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US Army Petroleum Distribution Comd, Europe
Communications Zone
Looking for more information from military/civilian personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any stories or thoughts on the subject, please contact me.

History

US Army Petroleum Gp

Donges-Metz Pipeline

509th QM Co

543rd QM Co (Pipeline)

993rd QM Petr Lab

CEPS

Terminal Districts
Donges
Metz
Zweibruecken

Tank Farms
Bellheim
Hinterweidenthal
Huttenheim
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US Army Petroleum Distribution Comd, Europe

US marine terminal at Donges (a)
(a) Webmaster note: I am fairly certain information is accurate - would appreciate final confirmation from anyone who served with the PDC.
1957
(Source: Email from John Woods)
1ST TOUR OF DUTY IN GERMANY
1957-1960: Arrived in Bremerhaven, Germany in June of 1957 aboard the USNS Buckner with assignment to the 509th Quartermaster Company with headquarters in Kapaun Barracks, Kaiserslautern. The 509th was a Petroleum Depot Company under the Petroleum Distribution Command in Fontainebleau and the Petroleum Distribution Command, Zweibrucken (Webmaster note: should be Zweibruecken Terminal District?) with locations in K-Town and in a small town outside of Pirmasens called Ruppertsweiler.

I was assigned to the detachment in Pirmasens and was billeted with the 522nd Quartermaster Company, which operated Class I facilities out of the numerous caves surrounding the city of Pirmasens.

Our days started with a truck ride of about 30K’s to Ruppertsweiler where we maintained Class III Petroleum Supplies stored in 5 gallon cans and 55 gallon drums in outside storage locations. We worked from a small office building just inside the gate with a mixture of military and civilian labor. It is my understanding that the facility was turned into a CENTAG Rear Area Command sometime in the 60”s.

Our NCOIC was SFC William Denny and Asst. NCOIC, SFC Thomas Neckwinder In March of 1959 we were attached to the 225th Station Hospital Muenchweiler for rations and quarters. During my tour with the 509th it was commanded by Capt. Michael Plummer and later by Capt. John Skinner with Col. Robert Dill as Commander of the Petroleum Distribution Command, Zweibrucken.

Two things that stand out in my mind about this tour are the jeeps mounted with 50 Cal. machine guns delivering the pay to headquarters on May Day and traveling to the surrounding towns and observing the World War II property damage.
1961
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, Jan 5 1961)
Zweibrücken Terminal District

The Zweibrücken Terminal District is one of five terminal districts in Europe under the US Army Quartermaster Petroleum Distribution Command located at Fontainebleau, France. It is the only terminal district located in Germany; the other four are in France. CO of the Zweibrücken Terminal District is Lt Col Robert M. Dill.

The Zweibrücken Terminal is responsible for supplying petroleum products to Army and Air Force (and some NATO) installations throughout Germany (two-thirds of all fuel delivered to US military in Europe goes through Zweibrücken). The POL products include jet fuel, gasoline, solvents, diesel fuel, aviation gas and a number of "packaged" products such as lubricants, greases, oils and hydraulic fluids.

Most of the fuel is delivered to Zweibrücken through a pipeline system that reaches from the port of Donges, France, where tankers unload their cargo into the pipeline network. The underground pipeline network includes powerful pumping stations and huge storage tanks interspersed at regular intervals along the 300+ miles between the French coast and Zweibrücken.

Zweibrücken operates a spider-web of underground pipelines (6, 8, and 10 inches in diameter) that extend from its headquarters area eastward to the Air Force and Army installations. The terminal also delivers its products using 16,000-gallon tank cars (German railroad) and its own fleet of 5,000-gallon POL trucks.

Shipments are expedited through six Army-owned and operated installations scattered throughout southern Germany and four sites at major German cities that are German operated under contract to the US Army. Two of the former facilities are the Walshausen pumping station (Capt Lawrence J. Ogden commanding) and the Hinterweidenthal tank farm (Capt John T. Skinner commanding).

