The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-19
URGES USE OF CAMERAS BY LAND PATROLS
BY LIVINGSTON POMEROY United Press Staff Correspondent

United Press Stafk correspondent Washington, Aug. 19-fUP)-Capt. Prentice Morgan of the United States Army Armored Forces strong iy urges the use of small cameras for land patrols during warfare. Writing in the Cavalry Jornal. he contends that ground patrols could make as good use of cameras as air. patrols, and lists seven circumstance es uner which speey photographic ervice woul be invluable.
 He said the Army should be equip ped with small autonomous scouting units consisting of several small scout cars and manned by trained army photographers whose job it would be to slip behind the enemy lines and photograph bridges. roads, mine fields, etc.
 Points Out Numeraus Uses With intensive and thorough train ing" he wrote, almost any Amer ican soldier could be trained to use the camera and its accessories in from two weeks to a month. The circumstances under which the ca- mera might be of value are numer- ous. Here are some of them:
 q. Bridge and road reconnaissance. "2. Substitution for field sketches. 8. Use by scouts behind enemy
 lines in studying the compost
 ton and strength of columns
 and identifying units and
 equipment.
 A. Engineer reconnaissance for
 stream crossing operations,
 bridge building, entrenching
 and field fertilization opera
 tions. including anti-tank in-
 stallations.
 $. Mine field reconnaissance.
 "6. Advanced aircraft landing field
 reconnaissance.
 "7. Recording of intelligence in-
 formation through photographs
 of wrecked Or captured enemy
 vehicles, weapons, or dead"
 Captain Morgan also stressed the advantage of telescopic and stereo- scopic photographs for distant ob- jects and to get three -dimensional effects for study. He cited the fol- lowing possible incident as an ex- ample of the potential value of pho tographs in land patrols:
 "A patrol from the reconnaissance battalion of an armored division is given the mission of making a route reconnaissance in anticipation of a possible advance of the division. Spe- cific information as to bridges, lords roads and Identification of the route is desired at divisional headquarters .. The patrol, mounted in two, or three quarter ton trucks, and equip ped with miniature camera and ac- cessories, starts on its mission be- fore dawn At dawn the patrol reaches a stream of considerable width and depth. Investigatior shows that there is but one bridge across the stream in the immediate vicinity, This bridge is partially de. stroyed.
 Afford Quick Estimates
 'The patrol leader believes the bridge may be readily made service able for. the use of the tanks of the division, but not being an engineer he does not know the length of time or necessary materials needed. H. summons the cameraman who ir fifteen minutes has taken 36 pic lures of the damaged bridge iron every conceivable angle |. 7. The pa. trol leader writes brief report anc immediately sends the pictures bacl to the engineer officer.
 Through the study of photo. graphs the engineer will be able tt save much valuable time in estim ating the extent of repairs and tht size of the crew needed to make tht bridge passable."
 According to the author, the pho. tography would thus afford the com manding general and his staf. means of securing intelligence infor nation almost as valuable as per, sonal reconnaissance of every incl of the ground over which they were to operate.