The roughneck US cowboys who drilled Britain's secret WWII oil wells

Something a little different today.

Sherwood Forest, home of England's legendary outlaw Robin Hood, was a long way from the front lines of World War II. But that's where, amid the sun-dappled woods, I encountered one of the war's most extraordinary secrets.

On a bright September day, a veteran of that historic conflict led me into a grassy clearing, and it took me a moment to spot strange long-abandoned machinery still camouflaged against the forest greenery. Then, near a dirt path winding through the trees, I saw a stout figure ready for action: a 7-foot statue of an oil worker equipped with a helmet and Stillson wrench and standing astride a base etched with 42 names.

Titled the Oil Patch Warrior, the statue is a monument to one of the groups that traveled many miles from home to aid the besieged and starving people of Britain during their darkest hour of World War II. The story behind the Warrior is a compelling, little-known, and occasionally even funny tale that's also a powerful and timely reminder of the lessons history can teach about friendship, survival and steadfast cooperation when things are at their worst. 

Millions of men and women worked and fought and died in the war, in their own countries or many miles from home. Black and white, they came from America and Africa and across the world. They should never be forgotten.

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-WiscoDave