Oil Field Worker Statue in England

[Papaw]

"The Oil Patch Warrior," a seven foot bronze statue of a roughneck holding a four foot pipe wrench stands near Nottingham England to honor the American oil men's assistance and sacrifice in the war. A replica was placed in Ardmore Oklahoma in 2001.
"THE OIL PATCH WARRIORS OF WORLD WAR II

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.

A 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 meager 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 een 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 oil production shot up from 300 barrels a day to over 300,000

The contract fulfilled, the American oil men 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 honors, and remains the only civilian to be buried at The American Military Cemetery in Cambridge."

[p_toad]

Thanks for posting that.   A nice bit of history I had no idea about...   

[lptools]

Hello, Papaw. Thanks for sharing, and thanks to the American Oilmen for their service. I will try to find a copy of the book, sounds like good reading. Regards, lou

[Northwoods]

That was really something.  Good for the Yanks.  And good for the Brits!

[gibsontool]

Thanks for the post, that's a nice piece of obscure history that I had never heard about.

[Spartan-C]

Thanks for posting.  There's a lot of untold stories of the oilfields that helped win the war.  My late granddad worked the oilfields of south Texas to help in the support of oil for war.  There's another oilfield built over in South East Asia in Indonesia by I believe Conoco out of Tulsa.  A good friend of mine I had the privilege to work with told us of his dad and a bunch of oilfield workers went over there to set up a refinery and drill wells to supply fuel for the military over there.  It was hidden in the jungles where the Japs couldn't find it. I'm third generation in my family to work in the oilfield.  Now, I do it from a desk on my computer!  Glad my son found another profession to work in!

[DeadNutz]

Thank you for posting a piece of history that I had no clue about. It was a piece that helped the Allies win the war.

[bill300d]

I would also like to thank you. I was totally unaware of this aspect of the war.