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Show Engineers Are Speeding Up Construction of Airdromes Each unit is self-contained and equipped with trained personnel and special machinery. The units are able to provide their own airdrome protection, employing detachments armed with many types of weapons, moving land mines and booby traps. The airborne aviation engineers were organized in the summer of 1942. Establishment, training and equipping of the units was completed complet-ed with amazing speed, as attested by the fact that less than six months later they were at work in England and were ready for the African campaign, cam-paign, in which much of their work has been of a pioneering nature. The training of the airborne aviation avia-tion engineers is rigid. The men are chosen from the army air forces for their toughness and special skills. Candidates chosen for those units must have their basic combat training, followed by engineering training. The last stage of training includes the operation of their highly high-ly specialized equipment, specialized special-ized engineering training, advanced training in the use of such weapons as the Thompson submachine gun, carbine and rifle, and course in Commando exercises. New Fields Quickly Made . With Airborne Equipment. One of the most serious problems of the North African campaign the speedy construction of advance airdromes air-dromes in country devoid of transportation trans-portation facilities is being overcome over-come by the use of airborne aviation avia-tion engineer units and equipment. Brig. Gen. Stuart C. Godfrey, commanding com-manding general of the aviation engineers, en-gineers, reported to the war department de-partment on his return recently from the North African and English theaters. Airborne engineers, with special equipment, designed for transportation transporta-tion in cargo aircraft or gliders, were landed in North Africa at the beginning of the campaign. When it became necessary to establish es-tablish advance airdromes speedily speedi-ly to support the action in Tunisia, a call was put in for these companies. compa-nies. Cargo planes were dispatched to pick them up and the companies, with their equipment, were flown approximately ap-proximately 1,000 miles to points as close as possible to the sites selected select-ed for the airdromes. They marched to these sites and immediately went to work. Within three days after the call was sent to the engineers they had made the long trip, completed the preparation of runways at one site and the first B-17 Flying Fortress bombardment planes had begun operations op-erations from the new field. A second sec-ond field, requiring more work, was ready on the following day. On the second field, to supplement supple-ment their light equipment, the engineers en-gineers obtained the temporary use of some French road-building equipment, equip-ment, paying for it chiefly with American cigarettes. The first field was prepared with their own airborne air-borne equipment. "Our Allies couldn't believe their eyes when they saw equipment being be-ing unloaded from airplanes and going go-ing right to work," General Godfrey God-frey said. "Use of this equipment made it possible to prepare airdromes air-dromes in an emergency at otherwise other-wise inaccessible places, the saving sav-ing of a few hours or days in the construction of such airdromes may have a great bearing on the outcome out-come of a whole campaign." One of the airdromes, General Godfrey said, was built on the edge of the desert near an oasis some distance outside the nearest town. Originally the town was supplied with water from the oasis. When General Godfrey was there, the situation situ-ation was reversed and the oasis was getting water from the town to meet its increased demands. Lightweight portable hangars are being moved to the advance airdromes air-dromes to shelter planes from dust and weather, particularly for overhaul over-haul and maintenance work. Barracks Bar-racks are being built of rammed earth in some places to save transportation trans-portation of materials. Airborne aviation engineering units have been organized within the army air forces since the outbreak out-break of the war to perform emergency emer-gency repairs on bombed airfields during battle and to construct temporary tem-porary air bases on any available terrain, as they are doing in Africa, or even permanent bases, as they now are doing in England. In England, Eng-land, army air forces aviation engineer en-gineer companies have completed and put into operation the first American airports built by Americans Ameri-cans in that country. |