In addition to the operations reported above, the Zweibrücken Terminal also operates its own can and drum renovation plant and performs quality testing of the POL products in its own base laboratory facility.
1964
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, Sep 12 1964)
A 391-mile Foot

The Army's Big (12) Inch Pipeline

By Ray Wright, S&S Staff Writer

CHALK UP another name on your list of little-known but indispensable outposts in Europe: St. Baussant, France.

Choppers churn, jets zoom, motors roar and wheels turn at NATO military bases because of the St. Baussant layout.

The proper title is Metz Terminal District of the U.S. Army Petroleum Distribution Comd. The men who turn spiggots in the complicated pumping station, check gauges and run multitudinous lab tests are, in reality, the backup crew for every military air or ground maneuver.

Jet fuel, aviation gas, diesel fuel, motor gas and kerosene emerge from the U.S.-owned pipeline at St. Baussaut after a 391-mile journey from Donge on the Atlantic coast near St. Nazaire.

The pumping station at St. Baussant is the point at which the products are diverted into NATO pipelines that run to bases in Germany and northeastern France. Where pipelines don't reach, the station loads the fuels into truck or rail tank cars.

Map


St. Baussant storage facility
 
Fifteen million gallons of diesel fuel alone went out in tank trucks and 1.5 million gallons into rail tank cars in fiscal 1964. Motor gas -- the kind you use in your POV -- was shipped to the tune of 4.5 million gallons. These figures don't include the millions and millions of gallons of aviation gas, jet fuels and other products that sluice through the NATO pipelines direct to bases.

The dispensing operation at St. Ballssant is strictly a wholesale setup. Unless you're interested in at least 5,000 gallons at a clip, the pumping station won't do business with you. The "you" in this case refers to accredited NATO customers, not individuals.

The boys who jockey 5,000-gal. tank trucks to the consumer bases belong to the 55th Transportation Truck Co and are billeted at Tool, 25 miles away. The trucks clear from the tank farms at the rate of 65 to 75 a day.

The fuels come to Europe by tankers which are off-loaded into the U.S. pipeline at Donge. The fuels then gurgle through the 12-inch pipe to two tank farms 11 miles apart, midway between Nancy and Verdun.
However, before the fuels can be parceled out to customers, the lab runs careful checks for quality and purity. Six tests are run on an average for each analysis, and the lab writes up some 17 analyses each day, calling for a night shift as well as day work most of the year in order to handle the work load.

The drum fill plant at "A" farm is another busy spot. It consists of one feed header connected through a strainer to three steel hoppers, each partioned with baffles to make four compartments -- 12 compartments in all.

Twelve drums can be filled simultaneously since each compartment is fed exactly 55 gallons, then drained when one handle linked to four quick-opening valves at the compartment bottoms is opened by the operator.

Three of the five kinds of fuel can be drummed at one time or, depending on compatibility of fuels, one can follow another. When the products are incompatible, the hoppers are treated to a quick flush to carry off all traces of the first fuel before a second is let in.

HEADQUARTERS for the whole setup is at Fontainebleau under the title of U.S. Army Petroleum Distribution Comd. The NATO offices that keep track of fuels sent to member bases are headquarlered at Nancy under the name of 3rd Region Central European Operating Agency (CEOA).

On the private-life side of being stationed at St. Baussant, the men have taken up horseback riding with enthusiasm, and a number have bought their own mounts. Their PX shopping is on the minimal side -- an 8 by 10-ft. shopping center can't carry a very extensive stock. They have movies several times a week in the combined theater-chapel, and a barber comes to the station twice a week.

"Sometimes we feel a little out of the mainstream of military life," commented Maj John Hollinger Jr., Metz Terminal District CO, "but our job is vitally important and the men here realize this and cope with the lack of advantages here that they would have on a big base. They use considerable originality, too."
(Source: FRELOC After Action Report, 1966-67, Vol II.)

