Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1944-07-28
SOMEWHEE IN NORNIANDY-

SOMEWHEE IN NORMANDY
by WireleSSl-At the eoge OF a
pasture, sitting CrosS-legged ON the
grass or on low boxes as though
they were at a picnic, are ID men
III greasy soldiers coverallS.
Near them on one side is a shop
truck with a canvas canopy
stretched out from it, making a
sort of patio alongside the truck.
And under this canopy and all over
the ground are rifles-rusty and
mucdy and broken rifles.
This is the small arms section CT
our medium ordnance company. To
this company comes daily in trucks
tbs picked up. ruSting rifles of men
killed or wounded, and rifles brok-
en- in ordinary service. There are
dozens of such companies.
This company turns back around
hundred rifles a day to its di-
vision. all shiny and oily and ready
to shoot again.
Small Assembly Plant
They work on the simple salvage
system of taking good parts oil
one gun and placing them on an
other. To do this they work like a
small assembly plant.
The first few hours of the morn
ing are given to taking broken
rifles apart. They cont try to keep
/ the parts of each gun together. All
parts are alike and transferable,
hence they throw each type into a
big steel pan full of similar parts.
At the end of the JOB they have
a dozen or so pans. each filled with
the same kind of parts.
Then the whole gang shifts over
and scrubs the pants. They scrub in
gasoline, using sandpaper for guns
in bad condition after lying out in
the rain and mud.
When everything is clean they
take the good parts and start put
ting them back together and max
ine guns out of them again.
When all the pans are empty they
have a stack of rifles-good rifles,
all ready to be taken back to the
front.
OF the parts left over some are
thrown. sway, quite beyond repair.
But others are repairable and go
into the sections shop truck for
working on with latheS and Welc ing
together Thus the division gets 100
reclaimed rifles day, in addition to
the brand new ones issued to it,
Want New Guns Pront0-
And believe me, curing the first
few days Of our invasion men at
the front needed these rifles with
desperation. Repairmen tell you
how our paratroopers and infantry
men would struggle back, dirty and
hazy-eyec with fatigue, and plead
ike a child for a new rifle immedi-
ately so they could get back to the
front and get at them"
One paratrooper brought in a
German horse he had captured and
offered to trade it for a new rifle
he needed it SO badly. During those
days the men in our little repair
shop worked all hours trying tc
fill the need.
I sat around on the grass anc
talked to these rifle repairmen most
of che afternoon. They weren't
working so frenziedly then for the
urgency was not so dire. but theJ
kept steadily at it as We talked.
The head of the section is Ser.
geat Edward Welch of Watts, Okla.
who used to work in the oil fields
just since the lnvaslOn hes invented
a gadget that cleans rust out of {
rifle barrel in few seconds where.
as 1t usec to take a man about q
minutes.
Sergeant WEIGH did it merely b.
rigging up a swivel shaft on tn
end of an electric drill and attach
ing a cylindrical wire brush to tn,
end. So now you Just stick tn