Forward stocks did not mean the fleet would fight permanently from a single base; they reduced the need to transport fuel during a crisis. Plans placed especially large reserves in Singapore and expanded storage in Australia, New Zealand, and Rangoon, giving mobile tankers supply points closer to likely operations. Britain’s dispersed reserves also differed sharply from the German Navy’s recurrent fuel problem. The counts remain approximate: the Royal Fleet Auxiliary had roughly forty-one tankers by the mid-1930s, plus harbour and aviation-fuel support, and an estimated forty-nine major tankers by 1939.
Chapter · 35:18-40:49
Forward oil stocks and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary
The Royal Navy built fuel stocks around the world and maintained a sizable tanker force before the outbreak of war.