The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-07-20

permitted glimpse into the
famed Aberdeen Proving Grounds
IN Maryland, admittedly a0ithout
a peer as a laboratory aVhere the
nations top flight scientists test
not only our oa0n, bat also the
enemyS military equipment.
-EDITOR
0XNERE not interested in any
W American boys dying for his
country. We want him to live for
his country, and we're determined to
see to it that he's in position to make
the enemy die for his country"
That statement by Col. George G.
Eddy, head of the ordnance research
center at Aberdeen, Maryland, Prov
ing Ground, sums up the purpose Of
one of the United States army's most
effective World War II developments.
At Aberdeen, which three times
has won the army-navy "E" for ex-
cellence, the nations best scientific
and mechanical genius has been gath
cred to give our soldiers the best in
fighting equipment the sort of
equipment that's pounding at the
Germans in Normandy and in Italy
and slowly but surely chasing the
japanese out of their ill-gotten island
empire.
4 T Ohio's Erie proving ground all
A army cannon, from 37-mm. up to
the huge 240-mm. howitzers, are test
fired. At Aberdeen all sorts of wea-
pons and ideas are tested, compari-
sons made with enemy weapons and
improvements in design and use
worked out.
Commanded by Maj. Gen. Charles
T. Harris, Jr., DsS.M., Aberdeen &C
tually is composed of two main COM
ponents-the ordance research center
and the military training center.
It's a self-contained city in an area
six miles wide and Is miles long.
Thousands of men have been trained
there and sent to join our fighting
forces everywhere. These men have
become the mechanical doctors who
bandage up the wounds of Americas
mechanical slugging power-the same
equipment which first was tested al
their station in Aberdeen.
IT truly is the worlds greatest
proving ground-where the shots
are fired that are heard round the
world.
The research center is the foca
point of ordnance research, develop
ment and proof. Workers labor da!
and night firing Uncle Sans wea
pons of war with explosive charges
that literally rock the Maryland
countryside.
Here are firing ranges for mobile
anti-tank, anti-aircraft, railway anC
coast artillery; small arms ranges
armor plate testing ranges; bombing
fields and test courses for tanks anC
motor vehicles.
EROM all sections of the nation
n army and navy arsenals, ordnance
plants and private industry-com
weapons and munitions for proc
testing, development, modification AM
ultimate acceptance. Here, too, al
types of tanks and motor vehicles ar
tested.
1t is only after they have passe,
the blitz tests of Aberdeen that thes
weapons find their way to the Amer
ican fighting men moving forwar
on every foreign battle sector. Me
at the front handle their weapon
with utmost confidence because the
know the Aberdeen guarantee counts
Col. Eddy recently returned from
tour of the battle fronts in Europ
and the Pacific. In every case h
asked the boys what they'd like t
have Aberdeen Proving Ground d
for them. Emphatically they ans
wered: Colonel, we're satisfied wit
the guns and tanks as they are Jus
see to it that we get more of theml
IN addition, Aberdeen is the meltin
pot for the scientific brains of tn
country. Some of the greatest mind
of Ameria are gathered to initial
and develop new weapons Of war.
These men, together with their re
cording instruments, gauges, camera
and myriads of testing equipment
make American ingenuity the mos
resourceful in the. world. Physicists
astronomers, mathematicians and en
gineers have been mustered from a
branches of industry and education
to staff the ordnance department
great ballistics research laboratory