Blitzkrieg" gets a lot of ink in the basic history of WWII and
| it conveys this idea that Germany just had a ton of tanks and
| zerg-rushed their opponents. The reality on the ground is that
| they had a hell of a lot of soldiers marching on foot (apparently
| soldiers on all sides of the war were often given amphetimines
| for energy/morale) and despite Germany's reputation for
| mechanization, much of their military relied extremely heavily on
| manual labor and horses for transportation (which they often had
| to resort to eating during the most dire periods in the Russian
| winter).
| missedthecue wrote:
| --
| asah wrote:
| correction? IIUC from that link, America produced as much oil
| in a day as Japan in a year.
|
| --- Japan produced about 2.7 million barrels of oil
| domestically. The domestic wells were located at Akita, Niigata
| and Nutsu. This was about 0.1 percent of world production
| 1941). This was approximately comparable to a single day of
| American oil production.
| cheaprentalyeti wrote:
| I think you're misreading that essay. Those three domestic
| wells were "... about 0.1 percent of world production 1941).
| This was approximately comparable to a single day of American
| oil production."
| photochemsyn wrote:
| The Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 was heavily reliant on
| German air power, and not mentioned here is that a critical
| airplane fuel additive - 500 tons of tetraethyl lead - was at the
| time supplied by US Standard Oil via their partnership with
| German IG Farben.
|
| The Standard Oil - IG Farben partnership of the 1930s revolved
| around their control of synthetic rubber and fuel oil patents
| (the Buna rubber process, and Fischer-Tropsch liquid fuel
| synthesis from coal). The 1930s East Texas oil discoveries caused
| Standard oil to lose interest in synthetic oil from coal, but
| Standard Oil's sales of fuel to the Nazi regime various various
| channels seem to have continued at some level until the 1942
| Trading With The Enemy Act.
|
| Some of this hisotry is detailed in Daneil Yergin's "The Prize",
| i.e. this chapter:
|
| https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee120/book/export/html/242
| simonh wrote:
| As I understand it though, these materials were manufactured in
| Germany or Germany occupied territories at IG Farben
| facilities. Standard Oil was a partner in the venture from well
| before the war, but at the time had no way to prevent continued
| production and delivery in Europe. IBM was in a similar
| position, its German subsidiary run by Germans in Germany
| continued to work for the German regime through the war, but
| the US management had no way to stop that happening.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| The significance of fuel, and petroleum specifiically, to war
| operations is a significant part of Daniel Yergin's epic history
| of petroleum, _The Prize_.
|
| It includes not only WWII, in which oil (much supplied by the US
| to both its own and allied forces, though with Russian and
| Romanian production also significant) was determinative, but WWI,
| in which the significance of oil, and its role in transforming
| infantry and cavalry to a mechanised army and nascent air forces
| was first realised.
|
| Very strongly recommended.
|
| https://www.worldcat.org/title/255903487
| nocoiner wrote:
| I came here to say something along these lines. One statistic
| from that book I've always loved is that the Allies burned
| seven billion barrels of oil during WWII - and six billion of
| them were pumped from the United States.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| The transformational force of oil, and the quantities
| involved, were indeed staggering.
|
| I'd like to add: I don't share Yergin's sympathies and
| enthusiasm for the oil industry or petroleum itself. Despite
| that, his book really is a treasure, and is among the better
| histories of energy out there.
|
| I'd include the more broadly-scoped works by Vaclav Smil (
| _Energy and Civilization_
| <https://www.worldcat.org/title/959698256> and _Energy in
| World History_ <https://www.worldcat.org/title/30398523>) and
| Manfred Weissenbacher ( _Sources of Power_
| <https://www.worldcat.org/title/416715097>).
|
| Wiessenbacher in particular emphasizes the political and
| military implications of energy regimes.
| riazrizvi wrote:
| More than that, the book begins in the mid 19th century, to
| explain the discovery of oil as a source of superior fuels for
| the modern industrial world, which then became heavily
| dependent on acquiring it to maintain economic dominance. That
| securing control of oil rich territories was the main strategic
| goal of both World Wars. At least that's what I took from the
| book.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| read that, can recommend also "The Taking of Getty Oil" for a
| more domestic, modern angle.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| Thanks, new to me!
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