"The Yalta Conference (Russian: Ялтинская конференция, romanized: Yaltinskaya konferentsiya),
held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe.
The three states were represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin.
The conference was held near Yalta in Crimea,
Soviet Union,
within the Livadia, Yusupov, and Vorontsov palaces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference
"The aim of the conference was to shape a postwar peace that represented not only a collective security order, but also a plan to give self-determination to the liberated peoples of Europe. Intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe, within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, the conference became a subject of intense controversy."
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"Each of the three leaders had his own agenda for postwar Germany and liberated Europe. Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the Pacific War against Japan, specifically for the planned invasion of Japan (Operation August Storm), as well as Soviet participation in the United Nations.
Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically Poland. Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe as an essential aspect of the Soviets' national security strategy, and his position at the conference was felt by him to be so strong that he could dictate terms.
According to US delegation member and future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, "it was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we could get the Russians to do".
"the Soviets agreed to join the United Nations because of a secret understanding of a voting formula with a veto power for permanent members of the Security Council, which ensured that each country could block unwanted decisions."
"Nazi war criminals were to be found and put on trial in the territories in which their crimes had been committed. Nazi leaders were to be executed."
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"The Allied oil campaign of World War II
was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by the RAF and the USAAF against facilities supplying Nazi Germany with petroleum, oil, and lubrication (POL) products.
It formed part of the immense Allied strategic bombing effort during the war. The targets in Germany and in Axis-controlled Europe included refineries, synthetic-fuel factories, storage depots and other POL-infrastructure."
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"Since its discovery in 1943, the West Edmond Oil field had produced a total of 121,455,000 barrels of oil as of January 1st, 1947."
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"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."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Champlin_(DD-601)
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During World War II, the United States increased its oil production from 3.7 million barrels per day in 1940 to 4.7 million barrels per day in 1945. This was a 30% increase and was a key factor in the Allies' victory:
Oil was a strategic commodity
Oil was essential for fueling and lubricating planes, tanks, and other military machinery.
The US had an advantage
The US produced 60% of the world's crude oil, while Nazi Germany's domestic oil production was limited.
The US provided 85% of the Allies' oil
The US produced 6 billion barrels of oil from 1941–1945, while the Allies consumed 7 billion barrels.
The Permian Basin was a major contributor
The Permian Basin produced nearly a quarter of the world's oil and gas during the war.
The Big Inch Pipeline was built
The Big Inch Pipeline carried more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil a day from East Texas to Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York.
The petrochemical industry boomed
Petroleum refineries produced about 80% of the military's toluene, a key ingredient in TNT.
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Building of a crude [oil] pipeline from Texas to the East might not be economically sound,” Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes wrote to President Roosevelt in July 1940, “but in the event of an emergency it might be absolutely necessary.”
That emergency arrived quickly. The U.S. entered the war in December 1941, and in the month of February 1942 alone, Nazi submarines sunk 12 U.S. oil tankers along the East Coast.
To protect the remaining tanker fleet, the government restricted the ships to the trans-Atlantic route, which stretched from the U.S. Northeast to Europe. While still dangerous, this route limited the tankers’ time at sea and allowed them to cross the Atlantic in an easier-to-defend convoy.
To make up for the lost tankers, oil from Texas was sent to the Northeast via trains and river barges. But those means of transport could not replace the large volume of petroleum that had been shipped by sea. By one estimate, East Coast refiners had been receiving 300,000 barrels of oil daily by ship. Trains and barges were only able to deliver a combined 140,000 barrels per day, less than half the previous supply. In the battle over oil, the Nazis had struck a decisive blow.
According to historian Michael Gannon in his book Operation Drumbeat: The Dramatic True Story of Germany’s First U-Boat Attacks Along the American Coast in World War II,
“The U-boat assault on merchant shipping in United States waters during 1942
constituted a greater strategic setback for the Allied war effort
than the defeat at Pearl Harbor."
To maintain the flow of oil, the government funded the construction of the longest and largest pipeline ever built up to that time.
