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Veterans

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Aristus

(69,954 posts)
Mon Jan 21, 2019, 01:48 PM Jan 2019

Are there any good books out there about American WWII maintenance depots? [View all]

Sounds like a silly topic to ask about or to be interested in. But I'd like to read further about the guys who kept the Allies rolling after the D-Day invasion.

When an Allied tank, truck, jeep, or self-propelled artillery piece was hit or disabled, it was usually very quickly replaced from newly-manufactured stock, and the soldiers kept on going. The natural assumption is that American heavy industry produced so much materiel that combat losses were always replaced with new equipment.

But I've read brief accounts in several books on WWII about how hundreds of unsung soldier-mechanics came along after the battles and towed away wrecked machinery, took it to a maintenance and repair depot, and put the vehicles back into service. Or cannibalized total losses for parts. I'd love to read about how these depots were planned, organized, set up, and operated. They were marvels of military conservation.

When tanks or trucks operated by Soviet soldiers broke down, they would be abandoned, and the troops would just carry on until they got new ones. The young boys from backward peasant upbringings had no knowledge of how to maintain their vehicles. Many American boys, OTOH, having grown up with farm tractors or tinkering with private automobiles, knew how to keep their beasts in running condition.

Anyway, any suggestions?

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