Exhibit 17
  
Prior to FRELOC there were three separate, yet interconnected and interdependent, pipeline and tank farm systems in Central Europe. (See Exhibit 17)

Two were US systems, financed, constructed, controlled, and either fully or partially operated by the United States. (A French quasi-governmental agency, TRAPIL, operated the pipeline and pump stations in France). The other, the Central Europe Pipeline Systems (CEPS), was constructed under NATO infrastructure programs and was operated, managed, and maintained jointly by the eight nations whose forces were served by it; the Host Nations of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and user nations of Canada, United Kingdom, United States. Control of the CEPS was (and still is - at time of report) exercised through two corporate type bodies in which each of the eight nations are represented: the Central Europe Pipeline Policy Committee (CEPPC) for financial and political matters and the Central Europe Pipeline Office (CEPO) for operational and military readiness aspects. Centralized planning control over the CEPS is exercised through a NATO body called the Central Europe Operating Agency (CEOA).
The two US Pipeline Systems were the Donges-Metz System in France and the Zweibruecken-Huttenheim System in Germany. The 391-mile Donges-Metz line between the receiving port of Donges and St. Baussant near Metz, France contains over 5. 7 million bbls of tankage and has a rated throughput of about 76, 000 bbls per day.

The system in Germany is much smaller; 55 miles long between a point near Zweibruecken to Huttenheim, east of the Rhine, with 342,000 bbls of tankage. The two US systems are connected by the CEPS between Metz, France and Zweibruecken, Germany. Besides linking the US systems, the CEPS contains over 3,200 miles of pipeline, 7,200,000 bbls of tankage, and port unloading facilities at Le Havre, Marseilles, Dunkerque, Hansweert, Zeebrugge, Pernis (Rotterdam), and Antwerp.
(Source: Email from Carter J. Doering, 1964-67)
Was wondering if you had any information on the Petroleum Depot at Metz (Saint Baussant), France? It was part of the Donges-Metz Pipeline and Transportation system.

I was sergeant of the tank farm and when the French, under DeGaulle, withdrew from NATO, I was left to run the place with a lab tech and 40 civilians. Our command center was originally in Fontainebleau and then moved to Germany. We wore the COMZ patch and it was out in the boonies.

I'd be interested if you have had any inquires from others who served in this command. What has happed to the pipeline these last 40 some years and anything else that might be relevant.
Carter Doering
1976
(Source: Army Logistician, May-June 1976)
Zweibruecken-Huttenheim Pipeline

The Zweibruecken-Huttenheim pipeline system is an important part of the network used daily to supply bulk petroleum products to U.S. and allied customers located throughout the U.S. Army, Europe and 7th Army areas.
Fifty-five miles in length, the pipeline system includes four high pressure pump stations, three tank farms with internal low pressure pump stations, and one barge site.

Hinterweidenthal, Bellheim, and Huttenheim, Germany, are sites of tank farms and high pressure pump stations. The fourth high pressure pump station is located at Walshausen, German. The barge site, at Sondernheim, is operated by Bellheim tank farm personnel. The operational headquarters of the system is the Germersheim Army Depot Directorate for Petroleum Pipeline Operations (DPPO), located at Pirmasens, Germany.

Trucks, railcars, and barges loaded at the three tank farms and the barge site carry products to Class III supply points for issue to the ultimate customers, the U.S. and allied military forces supporting the North Atlantic Treatv Organization (NATO). The trucks and trailers are organic to the 37th Transportation Group of Kaiserslautern. The barges are privately owned and are contracted for either delivery or pickup. The rail fleet is controlled by the DPPO transportation officer. With over 400 German-built rail tankers in use, the vast majority of ground fuel provided in Germany today travels by rail at some time. A complex system of rail car management allows the DPPO to have sufficient full tankers in the rail system at all times to support the forces.

