BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 112, 8 November 1943, Page 4

BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE

MATERIALS FOR RE-USE

RUGBY, November 6,

The Commander-in-Ch,ief in. the Middle East has received from the Army Council in London* an expression of appreciation of the work done in clearing the battlefields from El Alamein to Tunis of war materials which could be used again at once, repaired, or converted into something else of use.

The speed and thoroughness with which material was recovered played a great part in relieving the strain on the shipping and supply services. Over a million German petrol containers were collected and used. Over 90,000 tyres, two-thirds of them from vehicles of British and American types, were salvaged. Otner salvage included nearly a million 44-gallon drums for bulk transportation of oil and petrol, 50.000 Axis and British rifles, 3000 enemy machine-guns, hundreds of tons of clothing, and nearly 9000 pairs of boots.

Tyres which cannot be repaired locally are shipped to Britain to be melted. Scrap steel is shipped to smelting furnaces to be used for new tanks and aircraft. Hundreds of tons of magnesium alloy have been recovered from old castings The work of collection, stripping, and smelting of crashed aircraft for shipment to Britain goes on steadily. One smelter furnace alone is turning out enough ingots daily to produce ten fighters.—B.O.W.