Service Company

IN PRESENTING the broad picture of any regiment's swift advances, the workings of the service echelon (which essentially means Service Company) can never be ignored or underestimated. And yet in attempting to represent, by various stages, as in a calendar of this type, the progress and the achievements of such an echelon, the finished record falls far short of a faithful representation of actual accomplishments. A record of company command post towns invariable conveys the impression that the company was a completely rear echelon. This is by no means true since the name of a town is no actual record of the work done. It merely indicates how large a link had to be forged by the company between that spot and the most forward elements of the regiment. Under command of Major Tingley, supply had operated under difficult conditions in the days of the Prüm and the Kyll crossings. But as the pace of the advance increased from two or three miles per day to ten and upwards, until jumps of a hundred miles became commonplace, difficulties grew and multiplied.

NOW, the usually compact Service Company was split. Ration, gasoline and ammunition sections moved close with the troops, the maintenance section following with the company CP. Supply lines lengthened--fantastically--beyond the "anticipated" distances. When the regiment reached Zeitz, Capt. Hutchins' ammunition section was hauling some types of ammunition from dumps 360 miles to the rear. Much of the 500,000 gallons of gasoline used by the regiment during the combat period was transported from supply points at far, far in excess of "normal" distances. Fully fresh rations were impracticable; even the C and K rations used now mounted up to hundreds of thousands of units, straining truck facilities to the limit. Adding to a problem already strained almost to the breaking point was the necessity for carrying forward with each successive move gas masks for every man in the regiment, and clean underwear and socks for each man. Only an ingenious system of shuttling trucks turned the trick.

IT WAS the responsibility of Capt. Vandecarr's motor section to keep these overworked vehicles on the job, as well as to accomplish minor miracles daily in repairing vehicles damaged on combat missions. There were "flats" and 6,000-mile check-ups and burned-out brake linings and scores of other everyday maintenance jobs, which battalion and unit motors men shared with those of Service Company. The faithful performance of teams (of officers and men.) who did this job assured the regiment that no vehicle would be lost through mechanical failures and was one of the essential factors in the combat team's ability to push ahead.