Question concerning fuel on operations

[ArtieBob]

I was growing up during WWII, but just a few years later, made my living for several years fueling aircraft. In that time fueling both military and civilian aircraft never filled a tank to anything less than topped off. The preflight checks always were supposed to include removing fuel caps and insuring that tanks were filled to the cap level. I suppose some fuselage tanks might have had "sticks" but I cannot remember ever encountering one. One problem was most of the gauges were not very linear in graduations for a number of reasons and another IIRC, three point landing gear aircraft generally did not read correctly unless in level flight. Most WWII multi pilots I talked almost without fail mention takeoffs with their aircraft over gross much of the time.

Best Regards,

Artie Bob