Wednesday, March 22, 1944. German defeat in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Sarah Sundin's excellent blog on daily events in World War Two, whose feed updates are no longer working, notes this item:
Two gallons per week.
Could you get by on two gallons per week? Most days I drive a 1/4 ton Utility Truck, which is better known as a Jeep, and while it's small, it gets terrible mileage. I know that I use more than two gallons per week, but I would if I was driving my fuel efficient diesel truck as well. If I was limited to two gallons per week, I'd have to make major life changes.
Should I be pondering this as Congress, through the neglect of Ukraine, pushes us ever closer to a war with Russia, should she invade the Balkans?
During World War Two I know that my grandfather had a different class of ration ticket as his vehicle was used for business. His car was a "business coupe", which is about all I know about it.
I know it had a gasoline personnel heater, which probably provides a clue, but I still don't know who made it.
I had a 1954 Chevrolet at one time, and it got really good mileage. Interestingly, a 1973 Mercury Comet, with a really powerful V8 engine we had, also did. According to one site about older cars, the business couple should be something like this:
My '38 gets around 17-18 MPG @ 50 MPH. It drops to around 12-14 @ 60. She just doesn't like being pushed that hard.
My 54, and the 73, got much better mileage than that.
Whatever mileage the business coupé got, my father sort of brushed gasoline rationing off when I asked him about it, due to the other category of ticket. I don't know what that really meant, however.
Of course, for most long travel of any kind, people took the train. Something that we might want to consider as potentially being something that may very well return. High speed rail, for that matter, may be coming to Wyoming.
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