Officially named the War Emergency Pipeline, it passed through 10 states and connected Baytown, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, with Linden, New Jersey.
The War Emergency Pipeline was actually two pipelines running parallel along the same route: A 24-inch (60-centimeter) diameter pipe carried crude oil while a smaller 20-inch (50-centimeter) line carried refined petroleum products.
"Without the prodigious delivery of oil from the U.S.,” stated historian Keith Miller, “this global war [WWII], quite frankly, could never have been won.”
"The war was truly won by an Inch."
https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/big-inch-fueling-americas-wwii-war-effort
"The Champlin Refining Company was a major oil company during World War II with a strong presence in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. The company operated service stations and wholesale outlets in twenty midwestern states. "
"Richie’s clients, included in the digital collection, are Humble Petroleum (Exxon), Gulf Oil, Texas Oil Company (Texaco), Crown Central Petroleum, Texas Gulf Sulfur, Warren Petroleum, Magnolia Petroleum (Mobil), Atlantic Refining Company (Arco), American Oil Company (Amoco, BP), Halliburton, Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), Ethyl Corporation, Hess Oil, Houston Pipeline Company, Shell Oil, Sinclair Refining, Standard Oil, Sun Oil,
Champlin Oil,
IDECO, Keystone Exploration, Quintana Petroleum, the Tom O’Connor oil field, offshore rigs, and more."
"The Champlin Refining Company played a role in World War II by helping to discover the West Edmond field. The company held 2,000 acres of leases around the discovery well and would have to conduct a large drilling program to develop them. "
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"Champlin operates service stations in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. Credit cards with 119,000 customers, of which 81,000 are considered active, will be canceled."
Champlin Closing Enid Refinery, Ending Sale of Gasoline
Michael McNutt. 1983
"Shutdown of the refinery that sprang from an oil boom here 67 years ago..."
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"Despite the RAF and Harris claims regarding the great importance of oil targets,
Harris had opposed assigning the highest priority to oil targets
but acknowledged post-war that the campaign was "a complete success" with the qualifier:
"I still do not think that it was reasonable, at that time, to expect that the [oil] campaign would succeed; what the Allied strategists did was to bet on an outsider, and it happened to win the race."
"Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 prohibited German post-war production of oil through July 1947,
and the United States Army made post-war provisions to rehabilitate and
use petroleum installations where needed, as well as to dispose of unneeded captured equipment
After inspections of various plants by the "European technology mission" (Plan for Examination of Oil Industry of Axis Europe)and a report in March 1946,
the United States Bureau of Mines
employed seven Operation Paperclip synthetic fuel scientists
in a Fischer–Tropsch chemical plant in Louisiana, Missouri.
n October 1975, Texas A&M University began the German Document Retrieval Project and completed a report on 28 April 1977.
The report identified final investigations of the German plants and interrogations of German scientists by the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee,
the US Field Information Agency (Technical), and the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee. "
"The US strategic bombing survey (USSBS) identified "catastrophic" damage.[16] German industry in and of itself was not significantly affected by attacks on oil targets,
as coal was its primary source of energy,
but in its analysis of strategic bombing as a whole the USSBS identified the
consequences of the breakdown of transportation
resulting from attacks againstu transportation targets
as "probably greater than any other single factor" in the final collapse of the German economy."
"Several prominent German military officers, however, described the oil campaign as critical to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Adolf Galland,[b] wrote in his book "the most important of the combined factors which brought about the collapse of Germany"
And the Luftwaffe's wartime leader, Hermann Göring, described it as "the utmost in deadliness"
Albert Speer, writing in his memoir, said that "It meant the end of German armaments production."
It has been stated to have been "effective immediately, and decisive within less than a year".
Luftwaffe Field Marshal Erhard Milch, referring to the consequences of the oil campaign, claimed that
"The British left us with deep and bleeding wounds, but the Americans stabbed us in the heart."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_campaign_of_World_War_II
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