Lifeblood of the allied armies. Sergeant James T.

Lifeblood of the allied armies. Sergeant James T. Hays of McComb, Mississippi, opens a vat value to allow gas being dedrummed to flow into a settling tank (background) in the Seventh U.S. Army battle sector of Eastern France. The American soldier is attached to the Petroleum Distribution Company, a special U.S. Army engineer organization which constructed the oil pipe line stretching from Normandy beaches into the head of France.