Edward L. Rowny
Q ..
What did you do about relocating fuel supplies? Was the pipeline across France
dismantled?
A ..
No, the French pipeline remained intact. This was due to three reasons. First, it
was simply impractical to build a pipeline along our dogleg line of communications
on the west bank of the Rhine. It was also impractical to destroy the pipeline
across France.
Second, we always believed that the French, although they pulled out of the
military portion of NATO, would play an active role in support of NATO if the
Warsaw Pact attacked. As a result, we took the risk that the pipeline across France
would be available in time of war. We hedged our bets, of course, and established
some insurance for ourselves by erecting temporary storage tanks for fuel in
mid-Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. The idea was that tankers docking
at Amsterdam and Rotterdam would pump fuel into barges which would float up
the Rhine and pump their loads into the temporary storage tanks. But we were not
overly concerned about our fuel supply; we counted on being able to use the
French pipeline in the event the Warsaw Pact attacked.
The third reason was a financial one. The French government made a considerable
sum of money by leasing and operating the pipeline. It did not want to sacrifice
these profits and gave us assurances that the pipeline would continue to operate.
For these three reasons we continued to use the French pipeline and were never too
concerned about fuel supplies for the military in Western Europe.
Each part of the task seemed to have its own complications. For example, the
French were willing to buy five newly erected U.S. hospitals, but did not want to
use the buildings as hospitals. Instead they planned to use the buildings to house
the elderly and establish rehabilitation centers. This meant that we had to move .
X-ray machines, dental chairs, and other hospital equipment to replace outmoded
equipment in our hospitals in the remainder of Europe. It would have been far
easier if the French had been willing to use the hospitals to replace their older
hospitals. But they were unwilling to do this, and unwilling to pay us the price we
wanted for the equipment. As a result, moving delicate and expensive hospital
paraphernalia was just another part of our job.
Our officers and men worked furiously around the clock to beat the deadline.
There was not much time left for contingencies and we had to make everything
work as efficiently and rapidly as possible. But there were some things beyond our
control. For example, a storm blew up in the Channel, sinking one of our barges
loaded with ammunition. We had to delay shipping for 48 hours for fear of losing
more barges or ships. Then again, a fire broke out in one of the ammo storage
depots in England. The fear that persons living nearby could be hurt caused a
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