DPPO dispatchers coordinate with the Central Europe Operating Agency of NATO for the distribution of jet fuel to customers from Walshausen through the Bitburg loop line. This line connects Walshausen to eight U.S. Air Force bases and several West German Air Force bases.

The Zweibruecken-Huttenheim pipeline is connected to the American-built Donges-Metz pipeline, which carries most of the Department of Defense fuel that travels through France. The Donges-Metz line is operated by the Trapil Corporation, a quasi-government organization. Petroleum products are pumped from Metz through the St. Baussant-Zweibruecken line to the Zweibruecken-Huttenheim line at Walshausen.

Facilities along the Zweibruecken-Huttenheim line are contractor built. Virtually no U.S. military standard equipment is employed.

Most of the system was built in the late 1950's. The Rhine River crossing from Bellheim to Huttenheim was completed in 1959. At that time most of the storage at all three tank farms consisted of bolted steel tanks. The first permanent, welded, partially buried (cut-and-cover) tanks at Bellheim were completed in 1957, and the high pressure pump station was completed in 1958. At Huttenheim the first cut-and-cover tanks were finished in 1962. NATO completed four more of these tanks in 1961. In 1973 the three tank farms together received 4 additional 60,000-barrel tanks, and Huttenheim received the high pressure pump station.

The pipeline network is a central element in the daily supply of bulk petroleum products to U.S. and NATO forces in Europe. The Zweibruecken-Huttenheim pipeline system, with a gross storage capacity of about 2 million barrels, is a vital part of that network.

The ALOG article was written by Capt. Harry W. Johnson, Jr. Captain Johnson is the officer-in-charge of the Huttenheim tank farm. He holds a B.S. degree in business administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
1978
(Source: Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1978)
The Army Energy Program

... In the second development, in August (1978) the Deputy Secretary of Defense approved an Army proposal to transfer the Zweibrucken-Huttenheim pipeline system in Germany to NATO on 1 January 1979. This should improve overall bulk petroleum support to NATO forces in Central Europe.
1979
(Source: Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1978)
Special Functions

... In a related development, the transfer of the Zweibrucken-Huttenheim pipeline system to Germany, approved in August 1978, took place on 2 July 1979. The shift placed all central European military pipeline distribution systems under single managership and is expected to enhance the bulk petroleum support provided to NATO forces in that area.
1992
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, Aug 14, 1992)
The drawdown in Europe provided some insight into the 390-mile Donges-Metz pipeline system that ran from St.-Nazaire on the French coast to the French-German border near Saarbrücken. This US-owned, French-operated pipeline was part of the larger Central European Pipeline System (CEPS).

The list below shows facilities that served as pump stations or maintenance complexes along the pipeline system that are all scheduled for closure. (The "farms" listed here refer to clusters of POL storage tanks .... tank farms.)
509th Quartermaster Company
1962
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, July 9, 1962)
The 509th Quartermaster Company (Petroleum Depot), Kaiserslautern, provides the following services:
delivery of bulk and package products (using cargo trucks and 1,200-gallon and 5,000-gallon tankers);
loading and unloading of petroleum barges on the Rhine River;
distribution of gasoline from the American-owned pipeline through France;
renovation of drums and cans.

The unit receives (monthly) an average of 20 million gallons of petroleum products - shipped through tank trucks; railroad tank cars and river barges.

The 509th maintains a strategic reserve of approximately 30,000 tons of POL products.

The unit is assigned to the Zweibruecken Terminal District, which is part of the Petroleum Distribution Command at Fontainebleau in France.

The Sonderheim (Tank Farm) (near Bellheim) is one of the facilities operated by the 509th.
543rd Quartermaster Company
(Source: Fueling the Front Lines: Army Pipeline Units - Part II, by Thomas J. Petty, ENGINEER, Jan-Mar 2008)
From the mid-1950s to the end of the 1960s, there were only three pipeline companies in the US Army:
697th Engr Co (Pipeline), CONUS and later Thailand
515th Engr Co (Pipeline), CONUS
543rd Entgr Co (Pipeline), Communications Zone, France

The 543d Engineer Company (Pipeline) was stationed in France and was deactivated there in 1970.

