Fuel for invading armies on D-Day
PLUTO pipeline
The success of the D-Day landings depended on a vast and continuing flow of fuel to provide power for the invading armies.
The need
Ships carrying the fuel to the Normandy beaches in the Second World War would have been very vulnerable to attack from the air and could have been badly affected by storms. Ship to shore pipelines would have cluttered the landing areas.
The challenge
Lord Mountbatten, Chief of the Combined Operations, suggested an undersea pipeline. At first this seemed an impossible suggestion. Engineers faced the problem of designing a pipeline that would be flexible in rough seas and stand up to the pressure under water.
The response
The planners picked up on an idea of using existing submarine cable technology, minus the core. Siemens Brothers & Co Ltd., of Woolwich, London, embarked on the project. It was a tricky task and there were many failures at first.
W T Henley of Gravesend was one of the companies brought in to make one type of pipeline. It was a vast undertaking. Just this one company used 8 000 tonnes of lead and 5 600 tonnes of steel as well as large amounts of other materials.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 22 January 2007
