|
The Petroleum Warfare Department (PWD) was an organisation established in Britain in 1940 in response to the invasion crisis during World War II, when it appeared that Germany would invade the country. The department was initially tasked with developing the uses of petroleum as a weapon of war and it oversaw the introduction of a wide range of flame warfare weapons. Later in the war, the department was instrumental in the creation of the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (commonly known as FIDO) that cleared runways of fog allowing the landing of aircraft returning from bombing raids over Germany in poor visibility; and Operation Pluto which installed prefabricated fuel pipelines between England and France soon after the Allied Invasion of Normandy in June 1944. == Inception == At the beginning of the World War II, in September 1939, there was little fighting in the West until the German invasion of France and the low countries in May 1940. Following the fall of France and the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from the beaches at Dunkirk in June 1940, Britain was threatened with possible invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. In response to this threat of invasion, the British sought to expand the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and Army and to replace the equipment that had been left behind at Dunkirk. Also, to supplement the regular armed services with volunteer organisations such as the part-time soldiers in the Home Guard. With many types of equipment in short supply, there were frantic efforts to develop new weapons – particularly those that did not require scarce materials. Although oil imports from the Middle East had stopped and most oil for Britain came from the USA, there was at this time no shortage of oil: supplies originally intended for Europe were filling British storage facilities and there were full tankers kept waiting in American ports. The amount of petrol allocated for civilian use was strictly rationed and pleasure motoring was strongly discouraged. This was not, at least initially, because of a shortage of petrol but because it might lead to large congregations of well-fuelled vehicles at popular places. In the event of an invasion, the British would be faced with the problem of destroying this embarrassment of riches lest it should prove of use to the enemy (as it had in France). By mid-June, as a basic anti-invasion precaution, wayside petrol stations near the coast had been emptied, or at least had their pumps disabled, and garages everywhere were required to have a plan to prevent their stocks being of use to the invader.〔If The Invader Comes. Ministry of Information. 1940, rule IV.〕 On 29 May 1940, as the evacuation of the BEF was in progress, Maurice Hankey then a cabinet minister without portfolio, joined the Ministerial Committee on Civil Defence (CDC) chaired by Sir John Anderson, the Secretary of State for the Home Office and Home Security. Among many ideas, Hankey "brought out of his stable a hobby horse which he had ridden very hard in the 1914–18 war – namely the use of burning oil for defensive purposes." Hankey believed that oil should not just be denied to an invader, but used to impede him. Towards the end of June Hankey brought his scheme up at a meeting of the Oil Control Board and produced for Commander-in-Chief Home Forces Edmund Ironside extracts of his paper on experiments with oil in the First World War. On 5 June, Churchill authorised Geoffrey Lloyd, the Secretary for Petroleum to press ahead with experiments, with Hankey taking the matter under his general supervision. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Petroleum Warfare Department」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|