Click here to read about the pipeline school that was run by the 543rd at Chinon Engineer Depot.
Donges-Metz Pipeline System
(Source: Resource.org)
Click here to view LOC Form 101, the agreement (with modifications) between the US and French governments to have TRAPIL (French contractor) operate and maintain the US-owned pipeline bewteen Donges and Metz, France.

Document contains some very interesting details (from the 1950s and early 1960s) about the structure and operation of the US-owned pipeline.
Central European Pipeline System (CEPS)

Schematic diagram of bulk fuels distribution system in a developed theater of operations
(Source: Quartermaster PB, Summer 1989)

European Military Pipeline System
Tank Farms
Bellheim Tank Farm
 
1960
(Source: Email from John Woods)
2ND TOUR OF DUTY IN GERMANY (1960-1964)
At the completion of a short tour in the U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Devens, Massachusetts and NCO Academy in Fort Dix, New Jersey. I was again on my way back to Germany aboard the USNS Buckner. My assignment was again with the Zweibruecken Terminal District, however this time it would be with the Bellheim Tank Farm, located a short distance from the town of Bellheim, Germany.

Bellheim Tank farm was part of the pipeline system running from France into Germany. The POL operation of the tank farm consisted of 2 large capacity storage tanks 25,000 barrels each, high pressure and low pressure pumping stations, rail car, tank truck (5,000 gal.) and 5 gallon can fill points. Supporting this operation was a locomotive used to pick up empty rail cars from the Bundesbahn siding in Bellheim deliver them to the tank farm for filling and return to the Bundesbahn for shipment. There was also an administrative office manned primarily by German local nationals to process the necessary documents for all shipments out of the tank farm by either rail car, tank truck or 5 gallon can. Within this structure was also the office of the OIC for the facility Capt. Frank S. Poulos with switchboard and operator. The switchboard if I remember correctly was one that the operator had to manually plug lines into to make connections.

SFC Dolphus Triplett was the NCOIC for all POL related activities. My responsibilities were for the high pressure and low pressure pump stations and the 2 storage tanks. As long as there was pumping thru the pipeline military personnel had to be on site to gage the tanks and control the flow of product by regulating the valves in each pump station These 2 facilities were manned exclusively by German local nationals supervised by Herr Stefan Bast, under the control of military. We also assisted with the loading of rail cars, tank truck and 5 gallon cans as needed.

There was another tank farm located at Hinterweidenthal with similar capabilities. The OIC for that facility was Maj. William Hoffman and not really sure who the NCOIC was. Also located some 15 to 20 kilometers from the Bellheim Tank Farm was the Sonderheim barge location. It was used to load and unload fuel barges travelling the Rhine River. As near as I can remember this facility didn’t have any storage capability and was used for the loading and unloading of barges into and from the Bellheim Tank Farm.

In July of 1963 I was transferred from the Bellheim Tank Farm to the 522nd QM Co located in Idar-Oberstein, Germany to assume the duties as Career Counselor for the Nahbollenbach Depot. This brought me in contact with CWO W-2, A. Leonardo Jr. the Asst Adjutant for the depot who inspired and encouraged me to apply for a commission. I’m happy to say that he was successful and I received my direct commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on October 28, 1964. Shortly thereafter I was transferred back to the states for attendance at the Quartermaster Basic Course at Ft Lee, VA.

This ended my 2nd tour in Germany and started my career as a commissioned officer with assignments to the XVIII Abn Corps & Ft. Bragg, 101at Airborne and 2 tours in Vietnam with the 1st Logistical Command.
Hinterweidenthal Tank Farm
 

Main gate - former Hinterweidenthal Tank Farm (Thomas Neser)
 
 
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