Where the rubber meets the road

[jdl]

I was talking to a WWII US army artillery vet and got some interesting info. He said that on the advance into Germany in '45 that the biggest problem was a shortage of tires. There was so much schrapnel and other debris on the roads that ruined tires that they would stop, take the good tires and wheels off the vehicles and load them on a truck. Then truck them back and put them on their other vehicles they had left behind. They repeated this process as the advance continued.

[This message has been edited by jdl (edited 09-04-2000).]

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

See there, Firestone even had problems back then.

[Guest Michael emrys]

There was a world-wide rubber shortage all during the war. It was even worse for the Germans. The situation was not improved for the Allies by the Japanese capture of Malaya, source of a major share of the world's rubber. Interesting to note that one of the major raw materials supplied to the U.S.S.R. through Lend-Lease was rubber.

Even more interesting was the trade that went on between Germany and Japan via submarine. Germany sent hi-tech items like airplane engines, and in returned received things like rubber and quinine.

Michael

[This message has been edited by Michael emrys (edited 09-04-2000).]

[Bullethead]

There must have been a rubber shortage in Iraq during the Gulf War, too. When I went into Kuwait City the day after the cease fire, I noticed that the Iraqis had stolen the tires off just about every vehicle in town. In one parking lot near the waterfront, I came across several semi trailers stuffed with tires of assorted sizes, apparently abandoned in the Iraqi's rush to get out of town. And on the Highway of Death north of town, I saw many vehicles with a few extra, non-fitting tires aboard. Some trucks full of tires burned there for days.

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-Bullethead

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