Catalogue description Records of the Petroleum Warfare Department

In May 1940 the old Petroleum Department of the Mines Department became independent of its parent body.The Petroleum Warfare Department was established in July 1940 as a result of discussions between Lord Hankey, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Geoffrey Lloyd, Secretary for Petroleum, on the possible offensive and defensive uses of burning oil. The Department consisted of a small staff of military and civilian personnel under the administrative direction of Brigadier Sir Donald Banks.

From August 1940 a Mixtures Committee provided the Department with fuel formulae for fougasses, flame barrages, oil incendiary stores and flame throwers. Further work on flame throwers was undertaken from 1942 by the Proofing and Experimental Establishment at Langhurst, Sussex, which was transferred to the Petroleum Warfare Department from the Ministry of Supply. The Petroleum Warfare Department, which had been created in 1940, was attached to the Petroleum Department; this was responsible for the development of new war weapons and devices concerning petroleum. Its most renowned achievement was the planning and installation of a number of pipelines across the Channel to supply the invading armies of 1944. A Mixtures Committee advised the Department on formulae.

The Department was also involved in the design and development projects "Pluto" (transport of oil by underwater pipeline) and "Fido" (fog dispersal operations).

When the Department was disbanded in 1946, work on flame warfare was continued by the Ministry of Supply's Armament Development Establishment, Langhurst (renamed the Armament Research and Development Establishment in 1954), and the Mixtures Committee was reconstituted as the Flame Warfare Advisory Committee, with Chemical, Engineering, and Physics Sub-Committees. The FWAC was composed of representatives of interested service and ministry branches, consultants, and extra-mural research and development contractors. The Committee studied the properties, preparation and control of thickened fuel, the ignition of moving streams of fuel, and the design of flame weapons and ancillary equipment.

In 1952 the Engineering Sub-Committee was renamed the Weapons Sub-Committee, and the Chemical and Physics Sub-Committees merged to form the Fuels Sub-Committee. Following a reduction in funds in 1954, both sub-committees were replaced by panels. These panels were dissolved, along with the main committee, in 1957 when funding ceased altogether.