Nope
Not this one
Yep, that’s the
Laying the pipeline: A ‘Conundrum’ being moved into position into a specially constructed dock in preparation for the winding on of the pipe.
Okay, let’s talk about this pipeline. This information was cut from The WWII Chain Letter Gang because my book was entirely too long. I ended up cutting out 100 pages consisting of excess articles, photographs (the one above in particular), and unnecessary information not pertinent to the eleven men I wrote about but interesting to me about the war – you know, stuff I discovered during researching the 45 letters for my book. So, here’s my chance to talk about one of those items I wanted to tell you about, but my mouth was sealed or hand tied or fingers frozen.
Since pipelines were easy targets for the Luftwaffe, not to mention the weather’s natural destruction of them, the pipelines obstructing the troops’ movement across the beaches if laid overland, the idea and completion of PLUTO became the world’s first undersea oil pipeline. It made a major contribution not only to the Allied war effort, but also to subsequent pipeline development.
While the idea of this pipeline and its construction began in early 1942, it wasn’t until August 12th, 1944, that PLUTO was completely operational. There were many delays along the way caused by accompanying ships tangling up with the cables, anchors, barnacles attaching to the items of PLUTO, and many other situations. But the Allies had made significant progress and fuel was certainly a priority in order to keep the war going.
Due to the installation of PLUTO, there was a continuous flow of fuel up and running. No one knew for sure, but it was estimated between August 1944 and May 1945 due to this system of underwater pipeline that fuel was delivered to France to the tune of over 172 million gallons. Then the pipeline was transferred from the Isle of Wight to Dungeness in Kent, as the Allies moved inland, in order to shorten the supply route. PLUTO was the world’s first undersea oil pipeline and made a major contribution not only to the Allied war effort, but also to subsequent pipeline development.
As I wrote in The WWII Chain Letter Gang, “As you no doubt know, over the years there have been a number of places where people chose to swim across the English Channel. But a common choice was along the exact route of the WWII Pluto Pipeline that was built to funnel fuel to our advancing armies after D-Day.
“Because I was wondering about the hazards of the waters above the fuel pipelines of WWII, I looked into it, but of all the articles I found talking about pipeline leaks, I could find none for the Pluto Pipeline. I did find this, though: At the time there was little knowledge in Britain of the potential problems with pipeline corrosion, and the pipelines were only expected to last the war. The only method of anti-corrosion treatment employed was to coat the pipes with black bitumen paint. A team of people were, however, employed to patrol the pipeline until after the war, when it was pulled up from the depths and its material was scrapped.
(All photos are in the Public Domain)