U.S.A. WAR STORES

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 October 1945, Page 8

U.S.A. WAR STORES

NO WASTE PERMITTED The United States Army United Kingdom Base is undertaking the biggest “moving day” in the history of war. Before Feb. 1 all American equipment in Britain will have been packed and shipped. How the Americans are putting their house in order before leaving this country was shown to me during a two-day tour of supply and maintenance depots in South-West England (writes a London “Daily Telegraph” contributor). To these depots comes everything the American Army has used in Britain, from shoelaces to tank conveyors. Every item is sorted, salved, repaired and re-packed. The small residue of irreclaimable material is given free to British salvage. I found in these vast depots with their unloading bays, repair shops and packing departments a complete refutation of recent, allegations that American soldiers had been destroying valuable stores.

Anyone who visited these depots would realise that the Americans waste nothing. Among thousands of articles which I have seen being reclaimed during the past 48 hours were mothballs, a dog’s dinner plate and a cracked teapot. Fully 500,000 shoe laces have been taken out of worn footwear, pressed and rebundled for the Far East.

At “G 45 the supply and maintenance depot at Thatcham, Berks, I toured in a jeep the largest “makedo and mend class” in the world. The patchers and menders are 500 German prisoners supervised by only 15 soldiers. There every item lives to j fight another day. Thatcham has received 18,000,000 articles in 12 months. Of these 17,000,000 have been returned to stock “as new.” The rest goes back to America for Government re-sale. Only the scraps, part of 1 per cent, are left behind to provide raw material for British industry. Col. E. L. Ritchie, who is in charge of salvage at “G 45 told me that since 1942 his department has saved America £10,000,000. German tailors on steam pressing machines are turning out between 50,000 and 75,000 renewed uniforms every week. “Chucking stuff away!” Col. Ritchie exclaimed. “'Why, we have to give seven days’ notice to H.Q. before we can send even a rust-rotten dustbin to the scrapheap.” At Depot G 25, Toddington, Glos., I saw 14,600 vehicles, from jeeps to tank carriers, waiting to be reconditioned, waterproofed and crated for use in the Pacific theatre.

This great depots sprawls over 500 acres, with workshops covering 100 acres. Vehicles are either made good or “cannibalised”—a graphic Americanism for being stripped of spare parts for other vehicles. Again, scrap is turned over to British salvage, supervised by the only Englishman on the site, Sgt. Ferris, of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Work is carried out with tools worth £250,000. Mechanical equipment of every kind is reconditioned at G 25. It includes radar sets worth £45,000 each, and telephone wire worth 7/- a foot. Un to now 6.000 salvaged vehicles have been shipped to war zones.