The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power

by Daniel Yergin

The Japanese could do little or nothing to interrupt the ever more abundant flow of fuel and other supplies to the American forces in the Pacific, no matter how distant their source. The Americans developed huge floating bases—composed of fuel barges, repair ships, tenders, tugs, floating docks, salvage ships, lighters and store ships—that gave the U.S. Navy “long legs” across the vast expanse of the Pacific. Roving fueling task forces, made up of two or three giant tankers plus destroyer escorts, took up stations at designated areas, large rectangles twenty-five miles wide by seventy-five miles long, where American ships would rendezvous to refuel. When Guam became, in the second half of 1944, the major American base for bombing Japan, 120,000 barrels of aviation gasoline were supplied there daily. At that same time, Japan’s entire air forces on all fronts were consuming just 21,000 barrels per day—one-sixth of what was available just at Guam.