A few years back I was going through boxes of WWII Era letters and ran across something that I am unable to find any information on. Maybe someone out there can help steer me in the right direction.
Well I know that Hitler needed oil for the war but I have never heard of them reaching out to the US. I know we supported the Russians with the lend lease along with oil. Unfortunately I have not found the contents of the letter and I am not having any luck with the archives. Mostly I'm motivated by my own curiosity but also if there is any historical significance.
a thread here might be of interest to you Oil and War also for your interest the Letter looks like it was addressed to the below German-American Petroleum Company - Wikipedia
I am sure there is a pre-war UK document on the state of the German oil production / refining / distribution system, probably by or for the Ministry of Economic Warfare. I would expect it will contain who supplied Germany. From my limited reading German relied upon the Rumanian oilfields, with shipping along the Danube and until Operation Barbarossa Soviet supplies, from distant Baku. I've never seen a map of pipelines in Europe in 1939, note there was a long Anglo-French pipeline from Iraq to the Mediterranean coast in use in 1939. Some background: From: The history of the European oil and gas industry (1600s–2000s)
As if by magic a 1944 edition of a country profile of Germany has appeared, pgs. 262-269 refer to oil. Imports of oil see pg. 406. See: Germany : Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Curiously the UK pre-war exported 3.5m tonnes of coal to Germany, with a price margin that could beat German producers!
