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Friday, December 08, 2017

USS Champlin (DD-601) WW 2, Oklahoma Oil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Champlin_(DD-601)

USS Champlin (DD-601) was a Benson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second ship named for Stephen Champlin.

After escorting a convoy to NS Argentia, Newfoundland, and another to the Panama Canal Zone, Champlin sailed from New York 11 December 1942 on her first convoy crossing to Casablanca, returning to New York 7 February 1943.

She sailed again on 4 March guarding a convoy which was constantly shadowed by German submarines for 6 days after it passed the Azores on 12 March. On that day, a radar contact was made ahead of the convoy, and Champlin charged ahead to investigate, finding the submarine on the surface. She opened fire, and attempted to ram the enemy, which made a crash dive. Champlin hurled a pattern of depth charges into the swirl, and sank U-130 at position 37°10′N 20°21′W. As the convoy plodded east, Champlin and the other escorts fought a constant battle to protect it, but the convoy lost three merchantmen before reaching Casablanca.

Champlin rescued every member of Wyoming's 127-man crew, as well as taking aboard two survivors from Molly Pitcher. The return convoy which arrived at Boston, Massachusetts 15 April was without incident.

Champlin sailed from New York 1 May 1943 with a slow convoy of small craft and support ships which called at Bermuda before arriving at Oran 26 May. She put to sea again to bring a convoy in from Gibraltar, then took part in training as well as conducting patrols in the western Mediterranean Sea. On 5 July, she cleared Oran for the invasion of Sicily, escorting a convoy to the transport area south of Scoglitti arriving 9 July.

 Leaving her charges, she sped ahead to join in the pre-assault bombardment the next day, during which she aided in driving off an air attack. While covering the landing and initial advances the same day, she answered the request from shore for a bombardment of the village of Camerina, so successfully that the enemy there surrendered.

Champlin left Sicily guarding a convoy for Oran and New York, arriving 4 August 1943. She made four more Atlantic crossings on convoy escort duty from New York to North Africa and the British Isles between 21 August 1943 and 11 March 1944.

While undergoing refresher training in Casco Bay, Maine in March 1944, Champlin was ordered out on a submarine hunt, joining an all-day operation 7 April. At 1632, she made contact and dropped deep-set depth charges, driving the submarine to the surface.

Immediately, her guns opened fire and started a fire. Champlin rammed the stern of the submarine, and U-856 sank at position 40°18′N 62°18′W. Champlin's commanding officer, Commander John J. Shaffer III, was wounded by shrapnel during the attack and died the next morning despite emergency surgery.

On 6 January 1945, Champlin returned to Atlantic convoy escort, sailing for Oran. On 30 January, she cleared Oran to rendezvous with the group bringing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Malta, where he was to enplane for the Yalta Conference. She later escorted this same group back into the Atlantic, and on 20 February returned to Gibraltar for patrol and convoy escort duty in the western Mediterranean. On 22 April, she departed Oran for New York and preparations for deployment to the Pacific Ocean."
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"By the end of 1943 the field was crowded with drilling rigs, and eleven large wells were producing. Almost immediately pipeline service was established, with the bulk of the production going to the Champlin Oil Refinery at Enid.

The West Edmond Field produced 7,752,000 barrels of oil in 1944 to temporarily bring the state's sagging oil production to 1.5 million barrels more than the previous year.

The field contributed to yet another statewide increase of 15 million barrels in 1945.
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"The West Edmond oil field of central Oklahoma, discovered April 5, 1943, had produced more than 32 million barrels of oil from 704 wells, through December 31, 1945. The field produced and ran 2,597,624 barrels of oil in November, 1945. Fifteen new wells were completed during the month of December. On January 1, 1946, there were thirty drilling wells in the field.

Through December 31, 1945, an estimated 46,000,000 MCF of gas had also been produced.

Seventeen of the 704 wells are producing oil from the "Bartlesville" sand of lower Pennsylvanian age; 687 wells are producing oil from the Hunton limestone of Siluro-Devonian age. The field embraces an area of 30,000 proved acres with 1,500 to 2,000 semi-proved acres.

The field is located on the northeastern rim of the Anadarko basin of western Oklahoma.

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