OIL PATCH WARRIORS |
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IN HONOR This story is dedicated to the Americans who lived this adventure:
PART ONE: Modern war machines run on oil, and by 1942, England was rapidly running out of oil as German U-Boats sent tanker ship after tanker ship to the bottom of the Atlantic. England needed to find oil right at home in the British Isles, and needed it NOW! Then, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States joined England and the other Allied countries in their epic struggle against the Axis--Germany, Italy, and Japan. The United States military needed oil, too, and all of the American drilling companies soon had more work right at home than they could possibly handle.... Despite their busy schedules, the heads of several drilling companies were summoned to Washington, DC, to meet with a representative of the British government who wanted to discuss ways they could help Great Britain develop its own oil fields. The group included Lloyd Noble, the head of Noble Drilling Corporation, and one of the most respected leaders in the industry. Citing previous commitments, both he and Frank Porter, head of Fain-Porter Drilling Company, soon withdrew from the discussions. (Noble Drilling had just concluded a contract with the United States government to drill a number of wells near the Arctic Circle, known as the CANOL Project. The others were also over-extended.) However, Mr. Noble had made a positive impression on the British representative, C.A.P. Southwell, from the D'Arcy Exploration Company, later to become the British Petroleum Company. Southwell traveled all the way to Oklahoma (no small feat considering war-time travel rationing) to make a personal appeal. Noble finally agreed to help on two conditions. First, Frank Porter would agree to join in the effort. Second, no one could profit from the effort. (This was the same patriotic arrangement he had made earlier for the CANOL Project.) The agreement was finalized after Ed Holt, Noble's operations manager, took Southwell on a tour of the drilling the Noble company was doing in the Illinois oil fields. PART TWO: As operations manager, the new British project meant Ed Holt's responsibilities grew with the added need to obtain equipment and clearances on personnel to be sent outside the country--all this at a time when every effort was being made to organize all available resources right here at home. Holt was warned that releases to ship equipment out of the country were almost impossible to acquire. In addition, he had to obtain a release for each employee's draft requirement before the man could join the project. Before long, Holt had a working agreement with Major General Hershey, the head of the Draft Board in Washington, DC. Ed's secretary in Tulsa could call in the names of new employees, and their personal histories, to a secretary in General Hershey's office and obtain approval for a release in about a week. The Army has a lot of specialists, but in time of war, civilian know-how is a necessary resource! Ed Holt found dealing with the Labor Relations Board (LRB) somewhat different from the rather sympathetic Draft Board. In the first place, the LRB was located in New York City. This was a long way from Oklahoma. In the second place, the LRB couldn't understand why civilians would be going overseas into a war zone, and Ed Holt couldn't tell them because the mission to England was highly classified. If word leaked out, German planes would have bombed the oil field, killing men, destroying irreplaceable equipment, and reducing England's chances for survival. Finally, Holt was able to work out an arrangement with the labor people permitting him to meet recruiting requirements. Eugene Preston Rosser was selected to head the 44-man group going off to work in England. Don Walker, a friend of Frank Porter, was given the job of being Rosser's assistant. Mr. Noble said that Walker was really hired to look after Gene Rosser. Although the two men had not met before their initial meeting to organize the group, they ultimately became friends for life. PART THREE: The group crossed the Atlantic aboard H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, a luxury liner that had been converted to a troop carrier. After the men and equipment arrived in England, they learned they would be drilling within the confines of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. This area, known as Duke's Wood, was located between the cities of Nottingham and Lincoln, and was bordered on the east by Neward-on-Trent and Southwell. The group was housed in an Anglican monastery in Kelham village. Initially, there was some question whether or not the English monks and the Yankee wildcatters--two groups with distinctively different backgrounds to say the least!