School for Amateurs

On a rain-splashed Maryland hilltop last week stood a shivering band of Army generals, colonels, majors and news correspondents. Below them, spread over a sea of yellow muck, was an amazing spectacle. An M-4 (General Sherman) tank lumbered noisily through the mud, nosed down into a shell hole, up the other side, paused before the generals' hill, then roared away. At its heels came a lighter tank, a General Stuart, followed rank on rank by U.S. gun carriers, tanks, armored cars, combination gun & man carriers in seemingly endless variety, the newest and most formidable mechanized weapons of a nation at war. As they passed, and then returned to perform over the obstacle-strewn test courses of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a twostar, rain-soaked general muttered: "I'm glad I'm not a German."

Consensus of the 14 newspaper, magazine and radio men present was much the same For three days they had watched the Army display its might on a lids-off tour arranged by Under Secretary Robert P. Patterson. Purpose: to give the U.S. a glimpse of how its war tax dollars are being spent, to inspire confidence in the foresight and energy of the men directing the war's technical side.

The Priest and Others. Many of the sights and weapons were in the secret stage, but among the barely mentionables were :

>A new .30-caliber, semi-automatic carbine which is already in the hands of U.S. troops fighting in North Africa and the Pacific. A killer up to 500 yards, it is supplanting the pistols of company and platoon commanders.

> A 105-mm. howitzer mounted on a medium-tank chassis, which helped beat Rommel. Because of a pulpitlike antiaircraft mount, the British call it The Priest.

> A 240-mm. howitzer, amazingly accurate over a range of 20 miles or more, a weapon of high mobility that would be valuable in reducing strong points during a stalemate.

> An infantryman's weapon, which on the basis of tests may make obsolete many another weapon in the arsenals of the world, was also shown.

German weapons on display were the loot of ordnance intelligence raids designed to snare more concrete information than usually is gleaned from prisoners. Captured guns, tanks and ammunition go back to Aberdeen Proving Ground, 35 miles northeast of Baltimore. Close examination not only reveals secrets of design and operation but often gives an insight to the enemy's general materiel situation. Example: a German 88-mm. gun at Aberdeen has a three-piece barrel, indicating shortages of certain materials. The U.S. 20 years ago stopped manufacturing similar weapons in this obsolete manner.

Smoke & Flame. Near Aberdeen, at the Chemical Warfare Service's Edgewood Arsenal, the correspondents saw some of the Army's devious ways of killing by nonexplosive methods. >Old-type flame throwers sprayed liquid fuel (from canisters strapped to the gunner's back) in a diffused spurt which left the target burning briefly. The Army's new flame thrower squirts a thin stream of an improved fuel, with greater accuracy, over a greater distance, leaves its target burning longer.

> New smoke machines, now in mass production, are capable of blanketing wide areas such as the nearby Martin aircraft plant or even the entire Panama Canal to protect them from bombers. >Newest chemical grenade is a small smoke-producer that belches a cloud of green, red, purple or any other color. It was developed on the Army's demand for a method of tank identification in the dust-choked confusion of desert fighting.

Into the Blue. At Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, experimental laboratory and materiel center of the Army Air Forces, correspondents clambered over bombers and pursuit ships now in operation, got a small glimpse of aircraft of the future which are taking form in the collaboration of Army and industry.

Among the lessons learned:

>For every plane in operation there is a successor in the works incorporating the knowledge gained in combat around the world. The Flying Fortress' successor will have even greater bomb capacity, fire power, range and speed. > The trend is toward ever bigger bombers. On display was a mock-up (wooden dummy) of a bomber capable of carrying far larger bombs than Britain's present four-ton blockbusters.

>Dual-rotation propellers (a double set of blades whirling in opposite directions) have withstood terrific tests, proved they will pay dividends on craft flying more than 350 m.p.h., help provide a better plane for maneuvering and accurate firing. >The Sikorsky-developed helicopter, with horizontally rotating blades overhead and small vertical blades on the tail, has reached the stage where its designer prophesies great value as an anti-submarine device, in liaison work and sea rescues. It can hang stationary in the air, fly backward, drop vertically, land on a dime. >The batlike Flying Wing, with fuselage and wings molded into a single, obtuse-angled wing, is one of the many radical types now under study, may eventually revolutionize all aircraft design.

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