Chris Parker
Chris Parker
Mr. Thomas
U.S. History H, Period 7
24 April 2007
Lt. Col. John E. O’Hair, "Experience of an Infantry Quartermaster", Army Quartermaster Museum. http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/WWII/division_qm.htm
- "the Quartermaster cadre bore the burden of maintaining the daily requirements of the division cadre, consisting of approximately 2,500 officers and enlisted men, in addition to effecting the receipt, issue, and transportation of hundreds of Quartermaster items, representing many tons of initial issue equipment stocked by the technical service at the station prior to and during activation."
- Had to receive, distribute, and transport all of the things that the soldiers needed as well as keep it in repair
- "Station storage facilities being inadequate, supply was transferred to regimental, battalion, and separate company areas for interim storage in supply rooms and barracks."
- Guns and other equipment were stored in barracks because of lack of room in storage
- One half the unit maintained the division supply while the other half received basic training, alternating every other day.
- Subjects emphasized were map-reading, convoy operations, motor maintenance, blackout driving, perimeter defense, reconnaissance, and supply procedure.
- Practical application of training doctrine was the rule, with operations "field type," under simulated combat conditions, utilizing to the greatest advantage the most difficult terrain features, around-the-clock time element, and other adverse conditions to improve technique in the accomplishment of the supply mission.
The Quartermaster Review. "The Garrison of Gouvy". Army Quartermaster Museum, March-April 1945. http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/WWII/gouvy.htm
- "Garrisoned chiefly by truck drivers, clerks, and laborers of the 89th Quartermaster railhead company which manned its ration dump, Gouvy held out against artillery fire, tank attacks, and infantry sorties for four days. Although constantly under enemy fire, the men never ceased to issue rations to all units whose trucks were able to enter Gouvy, and most of them alternately passed out ration cans and small-arms fire."
- "While only two Americans of the "bastard battalion" sustained injuries in the four-day engagement, and eight were reported missing, approximately seventy Germans were killed, twenty-two captured, and an unknown number wounded."
Colonel Lloyd L. Cobb, Q.M.C., "The Quartermaster School", The Quartermaster Review. Army Quartermaster Museum, May-June 1946. http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/WWII/qm_school.htm
- "MORE than 32,000 officers, officer cadets, and key enlisted personnel were trained at The Quartermaster School between July 1,1940, and December 3, 1945. In this four-and-a-half-year period The Quartermaster School transformed the army storekeeper and lawyer into a soldier, who knew how to protect himself and his supplies from air, mechanized, and chemical attack. He had learned to use the bayonet, to prepare explosives, and to hurl grenades. He had been toughened by long marches, overnight bivouacs, and hours on obstacle courses. He had crawled and crept and run through simulated battlefields while machine guns spat above his head and land mines exploded about him. He had taken refuge in foxholes of his own digging and had learned to be still while tanks passed over his biding place. He had become proficient, moreover, in the many technical fields of quartermaster service."
- "With limited military training being given during the days in Philadelphia, The Quartermaster School progressed to a program that gave students such rigid military training as had formerly been considered necessary only for infantrymen. Physical conditioning of officer candidates was implicit from the beginning of the officer candidate training program. In the summer of 1942 a field training area was set up at the School and a four-week period of field exercises was instituted. When the officer candidate course was lengthened to seventeen weeks on July 5, 1943, the program of instruction provided approximately eleven weeks of academic training and six weeks of field maneuvers and military training. The following December the program was further strengthened. As a result, young men who are commissioned as second lieutenants in the Quartermaster Corps possess the highest qualities of military leadership."
Captain William Foster, Jr. Q.M.C., "On the Heals of the Assault Force". The Quartermaster Review, March-April 1994. http://www.qmfound.com/assault_force.htm
- "Our first look at the docks was both discouraging and encouraging. Material was plied high everywhere; nothing was moving from the docks or from the cargo ships onto the piers; things were at an apparent standstill. Cargo ships were still outside the pier awaiting their turn to be unloaded, where they were still vulnerable to enemy submarines."
- "Two hundred sturdy, strong-muscled young Americans attacked the mountain of mixed material. Dumps were established inland. Transportation was scarce but that which was available was used twenty-four hours a day. Loading and unloading time was reduced to a minimum. Order came out of confusion, and another broken link in the chain of supply was repaired. Supplies started rolling from the transports across the docks, into dumps, and forward into combat areas."
"George S. Patton & Normandy". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Patton#Normandy
- The Third Army simultaneously attacked west (into Brittany) south, expanding the breakout, east towards the Seine, and north, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the Chambois pocket, near Falaise. Patton used Germany's own blitzkrieg tactics against them, covering 600 miles in just two weeks.
Rosenblum, Chris. "Quartermaster's Calling". 20 June 2005. http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/special_packages/wwii/11936900.htm
- "Someone, though, noticed the seaman first class had taken a navigation course in high school. That was enough to tab him for quartermaster school."
- "Waiting to go to Gulfport, Miss., MacMillan still didn't know what a Navy quartermaster did. Hand out clothes, a buddy guessed. MacMillan was horrified until an experienced sailor clued him in: He was going to steer ships."
Army Quartermaster Website. http://www.quartermaster.army.mil/oqmg/Professional_Bulletin/1999/spring1999/QM_Supply_in_the_Pacific_During_WWII.htm
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"John J Little." Stories from WWII. http://www.hbo.com/apps/band/site/client/stories/curated_story.jsp?exid=1191
- "He was drafted into the army at the age of 24 and was stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis."
- "Little entered the second World War on the infamous D-Day, he landed on the beach at Normandy with the first wave of attackers. Although he was part of the infantry, he was the driver of a jeep carrying his commanding officer."
Parker, William H. Personal Interview. 22 April 2006.