BEST EQUIPPED

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 26 October 1942, Page 3

BEST EQUIPPED

AMERICAN SOLDIERS. CLGTHES AND FOOD. Ccnsider the task of the United States Quartermaster Corps, that efficient army of shopping speeialists whcse job it is to feed, clothe, house, and supply America's 4.000.000 fighting men. where ver they are, says J. D. Ratcliff in an article in Collier's \7eekly. You will see why civilians will take a back seat from now on. For the first time in history an army is going to war fully prepared. United States soldiers are the best fed, best clothed, best transported in the world. Their Arctic equipment is the envy of the Russians. Weildressed American privates are being saluted by the British — mistaken for oflicers. They are eating bqtter food than 60 per cent. of the United States civilian population. Froviding for an army of 4,000,000plus is a job that staggers the imagination. Millions of people are engaged in supplying 60,000 distinct items; clarinets, egg crates, electric-ally-heated underwear, adding machines, . jeeps, tombstones, sled dogs, boneless beef, fur cloaks. Getting all this assorted equipment together is the job of the Quartermatesr Corps — probably the biggest in the world to-day. Last spring President Roosevelt split the army into three sections — ground, air, and supply. The supply job went to Lieut.-General Brehon B. Somervell, a brilliant executive. His various accomplishments include an economic survey of Turkey. Shoes — as always — present one of the army's biggest problems. A tight flt that raises blisters can put a man out of commission just as surely as a bullet. So elaborate efforts are m&de to see that men are well shod. First, the new soldier is given two 20-pound buckets of sand to hold. This spreads the feet. Then he steps on a foot-measuring device. The army stocks 142 shoe sizes — twice as many as the Gcrmans. It estimates that a man is 70 per cent. more likely to get a shoe that fits than he was in the first World War. Shoes give some mention of the size of the army's procurament job. There must be nine pairs for eaah man. Tne recruit gets two pairs when he enters the service. Four more pairs must foe in depots for replacement— under some conditions, shoes last only two v/eeks. One pair must foe in process of manul'acture and two more ■ on order. Some of the new mofoile equipment the Quartermaster Corps is supplying should change the whole face of the war. Take the bakery: It has oilheated ovens and power dough mixers. It can foe set up in ten minutes. New mofoile eanteens— travelling corner stores— carry four clerks and an assortment of candy, cigarettes, 1 and soft drinks. It starts doing business immediately any column ■ halts. Besides these, there are mofoile laundries, tailor shops and cobfolers' j shops — which carry ten shoe-repair . men. One of the tests of the new pieces of equipment is the delousing truck. It contains steam-pressure ehamfoers which clean clothes in 15 minutes. On the other side of the; truck are 12 shower heads — where ! men can bathe. This unit can care ! for 2500 troops a day. Food research likewise engaged a large amount of the Quartermaster ! Corps' attention. By the end of the year the army will foe serving over 10, 000, 000 meals a day — to men scattered from Africa to India to Iceland. To buy the food required, the Quartermaster Corps mainta'ins 30- 1 odd marketing centres, All are 1 linked foy teletype with the Chicago | Quartermaster Depot. 'Chicago is thej traffic centre. It orders a trainload I of canned goods to the Memphis 1 depot or a carload of sraoefruit .

directly to a camp in Massachusetts. Sectional food preferences play a large part in determining menus. I Boys from Louisiana want chicory in their coffee. Floridians like lots of fish, the Georgia fooys want hominy, and New England boys want beans cooked with molasses. The favourite army meal, by the way, is not steak or turkey and ice crSam as you might suppose. It is roast beef, potatoes^and .apple pie. V