Operation Desert (german: Unternehmen Wüste) was a German

synthetic fuel Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas was derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by reform ...

project during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It attempted to build a

shale oil Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock ( kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting o ...

industrial production complex for utilization of

Swabian Alb The Swabian Jura (german: Schwäbische Alb , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of ...

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitu ...

deposits (

Posidonia Shale The Posidonia Shale (german: Posidonienschiefer, also called Schistes Bitumineux in Luxembourg) geologically known as the Sachrang Formation, is an Early Jurassic (Toarcian) geological formation of southwestern and northeast Germany, northern Swi ...

). The project was driven by the fuel needs of the German army at the last phase of World War II due to decreasing conventional

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

supplies. Three companies conducted pilot tests. ''LIAS-Ölschiefer-Forschungsgesellschaft mbH'', established in September 1942, started tests in

Frommern Balingen (; Swabian: ''Balenga'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, capital of the district of Zollernalbkreis. It is located near the Swabian Jura, approx. 35 km to the south of Tübingen, 35 km northeast of Villingen-Sc ...

. Holoch (1978), p. 232 ''Kohle-Öl-Union von Busse KG'', established on 30 July 1943 in Berlin, tested ''in-situ'' retorting on the outskirts of Schörzingen. Megargee (2009), p. 1012 ''Deutsche Ölschiefer-Forschungsgesellschaft mbH'', established on 20 September 1943 in Schömberg, became later the core of the Operation Desert. ''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...

'' (SS) and

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

personally became involved in the project in late 1943. On 2 May 1944, SS established oil shale company ''Deutsche Schieferöl GmbH'' for its own shale oil plant near Erzingen. Longerich (2012), p. 685 Also

IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies— BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, Agfa ...

became involved in shale oil. In July 1944, Operation Desert became a part of the '' Geilenberg Programme''. For the Operation Desert construction of ten shale oil extraction plants in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Wür ...

and

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

were ordered by Edmund Geilenberg. Prisoners from seven nearby subcamps of the

Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Germany, on territory annexed from France on a basis in 1940. It operated from 21 ...

, established by the route of Tübingen - Aulendorf and Nebenstrecke Balingen- Rottweil railway lines, were used as a workforce. The main contractor for building these plants was ''Deutsche Bergwerks- und Hüttenbau GmbH'', a subsidiary of ''

Reichswerke Hermann Göring Reichswerke Hermann Göring was an industrial conglomerate in Nazi Germany from 1937 until 1945. It was established to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter that were deemed uneconomical by the privately held steel mills. The sta ...

''. About 5,000 prisoners were used for construction works and more than 10,000 prisoners had been exploited for the oil-shale works. When the Soviet troops advance into Estonia in 1944, about 200 oil shale specialists from Estonia, employees of ''Baltische Öl GmbH '', an affiliate of IG Farben, were evacuated to Schömberg. Holmberg (2008), pp. 130-131 KZ Bisingen 9806

However, out of ten planned plants only four became operational. The technology was primitive

carbonization Carbonization is the conversion of organic matters like plants and dead animal remains into carbon through destructive distillation. Complexity in carbonization Carbonization is a pyrolytic reaction, therefore, is considered a complex proces ...

and oil yield was low. Mined oil shale was heaped into

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

s which were ignited after covering by

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

Distilled Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heatin ...

shale oil and oil shale gas were collected through perforated pipes. Oil was separated from gas by electric filters. Until the end of the war, only 1,500 tonnes of shale oil was produced. After the war French occupation forces tried continue the shale oil production operations but due to unprofitability it was halted in 1948.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Authority control Oil shale in Germany Petroleum economics Economy of Nazi Germany Germany in World War II Zollernalbkreis