In the sprawling, smelly Rumanian port of Constantsa last month, a tough gang of greasy longshoremen looked expectantly out to sea. Over five months had elapsed since Joseph Stalin agreed to send Russian oil to help Adolf Hitler win his war, and just about to come snailing into Constantsa at last was the first load of Soviet crude for the Nazis.
She was the Sakhaline, bung full with 70,000 barrels of crude from the Caucasus, and three more Soviet tankers tagged in her wake. Often before Constantsa dock hands had cheered the arrival of...
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