Whitman County Gazette - Serving Whitman County since 1877

When thinking of England’s fabled Sherwood Forest, the medieval images of Robin Hood hiding in the woods giving the Sheriff of Nottingham a hard time comes to mind.

Who would envision a crew of young American oil workers concealed among the giant oaks drilling oil wells? However, the crude production from those wells was essential in helping fuel the D-Day invasion launched from English shores in 1944.

Until Guy Woodward and Grace Steele Woodward published “The Secret of Sherwood Forest – Oil production in England during World War II” in 1973, the story was just a glossed over hist...