--would be able to live together. As it turned out, they got on famously, and Father Gregory made it his habit to greet the workers coming off duty, and to see off those going to work. The Americans appreciated his encouragement. They and the British crews were working around-the-clock seven days a week under trying, dangerous conditions. In compliance with wartime restrictions, only twenty-watt bulbs could be used to light the derricks at night, further adding to the danger. But, the most trying problem was food--attempting to subsist on the meager English food rationing, and still keeping their energy up for the strenuous work they were doing. After several months, this problem was finally corrected when Major General John C.H. Lee, the commander of the supply services for the U.S. Army in the European Theater of Operations, authorized food rations for the American oil drilling group. PART FOUR: Another problem arose as the first well was being drilled. The English refused to believe the newcomers' drilling reports. The first 12-hour tour reported drilling 1,010 feet of hole, and the British could not believe this distance. When asked how many bits they used, the Americans became disgusted because, in their opinion, that had nothing to do with the results. (As it turned out, the British crews made it a practice to change bits at 30-foot intervals. The Americans, on the other hand, kept using the same bit as long as it was "making hole.") As a result of this, and other innovative methods of operating drilling rigs, the Americans were drilled an average of one well per week in Duke's Wood, while the British were taking at least five weeks, and sometimes as many as eight. Rosser was not surprised at his team's progress, because the rate of drilling corresponded with the calculations Ed Holt made when Southwell had requested 10 rigs for the project, and Ed had cut him down to four. Out of the 106 wells drilled, 94 were producing within a year, and England's oil production jumped from 300 barrels a day to over 3,000 barrels per day! It was enough. England would survive to fight another day. November 13, 1943, was the most tragic day for the group because of the unfortunate death of derrickman Herman Douthit, who fell from a drilling mast. He was buried with full military honors in the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey. After the war, Douthit's body was transferred to the American Military Cemetery and Memorial near the university town of Cambridge where he lies with other American war heroes. PART FIVE: With the wells drilled, the Americans sailed home with instructions to keep their lips sealed about what they had done. Their brave deeds went largely overlooked until 1989, when Tony Speller, a member of the British Parliament, came to the US to speak to Energy Advocates, a Tulsa-based speaker's bureau organized to educate the public on energy issues. On the flight home, Speller began reading The Secret of Sherwood Forest by Guy and Grace Woodward, describing the work of the Americans oilmen during World War II. Inspired, Speller suggested that the drilling crew's efforts be recognized. He saw the project as a way to demonstrate how the energy industry works in tandem with the environment. The Energy Advocates organization went to work. British Petroleum donated the oil-depleted site--once the pinnacle of English oil field activity--as a nature preserve, and made dedication ceremony arrangements in England. Energy Advocates commissioned a sculpture, selling model replicas to finance the monument, and Noble Drilling Corporation helped promote the project and organize the event stateside. Front and back of the Oil Patch Warrior Medallion presented to the individuals recognized at the dedication ceremony.
Medal courtesy of Ed Holt. In May, 1991, Noble Drilling Corporation financed the eight-day trip for the 15 survivors of the original 44 man crew to return to Duke's Wood in Sherwood Forest. This trip was both a reunion, and recognition of the original group with the dedication of the Oil Patch Warrior, a seven-foot bronze statue created in their honor. The British press dubbed the men the "oil field warriors." Their ages ranged from 69 to 86, and three made the trip despite ill health. Betty and Ed Holt attended, as did Becky Porter Berry, the daughter of Frank Porter. May, 1991: The oil pumping "mule" preserved near the bronze statue at Well Number One.
Photo courtesy of Ed Holt. May, 1991: Dignitaries attending the dedication ceremony.
Photo courtesy of Lewis V. Duggar. The Oil Patch Warrior.
Photo courtesy of Lewis V. Duggar. Fourteen of the 15 survivors who made the trip to England in 1991.
Photo courtesy of Lewis V. Duggar. Entrance to the cemetary where Herman Douthit is buried.
Photo courtesy of Lewis V. Duggar. Herman Douthit's grave marker. (Note the Noble cap placed on the marker by his friends.)
Photo courtesy of Lewis V. Duggar. May, 1991: Ed and Betty Holt examine the Oil Patch Warrior monument.
Photo courtesy of Ed Holt. WANT TO LEARN MORE? Faulk, Odie B., Laura E. Faulk, and Sally M. Gray. Imagination and Ability: The Life of Lloyd Noble. Western Heritage Books, 1995. Published for the Oklahoma Heritage Association, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Noble Drilling Corporation, Noble Link, Summer, 1991. Houston, Texas. Noble Drilling Corporation 1995 Annual Report. Woodward, Guy H. and Grace Steele Woodward. The Secret of Sherwood Forest: Oil Production in England During World War II. University of Oklahoma Press.
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© 1996, 2000 Boulton B. Miller. "I,
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Retirement Communities, Inc., d/b/a Larksfield Place. All rights reserved. This page was last revised September 21, 2008 . |
