Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 September 1942 — Page 21
~
bi: “Coast Maneuvers; Pegert. Practice’ ‘Reveals. How : Tey Can ? Really Manigulats..
s Sogn, 1943, by The Indianapolis
MANEUVER AREA, Southwestern Desert, + Sar 11.~Just by way of ornamenting with a few facts the| highly publicized romance of the local army tank maneuvers] it may be said that this show has had some highly gratify. ;
ing results.
Witether because of this or not the area is filling up|
‘and The Chicago Daily Now, ane
with brass hats and dignitaries from half a dozen of the allied nations including Peru and China and all restrictions on what the visitors are allowed to look at are off.
You gather somehow that local impresarios are pretty - proud of what the army has been able to do with mechanized equipment. "And even the sourest skeptic who came onto these premises for the opening shot now agmite that they have reason. . From the official exltigues: you get the impression ff that usually
Mr, Casey “xX, ” that communications got: balled up at “H” hour, that orders for the attack in ‘Whosis canyon were. garbled.
Ignore Minor Errors
oud Joaneuver goers have fre- . quently, wondered if anybody ever does anything right in any of them —but nobody hereabouts is juvenile enough to worry much about the
. minor errors of the operation nory
‘about whether or not the problem of attack was successfully solved.
Whether or not the “Red” army could beat the “Blue” army or vice versa seemed a matter of no importance alongside the basic question ‘whether or not this vast new section of America’s mechanized
army could maneuver the thousands|
of vehicles involved in this intricate performance . « . could get. these ponderous iron wagons into a striking position quickly and without fuss. The answer as we know it now is—they could. There are plenty of observers out liere on the desert now who. have seen tanks in action before—German, French, Italian or British— and to most of them the past few days .have .been something of a revelation. : The speed and co-ordination that could hurl such masses of war-en-es 40 to 50 miles across a broken terrain in a single day under such restrictions movement as battle conditions would impose haven't been equalled often in‘ this war—if ever. These lads work with the effortless precision of a Tiller chorus and} the quickness and timing of circus acrobats. ‘And they make less of a job of handling 10,000 or more juggernauts : than an: average lot of traffic policemen with a Saturday afternoon crowd at a baseball park.
Tanks Underestimated
It's not officially admitted but one looks at the schedule and draws conclusions ‘that possibly may be erroneous . . . and one of them is that the strategists who laid out the tests for this postgraduate didn’t realize in advance What the tanks could do. Careful calculations of time necessary for movement from one part of the terrain to another liad been made in advance on the’ basis of past performances not only on American proving grounds but in|Ev the tanks battle arenas of North Africa. . And it was figured on the best ‘authority that the,specified maneuvers would take four days. They actually took 29 hours during which time most of the observers were dizzy, watching them. Then everybody went back to-bivouac to rest
-- until time for the next problem. No-
body had thought to provide any schedule for a short olio performance between the acts. Somehow this brings you back a year to the maneuvers in Louis“jana when the United States wasn’t in any war—or at any Tate didn’t
Kiso that it was in’ ofi—and the
certainly raw and uninspired, rolled back onto the roads to Teturn to ‘bivouac. There was only one consolation that any visitor from a professional war could have taken out of that situation. But it was a good one. These green soldiers who hardly knew which end of a gun the smoke} came out of—a million of them started moving over the Louisiana roads with all the march Siseipline; of a German panzer division.
We've Come a Long Way
You realized then that everybody | in the United States knew how to drive a car and that this was the place where his talent counted. It had taken two years for Hitler to get his mechanized divisions to the point from which this’ country was starting. And as you look at the amazing activity of this: little. desert war you realize that we've come a. long distance from that beginning. On the strength of a few days of swift movement over varying .terrain it is perhaps too early. to say that the natural mechanical apti~ tude of the American youth may let us go farther with fewer tanks than’ some of the other nations. fighting in tank wars. But it is significant that in an operation = involving thousands of vehicles—none of them new—the first desert problem finished with only eight major breakdowns. = You get the impression , that this army knows not ‘only how to move these engines swiftly - but to: take care of them. Not the least interesting thing in this pageant has been the efficient operation of the field maintenance units—wheeled shops that run into the battle on the heels of the artillery.
