Given the 80th anniversary, I have been thinking a good deal about the Battle of the Bulge. One of the interesting things, to me, is the efforts of the Americans to deny the Germans gasoline, and frequent references to the German need to capture gasoline in order to keep the offensive going. But as far as I know, German tanks ran on diesel, not gasoline. Indeed, one of the drawbacks of American Sherman tanks was that they were powered by radial engines derived from aircraft powerplants, meaning that they were gas powered, and so were much easier to set afire. Indeed, American crews called them "Ronson lighters," after the cigarette lighter whose slogan was, "Lights the first time, every time."
Given the 80th anniversary, I have been thinking a good deal about the Battle of the Bulge. One of the interesting things, to me, is the efforts of the Americans to deny the Germans gasoline, and frequent references to the German need to capture gasoline in order to keep the offensive going. But as far as I know, German tanks ran on diesel, not gasoline. Indeed, one of the drawbacks of American Sherman tanks was that they were powered by radial engines derived from aircraft powerplants, meaning that they were gas powered, and so were much easier to set afire. Indeed, American crews called them "Ronson lighters," after the cigarette lighter whose slogan was, "Lights the first time, every time."