Show With Ernie Pyle at the Front Ordnance Keeps Army in Trim by Repairing Parts Personnel From Front All Alt Parts of Country Prove They Can Take It By Dy Ernie Pyle IN One NORMANDY One One of the things the layman doesn't hear much about Is the ordnance department In fact It is one of the branches that even the average soldier Is little aware of except in a vague way And yet the war couldn't keep going without it For ordnance repairs all the vehicles of an army and furnishes all the ammunition ammunition ammunition ammu ammu- for its guns Today there are arc more vehicles In Inthe inthe the American sector of our beachhead beach beach- beachhead I head than in the sized average-sized American city And our big guns gunson on an average heavy day are shooting up more than 4 worth of ammu So you see seea a ordnance has a 4 I sized man job 4 Ordnance personnel personnel per per- is usually I about 6 or 7 per percent per percent cent of the total Ernie Pyle men of an army I That means we have many thousands of ordnance- ordnance men in Normandy Their insigne is isa isa isa a flame coming out of a retort retort- nicknamed in the army The Flam Flam- tog ng Onion Ordnance operates the ammunition ammunition tion dumps we have scattered about the llie beachhead But much bigger than Ulan its ammunition n mission is ordnances ordnance's ordnances ordnance's ord ord- nances nance's job of repair Ordnance has items in its catalog of parts and the mere catalog itself covers a foot iO-foot O shelf In a central headquarters here on the beachhead a modern filing system system tem em housed in big tents keeps records rec rec- on the number and condition of 1500 major items in actual use on the Jie beachhead from tanks to pis pis- We have scores of separate ordnance companies at work on the beachhead each beachhead each of them a complete firm within itself able tp to repair anything the army uses Ordnance can lift a ton 30 tank as easily as it can a bicycle It can repair a blown up jeep or orthe orthe orthe the intricate breech of a mammoth mammoth mam mam- moth gun gun i Some of its highly specialized repair repair re reo re- re I pair companies up largely of f men who were craftsmen in the same Lame line in n civil life In these you will find the average age is much above the army aver aver- age You will find craftsmen in their late you'll find men with their own established businesses who were making to a year back home and who are now wearing sergeants sergeant's stripes You'll find great soberness and sincerity plus the normal satisfaction that comes from making things whole again instead of destroying them You will find an IQ far above the average for the army It has to be that way or the work would not get done You'll find mechanical work being done under a tree that would be housed in m a shop back in America You'll find men working 16 10 hours a day then sleeping on the ground who because of their ag age e dont don't even have to be here at all Ordnance is one of the c branches of the army They are the e mechanics and the craftsmen th the e fixers and the suppliers But their r job ob is vital Ordinarily they are arc no not t in in ina a great deal of danger There Ther e are times on newly won and congested congest ed beachheads when their casualty y rate is high but once the war settles set ties down and there is room for fo r movement and dispersal it is no not t necessary or desirable for them t to todo o do doo i their basic work within gu gun n range Our ordnance branch in Normandy Normand y ha has had casualties It has two small smal 1 branches which will continue to have hav e casualties its casualties its disposal bomb-disposal squads squad s and its retriever companies that g gup go o up to pull out crippled tanks under unde r fire But outside of those two sections if your son or husband is in ordnance ordnance ord nance in France you can feel fair fairly y easy about his returning to you I dont don't say that to belittle ordnance c In any way but to ease your worries wor ries ties if you have someone in this thi s branch of the service overseas Ordnance is set up In m a vast structure of organization the same as any other army com corn mand The farther back you gothe go goUie the Uie bigger become the outfits and the more elaborately equipped and more capable of doing heavy term long work Every Infantry or armored di division division division di- di vision has an ordnance company with it all the time This company company com corn corni pany pang does quick repair jobs What It hasn't time or facilities for lor doing it hands on back to the next echelon in the rear The division ordnance companies hit lit the beach on D Day The next echelon back began coming on D D D- Day plus four Cour The great heavy o outfits arrived somewhat later Today the wreckage of seven weeks of war is all in hand and in I Ione one great depot after another it is being worked out repaired out repaired or rebuilt re reo rebuilt built or sent back for salvage until everything possible is made available available avail vall able again to our men who do the fighting In later columns Ill I'll take I you along to some of these repair companies that do the vital work I The cook on No on which I I came to France was a beefy natured good fellow named Edward I of Barberton Ohio which Is s n near near ar Akron I Cooking on these transport ships Is s a terrible job for you suddenly have lave to turn out twice as much food bod as normally But Eddie is not the lie worrying type and he takes it all in his stride Eddie has a brother named Charles in the army engineers and andIn andin In n the past year has been lucky enough to run into him four times times- once in Africa once in Sicily and twice in Italy One of those world small experiences experiences happened to me too while on that ship We lay at anchor in a certain harbor a couple of days before before before be be- fore sailing for France On the second second sec sec- ond and day I was in the washroom shaving having hav- hav ing when a sailor came in and said there was a Commander Greene who wanted to see me in the captains captain's cabin The only Greene I could think of who might be a commander in the navy nau was Terry Greene whom I had bad known in my Greenwich Village days You didn't know I ever had any Greenwich Village days Well Veil dont don't get excited because they weren't very lurid anyhow At any rate I went to the captains captain's cap tams tain's cabin and sure enough it was the same Terry Greene all right By Dy some strange coincidence coincidence dence we had bad both got ot 17 years older in the meantime Greene held field a very important position po po- in the convoy He lIe was tickled to death with his assignment for he had been in the States almost the whole war and was about to go nuts for some action I haven't seen him on this side of the Channel to discuss it but Im I'm afraid our trip over wasn't as exciting exciting ex ex- citing as he would have liked But Bui you cant can't please everybody and il it was j just st tame enough to suit me fine One of the gun crew is Seaman John Lepperd of Hershey Pa He Heis Heis is about the oldest man in the crew He fie is 34 and has three daughters daughters- 17 15 and 13 and 13 and yet he got drafted last November and here he is sailing sail ing across the English channel and helping heaping shoot shoat down German planes It still seems a little odd to him It ItIs Itis is quite a 3 contrast to the building game which he had been in Also on this ship I ran into one of my home towners owners from Albuquerque Albu querque Electricians Electrician's Mate Male Harold Lampton Lampion His home actually is in Farmington N N. N M. M but he worked for Cor the telephone company at Albuquerque Albuquerque Albu Albu- querque installing new phones Now he is the electrician for this ship He lie has been in the navy for far two years and overseas for far more than a year He lie is a tall dark quiet fellow fel feI low law who knows a great deal more about the Southwest than I do He lie said he has driven past our house many times and we had long nostalgic nos talks about the desert and Indian jewelry and sunsets We are both tired of being where we are arc am and we wish we were back on the Rio Grande Among the soldiers I II talked toon to toon toon on the were Corp Loyce Gilbert of Spring Hill La Oscar Davis of Troy N. N C. C and Floyd Woodville of Haiti Ball mot moi mOle e e. e |