Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 April 1944 — Page 2

PACE 2

ROLL CALL FOR INVASION—NO. 2 Engineers Ready for Huge Job With Invasion Force |.

. By TOM WOLF NEA Stat Writer LONDON, April 25.—Corps of engineers. “Ready!” Before answering the invasion roll call with a “Ready!” the engineers of the European theater of operations have carried out a program for which the equipment, supplies and construction materials would require a freight train 20,000 miles long. The engineers’ job in the United Kingdom alone staggers the imag-

ination. Take simply the matter of building fields for the 8th and 9th air forces. The British did S most of this work, furnish- ? ing us with all : the land, buildings, material and most of the labor as part of reverse lendlease, But the engineers’ part in planning and & supervision in- . volved figures Tom Wolf like these: One air field is equivalent to a $5-6,000,000 construction job in the states. There are scores of them. The runways, roads and “hard standings” (perimeter track, dispersal points, etc.) of U. 8. air fields in Britain total the equivalent of a 20-foot concrete highway from New York to Berlin,

Scores of Fields

“Among others of the engineers’ joss here in the United Kingdom has been the supervision of bujld‘ing. hospitals, camps, training areas and storkee depots. Six. re“gently completed depots invoive an

“area equal to half of Manhattan

island. And the total construction -job would have. taker an army division, working 48 hours a week, a working lifetime to complete. But such local tasks have been fairly simple compared to the job of preparing for continental operations. Planning for the invasion means first of all having a terrain-intelligence report. It's up to the engineers to get that report. There were more than 1000 pages in the terrain-intelligence report for the North African campaign. Must Know All Details

The . engineers must assume that the enemy will destroy every means of communication possible.

So they must know full details on every river, not only the details of bridges now crossing ft, but what ‘would be necessary to replace these bridges. There is bridging equipment allocated to every division, corps and army. But this is mobile equipment. The engineers must replace it with semi-permanent bridges as soon as possible, or the division will run out of its equipment, The engineers must have all data on all railroads. They must be prepared to bring In rails and ties to rebuild continental railways. A Big Job They must know all about water supply and distribution; about utilities; road networks; petrol distribution systems; and sites for air fields. On top of everything, they must do the mapping. Before the details of the invasion were worked out, the engineers had to map every inch of coastline from

“the North Cape around to’ Alex“andria. . When assault beaches

were known, they had to make detailed maps of these. * For example, 400 tons of maps were used in the initial North African operation. The entire beach operation is an engineer responsibility. But beaches are only the beginning of the engineers’ map problem. The entire area over which we plan to operate must be plotted, as it appears today, in minutest detail. Without maps of such accuracy, you can fire artillery only when weather conditions and light are good enough for you to observe your fire, With good maps, you can fire 24 hours every day. .

HAIL FLIER FOR | - HEROIC | CRASH

Ridenour ‘Unable to ee Plane After Mates Bail Out, Letter Reveals.

High tribute was paid Lt. Herman Ridenour, Indianapolis bomber pilot, by his executive officer, Ma}. James E. Maher, who wrote Riden-

our’s parents the details of his heroic death. . Lt. Ridenour, son of Hermin L. Ridenour, 4927 N. Pennsylvania st., was killed in an aircraft crash April 11 in the China war theater. “Herman was returning from a routine trip in India when his plane developed engine trouble and began losing altitude,” Maj. Maher wrote. “He directed his crew members to bail out while he remained with the aircraft to insure their getting out safely. All this was done despite his knowledge that the terrain over which he was flying was rugged and hazardous and his plane was losing altitude very rapidly.

Crashes to His Death

“After all of his crew had parachuted to safety Herman was unable to get out of the plane and crashed to his death. Herman displayed outstanding gallantry in facing almost certain death to save the lives of his crew members. His herpic action will live forever in the annals of this command and

we are récommending a high 2yard) - =

I0r IIs great pravery. “Herman's body has been recovered and we are making preparation for the® burial which should take place tomorrow (April 15). It will be a simple service and I am sure that you will approve in every respect. . . . “We are all proud to have served with Herman and you can be proud] of your son. His loss is a deep blow to us.” Maj. Maher Is commanding officer of the 308th bombardment group of the army air forces.

LODGE TO BE HOST Winema council 88, Degree of Pocahontas, will entertaig the Marfon county association tonight in Red Men's hall, 17th &. and Roose-

velt ave.

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