The Prize, Chapter 17 Overview

The Prize, Chapter 17 Overview

Let’s move now back to Europe and examine Germany’s motivations. In chapter 17 we again see how necessity drives innovation. Germany was the world leader in chemistry. One of its scientists, Friedrich Bergius, had, in 1913, invented the hydrogenation method to produce high-grade liquid fuel from coal which Farben patented the rights to in 1926. The hydrogenation process involved heating large amounts of hydrogen with coal at high temperatures and pressure in the presence of a catalyst. The competing technology was the Fischer-Tropsch process. It involved steam reforming of coal to produce Syn-gas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) that was subsequently converted to synthetic oil, but wasn’t as successful. Hydrogenation could also produce aviation fuel, while the Fischer-Tropsch method could not.

The argument was that synthetic fuels from coal could cut Germany’s dependence on foreign oil and also reduce the pressures on foreign exchange. The German government commenced in building the Nazi war machine (bombers, fighter planes, tanks, trucks) that all depended on oil. Thus, an independent oil supply was vital, and the synthetic fuels would become an important strategic source.

Standard Oil of New Jersey (SO of NJ), which had unsuccessfully been exploring alternatives to crude oil as early as 1921 and had acquired acres of shale oil in Colorado with the hope of extracting oil out of the shale, showed interest in the technology. SO of NJ saw the technology as a clear threat to its business. They had no need to produce synthetic fuels because of the oversupply of crude oil, but wanted to ensure that each stayed out of the other’s main fields of activity. SO of NJ would also rather use hydrogenation to increase the gasoline yield and boost octane out of crude oil.

We learn in Chapter 17 that regardless of why one enters war, the access and management of oil can make or break the outcome. Hitler had been convinced that there was absolutely no way Germany could win the war without access to the Russian oil. The grand strategy was to have one attack through southern Russia and another from the southwest via North Africa. The grand strategy failed due to a number of reasons including Allied attacks on German fuel supply lines, the fierce Russian resistance, and Allied code breakers. Clearly, the bitter lesson learned by Rommel is illustrated by his statement, “The bravest men can do nothing without guns, the guns nothing without plenty of ammunition, and neither guns nor ammunition are of much use in mobile warfare unless there are vehicles with sufficient petrol to haul them around.” The Allies, led by General Carl Spaatz, set a new priority target – the German synthetic fuels industry and began bombing oil factories all over Germany. The goal was to deny oil to the enemy armed forces.