Portal:Energy/Selected article/43

Operation Pluto (Pipeline Under the Ocean or Pipeline Underwater Transportation of Oil, also written Operation PLUTO) was an operation by British engineers, oil companies and the British Armed Forces to construct submarine oil pipelines under the English Channel in support of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy during the Second World War.

A Conundrum is towed across the English Channel laying out pipe to Cherbourg

The British War Office estimated that petrol, oil and lubricants would account for more than 60 per cent of the weight of supplies required by the expeditionary forces. Pipelines would reduce the reliance on coastal tankers, which could be affected by bad weather, were subject to air attack, and needed to be offloaded into vulnerable storage tanks ashore. A new kind of pipeline was required which could be rapidly deployed, and two types were developed, named "Hais" and "Hamel" after their inventors. (Full article...)