page_title: Petroleum Warfare Department
section_title: Pipeline Under the Ocean
hierarchical_section_title: Petroleum Warfare Department / Pipeline Under the Ocean
caption_attribution_description: English: Later pipelines: HMS LATIMER, a freighter specially adapted to lay cross channel pipelines.
context_page_description: The Petroleum Warfare Department 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 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.
context_section_description: Operation Pluto (Pipe-Lines Under The Ocean) was an operation to construct oil pipelines under the English Channel between England and France in support of Operation Overlord – the allied invasion of France.
  In April 1942, plans were being drawn up for an allied invasion of France. The proposed landing force would include thousands of vehicles needing a tremendous amount of fuel which would have to be supplied somehow and maintaining a sufficient supply was potentially a serious problem. Geoffrey William Lloyd, the Minister for Petroleum, asked Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, whose area this was, whether there was anything PWD could do to help. Mountbatten replied "Yes, you can lay an oil pipeline across the English Channel". Pipelines were considered necessary to relieve dependence on oil tankers which could be slowed by bad weather, were susceptible to German submarines, and were needed in the Pacific War.
  However, laying a pipeline as a part of an invasion presented significant difficulties. The pipe would have to withstand huge pressures from 600 feet (180 m) of sea water and even higher internal pressures as oil was pumped; yet the pipe would have to be flexible enough to lie on the seabed and strong enough to resist the effects of being moved by currents possibly while resting on rocks. The pipe and everything else needed would have to be prepared in great secrecy; pipe laying could not start until the invasion actually took place and would have to be completed quickly enough to be useful. Another reason to work quickly was to avoid bad weather and the worst of the channel's currents.
caption: HMS Latimer
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