Evening star., 1943-08-16
Army to Display Its Latest Bottle Equipment
On Monument Grounds to Spur Bond Cumpuiqn

On Monument {
The biggest county fair"
America has ever seen will open
on the Washington Monument
grounds on September 9 for an
18-day stand under the direc-
ton of the War Department and
in cooperation with the
Treasury.
Workmen will move out to the
grounds sometime this week and be-
gin erecting stage, grandstands
and other settings for what the War
Department describes as the most
ambitious show of its kind ever at
tempted for public display. Final
assurance that the project would
be staged came over the week end,
following a series of conferences be-
tween Army and Treasury of1icials.
The show is timed to open on the
same day that the Third War Bond
drive begins and is intended to
prove to thousands of Washington
bond buyers that they are getting
their moneys worth. Hundreds of
soldiers, many of them from the
Military District of Washington, are
scheduled to participate. Dozens OF
mechanical contraptions which 60
to make up a modern army will be
on display.
Enemy Equipment to Be Shown.
Officially, the name of the show
will be Back the Attack" a phrase
taken from recent War Bond ap-
peal OF the President But Army
and Treasury men have begun to
think OF 1t in terms of a tremendous
county fair, staged during a month
that is traditionally county fair
time all over America. ,.. ..<
Only, instead of prize Guernseys
there will be antiaircraft guns. In
stead Of the fat lady and the thin
man and the hula dancer there will
be tanks and jeeps and fighter
planes. Instead of the fire-eater
there will be fame throwers. And
the harvest crops will not be sheafs
Of corn and bushels of grain, but
Japanese Zeros and German Mes
serschmitts and Nazi and italian
battle equipment-the harvest Of
bonds already bought.
The affair is being planned by the
War Departments Bureau Of Public
Relations. headed by Maj. Gen.
Alexander D. Surles, at the request
Of the Treasury Department. Last
Saturday a delegation OF Army en-
gineers went out to the Monument
Grounds and selected site equiv
alent to about six city blocks. 1t
will extend from Fourteenth street
to about what would be Sixteenth
street If it came through. and from
Constitution avenue southwark to
the fence around the temporary
Navy building. Fifteenth street
will probably be closed to traffic,
but the easterly approach to the
Monument itself will be left open
so that visitors can still reach the
obelisk.
The arena is to be laid out in the
area between the Monument and
Constitution avenue. Here a stage
will be erected and grandstands set
up for the array OF attractions that
is now being planned. All around
this arena the exhibits will be set
up-the Army's fighting planes,
tanks, jeeps, scout cars. heavy guns
and the captured enemy planes and
tanks. The American equipment
will carry price tags" indicating
how many War bonds it takes to
produce the tools needed by Amer
ica's fighting men.
The show will be a good deal more
than a series of exhibits arranged in
museum style. Plenty of action is
being arranged during the show
which will be open to the public
from II am. until 10 pm. There
will be two arena programs each day
one in the afternoon and the other
at night. And in between, soldiers
assigned to the various side shows
will demonstrate and explain the
intricacies OF guns and searchlights
and tanks.
One thing will be lacking. the War
Department explained: There prob
ably won't be much noise from guns
being shot off to make the whole
thing more realistic. Even blank
charges take powder, and there are
a couple of bigger shows going on
Il ,vyIa ha
milton can do even more good.
Bonds viii Be Sold.
Both the District War Finance
Committee and the Treasurys In
terdepartmental Committee on Pay
Roll Deductions will take a hand in
the show Between five and fifteen
minutes during each area perform
ance will be allotted to speakers who
will deliver a War Bond message.
The Treasury feels it doesn't need
any more time than this to talk
about War Bonds. The show itself,
it was said, should convince visitors
of the need for buying more bonds.
And for those who are persuaded to
do something about it right away,
there will be booths on the grounds,
manned by members Of the District
Committee, ready to sell bonds on
the spot.
According to Carlton C. Duffus,
liaison offlcer between the Treas
ury's War i nance Division and the
armed services. special arrange
ments are to be made through the
Interdepartmental Committee to dis