In some way however, all major events in history are the cause of some coincidence were tactical issue overruled long term thinking.
It was invented by or for NASA. Whoever said it was drunk by astronauts was right. It went to the moon, LOL. I liked it a lot in the 60s. Not sure it’s around anymore. If they had fed it into an ME-262, it might have belched but not moved.
Yes, NASA, happy home to more than one… ex-Nazi scientist…
Wonders how many 100-yr old German scientists are wandering the halls of NASA…
Did Speer really say that? In any case, lead tetraethyl was manufactured and patented by the Ethyl Corporation which is American. The Germans bought patent rights to produce it in 1935. For the Germans, the compound additive was essential to increase the isooctane rating of aviation gasoline which was around 80-87. I think their “best” synthetic gasoline achieved a rating in the 60-70 range. By comparison, cars at the time used about a 40 isooctane rated gasoline. The Americans (and by extension the British) used a different method and achieved isooctane ratings of around 100 which resulted in greater engine power, larger bomb-loads and much longer ranges for their aircraft than their German counterparts.
Oil and gasoline were definitely choke-points in the German ability to wage war. The Germans used their own technology to convert peat, coal and coke into gasoline but only the Fischer-Tropsch method produced high quality gasoline. The Germans were leaders in the production of synthetic fuels through hydrogenation but the total quantities produced were never even close to meeting the demand. The plants took too long to build and came under heavy allied air attacks.
Interestingly, the German drive to the Caucasus oil fields and the capture of one very small field - Maikop - never yielded so much as a gallon of oil because the Russians had been so thorough in executing its scorched earth policy.
Well, they did envisage having a 1,000 years or so to get things functioning to their needs…
& all that fracking gas being exploited today, is that going to be processed into synthetic gasoline?
‘Good news everyone’… as the 100+ year old rocket scientist is wont to remark…
Actually, there’s a lot of oil that is released through fracking. There’s a huge oil and gas boom going on in these parts. There’s a much greater likelihood that coal will be synthesized into gasoline eventually. Since we have several hundred years of confirmed coal deposits, this could eventually happen, but not here for a long time. At the present rate of oil and gas production through fracking we appear to be on track to becoming the world’s largest oil producer by 2020. But then, there is a tremendous amount of trapped oil & gas all over the world. Past estimates of oil reserves will all have to be revised upward. Hopefully, the Chinese will discover a trove of oil and gas trapped in shale layers and they won’t need to burn all that polluting coal. We burn a shameful quantity of coal ourselves - it’s so inexpensive.
Probably a good thing they were never very good at coming up with a “Plan B”
http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/natural-gas/gtl.html
Interesting, at the time of the 2nd OPEC ‘oil shock’ in the late `70s, the NZ Govt set up a gas-to-synth petrol plant…
Since the cost was viable, taking into account the trade imbalance situation…
A later Govt sold it when the price of oil dropped again, but I recall that the plant was still producing gas-to-methanol for sale at ~$200/tonne…
What about the Romanian Oil Fields? They were practically under German control since 1939, before the war.
If it isn’t mentioned yet
http://www.perpustakaan.depkeu.go.id/FOLDERJURNAL/industri%20minyak%20Nazi.pdf
Actually, according to Tooze that isn’t true. He states the British and French were buying about 40% of the output until after the Fall of France in 1940 when it all became available to the Germans (as their ability to lean on the Romanians increased).
yes…
Still, the prospect of the Romanian Oil was even exagerated by the Germans themselves: output was far below expectation: romanian part of the total crude oil in nazi war effort was never 100%, far from it. And even the crude oil with Romanian supply was a fraction of the synthetic production…
so let’s forget it 
added to the tactical issue of the Ardennes … this all brings it down to the fact that WWII was perhaps just a painful coincidence with a ruling idiot that headed straight in short time for the clear economic and geopolitical disaster (even pulling out way to soon his most talented economist) that had the chance of having brilliant generals at a certain point…
scary thought
The more I read about it the more apparent it becomes that the the German successes of 1940 in France and the Low Countries only happened because the Allies made some major mistakes and the Germans guessed exactly right what those mistakes would be. I’m writing an alternative history story at the moment of what would have happened if General Gamelin had stuck with his original plan to defend along the banks of the River Schelde, rather than advance further into Belgium and defend along the Dyle (http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=287285). The more I read about it, the harder it is to see how France will fall…
The fact is the Germans led serious losses in some direct battles. They won because they consequently avoided the massive French army.
On the other hand, when french ran as if it was for their life, because machine guns and 20mm guns kept hammering on their Char B hull making them crazy, instead of blowing that panzer II to smithereens… Only possible in early war for sure…