Make Repairs Afield
They can—and do—take care of most repairs right on the field. And remembering some of the junkyards in Dibya you don’t have to be immodest to feel that in this department the United States is easily
{at the head of the procession." 0 Nobody has said anything about ||
it officially, but you can’t follow one
of the combat columns across this
broken wilderness without the feel-
ing that tank warfare is presently |
going to ‘be speeded up tremendously. . There seems to be no,anechanical reason why these engines shouldn't travel 200 miles a day instead of 50. Such a change of pace would naturally cause a reorganization of existing communication systems. : But why not—the whole: scienee of mechanized attack is developing here with amazing rapidity'and we may. yet see the day when this maneuver ‘area of 1500 ‘miles is too small.
2 PAVING "CONTRACTS
AWARDED BY STATE
The state highway commission has awarded; two paving and widening contracts amounting to $523,100.55. : The Pioneer Cons on Co. of Evansville was awarded a contract for paving and widening one and a fourth miles of city street in ‘Evansville. $82,393.96. For $440,706.59, Roger Daoust of Defiance, O., was awarded a con-
tract for paving a two-lane road
on U. S. 40 from Cleveland to Knightson. The road is 5971 miles long: and 22 feet wide.
" 'LAWYERS- TO MEET § The Marion County Lawyers’ ase sociation will hold its first Yall meeting Sept. 28 ‘at the Senate Avenue Y. M. C.-A. Wilson Beene is presi.
dent of the organization.
‘The amount was
from. captain to ‘major. on ‘his: transfer from the yuartermaster’ corps at Camp Blanding, Flay: to] the ordnance corps at - Camp’ Chaffee, Ark, Maj. Dunn served, as county superintendent trom! 1933 until his entty into the army io 1901. Bla batne Wo BBB,
SUPPLY SERGEANTS _ WIN PROMOTIONS
Five supply sergeants of the finance replacement training center
from sergeants and technicians 4th grade to staff sergeants .in ‘accord ance with the new army: ruling 'making all supply sergeatits third ¢ grade non-coms. The men are; Hach. 4th’ Gleorge F. ‘Oertel, Sergt. Earl W. Lewis, : Sergt. - Charles H. Alford, Richard Sweet and Sergt, Harold 'W. Pagel. Pfc. Joseph ' Gileno,* assigned: be the finance center, ‘has ‘heen made a technician 4th grade. . All promo: tions are effective as of Sept. 1
a “the G. A. R. parade through | py
the downtown district ‘Wednesday morning and will offer a free pub-
as a prethe development of Ar peychoses
“The So ‘Harold OC. Es :
‘No. 3, United Spanish
k | War Veterans, will meet Monday at
8 p. m. in Pt. Reiendly, 512 N. Ilinois st. Mrs. Ora Love, president, will be in charge of the initiation.
lic concert in’ the Coliseum atthe fair grounds “Thursday night. . The||
band a will play before special ses[eof #5 : a 100 Veterans Expected . Approximately 100. 'G. A. R. vit: |erans are expected to attend the
encampment, which includes the||
following affliated o
rganizations— ! Women’s Relief corps, Ladies of the
G. A: R., Daughters of Union Vet=
erans of the Civil War, ‘Sons of||
Union Veterans of the Civil -War
at Ft. Harrison have been promoted and ‘the auxiliary to the last group. |
Mark R.: Gray, general chairman of the local arrangements committee, said today that approximately 50 ‘private automobiles are needed for use ip
to chauffeur G. A. R. veterans in the--parade to telephone the Indianapolis “convention bureau. ; This will be the fifth G. A. R. encampment to be held here ‘and the since 1921, ' The first ‘encampmeént of ‘the Stganisslion was
neid in 1866.
the parade -Wednesday|| morning. He asked persons wishing ||
¥
STORE HOURS.
AYRES Withers
Tomorrow Till Hl;
Mondays Only wissenesibemenein ll 5. to 8:45 “Tuesday thru Saturday. irieitiaird 145 to 5:45
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J BUY U. S. WAR BONDS" AND STAMPS
with lace godets.
Two pretty prizes from
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ruffle, a ribbon-run top; the rayon satin, feminine Both,
sizes 32 to 40, tea rose
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AYRES' BUDGET * LINGERIE, SECOND FLOOR
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5.95 | i : 6.95
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“on the prettiest lite. ladies in town! Magnets for. admiring glances there are a kinds of different and delightful | ses from the neafest of little daytime shoes Vien . to ‘most. frivolous. shyles that over peeked out. from under tea fable,
. SHOES—SECOND FLOOR: