Mandatory Gasoline Rationing Begins On May 15th 1942!

Mandatory gasoline rationing, 3 gallon's a week began in the U S on May 15, 1942, gasoline rationing began in 17 eastern U.S. states, in order to help the war effort. December 02, 1942 mandatory gasoline rationing was required in all states.


To get the gasoline ration classification and ration stamps, you had to certify to a local board that you needed gas and owned no more than five tires. Ration stamps were issued and pasted to an automobile windshield. A family's gasoline allotment was determined by the class of stamp displayed. The class of stamp was determined by the primary use of the car. Then the family received their coupon book and allotment of stickers.


Class B - Green - 8 Gallons Per Week

Work Use, factory wokers, traveling salesmen, those who had jobs that were supporting the war effort.

Class C - Red

Essential Workers, police, doctors, letter carriers

Class T - Truckers

Class X - Politicians and very important people





Dec. 1, 1942: Mandatory Gas Rationing, Lots of Whining | This Day In Tech | Wired.com

 

Something that isn't often realized is that the "gas rationing" wasn't to save gas. America had more gasoline, diesel, and av-gas than any nation in the world.

What we didn't have anymore was access to natural latex rubber with the Japanese occupying the southeast asia area. Our synthetic rubber process was literally the German Buna (A&B) method since their IG Farben and DuPont had been partners pre-war they shared patents.

Not only the Buna, but the synthethic quinnine as well. Our own three proprietary synthetic rubbers weren't as good as buna in tires, but more non-tire specific.

When Ford managed to "kill off" (leaf blight) the natural rubber plantations in South America with his own plan of growth on the assembly line process, the only western hemisphere natural rubber was coming from the Carib., and the other source was in western Africa.

We soon sent troops to guard those rubber plantations in West Africa from Axis take-over, and they stayed there for years guarding what was a Firestone propery. The way to save the tires was to limit the driving public. Notice the limit on "five tires" which is included in the ration notice.

 

So many things inconvenienced the public yet there was an overwhelming support for our troops, metals were recycled, leather was substituted for oil seals and hydraulic cylinder seals, felt also was used in seals to put the rubber into the war effort. No one today knows what a "War Bond" was used for. My mom told me about the many grocery items we take for granted today that were hard to get if you did not have a ration stamp for those needed items. Today, I fear, in the same circumstance we would have an instant "Black Market" for any rare item.

 

An enjoyable couple of pages dedicated to US Ration stamps and history here:
Rationing on the US Homefront during WW II

 

Just a thought on gasoline.....we did have plenty but it was a concern, you would have to see the headlines of the Rocky Mountain News for October 1, 1945 which I am unable to reproduce but have read it in my mothers WWII scrapbook. The headlines read, "OIL CONFERENCE DEADLOCKED; SEIZURE HINTED" concerning a refinery with the classic Union/company wage issues. An industry wide wage conference had broke down. I tried to reproduce the page but could not make acceptable copies to read with my meager equipment, sorry. Our refineries products were carefully monitored by military/government.