Petroleum

by Albert Lidgett

At first sight one might be inclined to think that, apart from petroleum products being a very useful adjunct to the organization of battles on land, their use is not of a very real nature, but, if we pause for one moment, our first impressions are disillusioned.

It was my privilege at the end of 1917, thanks to the kindness of the British Foreign Office, to pay a visit to the fronts of France and Flanders, and there to have an opportunity of seeing the part which petroleum products did actually play. The immensity of this importance cannot be easily grasped, nor easily described. We all know the remarkable progress which had been made in regard to the extension of the railway systems throughout the zones of battle, but it will surprise many to learn that it was when the rail-heads had been reached, and between there and the real battle front, that motor spirit had the realm of transport to itself. Tens of thousands of heavy motor vehicles took up the work of transport when it left the railway, and it was this service that was required to see not only that our millions of men daily received their food, but each and every sort of ammunition also. But it was not even when the front line of battle was reached that motor spirit had finished its work. Those great machines of war—the tanks—had to remain stationary if they were not fed by large supplies of spirit, while petroleum, too, took a primary position in the making of the liquid fire which now and again we heard of as causing such havoc to Fritz. But, at its best, the railway was somewhat slow at the Front, no doubt owing to the enormous congestion which was inseparable from the reign of a state of war. Consequently, whole fleets of motor vehicles were employed day and night in a ceaseless stream of traffic, from the coastal ports right up to the zone of battle. Without divulging secrets, it is safe to say that that branch of the service alone demanded millions of gallons of motor spirit weekly.

Both after as well as before battle, the products of petroleum were essential, for, when the Red Cross vehicles took up their humane work of transporting the wounded heroes of the fight, those, too, called for innumerable quantities of motor spirit. And when darkness had fallen the oil lamp came into general use. It was to be found wherever there was a vestige of life in those zones of battle: the soldiers in their, at times, lonely dug-outs, used oil for cooking as well as for light, and all vehicular traffic was guided from disaster along the roads by the use of oil, which also offered the only source of artificial light in the Red Cross vehicles. What an immense organization it was which depended for its ceaseless activities upon the products of petroleum!

One day, while at General Headquarters, I expressed a desire to see the methods by which all that world of activity secured its necessary supplies of petroleum products regularly, when once they had arrived in France in bulk. A few days later, I was, accordingly, allowed to visit the immense central depot at Calais, at which all the petroleum products required for use in the organization of transport were dealt with. It is safe to say that at no centre in the world did there exist such an extensive petroleum depot, nor anywhere else was there an organization upon whose perfect working so much depended. Though motor spirit necessarily occupied the first position of importance, practically the whole range of products was dealt with. The motor spirit was received in bulk, but at the depot had to be measured into the familiar 2-gallon can (which was made on the spot) and sent up country in special trains each day. Specially coloured tins denoted the best quality of the spirit, and it was that which was reserved for the numerous aerodromes in France and Flanders. The magnitude of that branch of the depot might be guessed when I state that at the time of my visit considerably over 2,000,000 2-gallon petrol tins were being either stored or filled for up country dispatch.

All kinds of lubricants were also essential for the purposes of war, for even motor spirit itself would be of little use for the internal combustion engines, if the engines could not secure their regular supplies of lubricating oils. These, too, had to be dispatched with remarkable regularity to every section of the battle zones, whilst, as I have suggested earlier, the daily requirements of war necessitated the distribution of illuminating oil in large quantities.

But no reference to petroleum’s part in the great European war would be complete were it not to include mention of the way in which supplies of toluol assisted in securing victory to the Allies. Toluol, as is known, is necessary for the production of high explosives, and in the early stages of the great conflict, the output of high explosives was considerably restricted by the absence of sufficient quantities of this necessary explosive primary.

It was at that time that a discovery of the utmost importance was made, for, as the result of investigations carried out at the Cambridge University, it was found that the heavy petroleums of Borneo contained large percentages of toluol.

Sir Marcus Samuel, Bart., the Chairman (and the founder) of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, Ltd., lost no time in apprising the British Government of the discovery, for it is in the Borneo oils that the Shell Company and its allied concerns are chiefly interested.

The offer for the delivery of these immense quantities of toluol was eagerly accepted by the British and Allied Governments, and from that time onward, the supply of high explosives was practically unlimited.

The French and Italian Governments have asserted that, but for this specific offer of toluol, the manufacture of high explosives would have had to remain so limited, that it would have been impossible to bring about an Allied Victory in 1918. Their thanks were publicly extended to the Shell Company at the conclusion of hostilities, and Mr. H. W. Deterding and the Asiatic Petroleum Company were specially thanked, while as far back as 1915, Sir Marcus Samuel, Bart., received the thanks of the British Government for his invaluable war services. It was only after the firing of the guns had ceased on all Fronts, that it was permissible to record in what a remarkable manner these services were rendered.