CLOTHING THE ARMY.

Evening Star, Issue 24482, 17 April 1943, Page 4

CLOTHING THE ARMY.

It is the man who does the fighting, in the air, on the ground, on the sea, or under the sea, who commands the greatest attention - when a war is in progress. He runs great dangers, he endures many hardships, but lie has the adventure and excitement that it brings that are dear to the people of British blood. Our fighting men perform heroic deeds, but their endurance is not greater than that of many thousands of those who stay at home and perform necessary but humdrum duties. The fighting services have to be fed and clothed, and to perform this work monotonous hours have to be spent day in and day out. This can be realised from a study of the work of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Britain, which is responsible for all war stores, aud handles about half a million different items. The largest Ordnance clothing depot covers more than thirty-two acres. Its average weekly turnover is 3.500 tons, and the value of the stores handled each week is about £2,000,000 at Army prices, which are about half the real sale value. At all times there is something like £17,000,000 worth of stockin the sheds. In addition to supplying the British forces all over the world the depot supplies many of the Allied forces. It is impossible to enumerate even a small part of the 14,000 items stored at this depot, but every conceivable thing, large and small, that a man or woman can need in any part of the world is housed there. In boots there are twenty-seven different sizes. Millions of pairs have gone to Russia. Native troops in Africa have icceived similar equipment. They take size thirteen with a sole about six inches across. The fact that they have never applied for " grindery," the name for mending materials, suggests that the unsophisticated black men still wear them round their necks as they have done from the days that boots were first issued to them years and years ago. Rush jobs are taken in hand cheerfully. Jn one case in four days the workers baled, pressed, and despatched 1,000 miles of overcoat cloth to Russia. The impressive work accomplished is a jribute to

Britain's industrial organisation and efficiency. There is no doubt that, thanks to the Ministry of Supply and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, British soldiers are better clothed than they were at the beginning of the war. Russia lias benefited enormously in equipment that is indispensable in that country.