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ilitary Vehicles

"E real extent of Canada’s contribution to United Nation’s
"eroduction, which has already placed her fourth among
’{reat war-producing nations, was graphically illustrated
this week when government leaders and observers from
= countries took part in cere- gomery’s Eighth Army was of
S attendant on the delivery Canadian make. At present such
€ 500,000 military vehicle equipment is being turned out in
iced in Ganadian war plants. 100 different types at the rate of
»~venicle, produced jointly 4,000 a week, exclusive of fight-
€e of the big plants special- ing vehicles.

in such equipment, was Photos above show (top) Min-
#1 over officially to Col. J. ister of Munitions and Supply C.
Uston, minister of national D. Howe turning the last bolt on
; fter Munitions Minister Canada’s half-millionth war ve-
had turn the last bolt at- hicle) while plant workers iook
43 "the wheel of the big bat- on. At a later ceremony Mr. Howe
d presented the car to Col. Ralston.
Bottom photo shows Col. Ralston,
defense minister (right) showing
the fine points of an armored
scout car to Feodor Gousev, So-
viet Minister to Canada.

Many other foreign representa-
tives, high army officials and in-
dustrialists attended the cere-
monies.

(> weeks ago in the House of
tons Mr. Howe told mem-
» that Canadian motorized
ement figured largely in the
allied spring offensive in
: ica, Where the Axis was
pay driven off that continent.
bE 50 percent of the load-car-
equipment used by Mont-

By
ANTHONY JENKINSON

XPERIENCED trade un-
ionists make good sol-
diers “because they under-
stand what they are fighting
for, show initiative and are
trained to work with other
men as a unit,” Lt.-Col. Evans
Fordyce Carlson, leading
guerrilla-warfare expert of
the US Marine Corps, stated
this week in an exclusive in-
terview with Allied Labor
News.

Last August Col. Carlson, with
Major James Roosevelt as second
in command, led the successful
raid on Makim Island, northern-
most of the Japanese-held Gil-
bert Islands, In November “Carl-
son’s Raiders’’ wiped out a Jap-
anese stronghold on Guadalcanal
after a four-weeks push through
Sniper-infested jungles and
Swamps previously regarded as
impenetrable.

The 47-year-old colonel, who
joined the Marines in 1922 after
serving in France as a field ar-
tillery captain, received the Navy
Cross for leading the Makim
Tslane raid.

“The success of an operation
depends not merely on machines
and planning but on execution—
on the human element,” Carlson
said. “It depends on men worlk-
ing together, obeying orders wil-
lingly, and using their own ini-
tiation. Trade unionism trains .a
man to do these things. Soldiers
who think intelligently about
economic and social problems are
quicker to grasp new ideas and
more readily come up to the stan-
dard of modern military require-
ments. When men have discipline
based on knowledge and reason,
when they fight because their
hearts and souls are in it—rather
than because they are ordered to
fight—victory is certain.”

E the one thousand men in

his battalion, Carlson said,
quite @ number are trade union-
ists; stee] workers from Gary,
Ind., who are members of the
United Steelworkers (CIO), mem-
bers of the Mine, Mill and Smel-
ter Workers from Montana and
United Mine Workers members
from Pennsylvania. The miners
are the battalion’s demolition ex-
perts.

“The trade unionists are among
the finest men in our unit,”
Carlson said. “They have this
quality: they never give up.” An-
other asset of experienced union-
ists, according to the colonel, is
that they “know how to look
after themselves. For instance,
on Guadalcanal for days on end
we were moving through swamps,
with our clothes wet all the time.
In such conditions a type of fun-
gus grows on the feet. The only
remedy against this dangerous
growth is personal - cleanliness.
You have to wash yourself and
your clothes thoroughly every
night. When you are dog-fired,
have to cook your food and cut
down boughs to provide shelter
(we carried no tents or blankets),
the temptation is to skip this™
washing —and then the trouble
starts. I noticed that the trade
unionists were among those who
took good care of themselves,
setting an example on the whole
unit.”

Experienced trade
unionists make good
soldiers because they
understand what
they are fighting for,
declares an officer of
US Marine Raiders at
Guadalcanal.

Pointing out that it takes more
than a mere knowledge of mil-
tary tactics to make a’ good sol-
dier, Carlsen said:

“Unless men understand the
meaning of the war and the real
character of the enemy, they tend
to give up easily, fall out or go
back to the base hospital.”

Carlson, who picked his men
out of 7,000 candidates, carried
out this education mainly by
means of forums.

“We discussed all manner of
subjects, including the $25,000
limit on incomes and anti-labor
legislation,” he said. “Every man
was encouraged to take part. I
was deeply impressed by the
knowledge of these men and their
ability to express themselves
clearly. They showed themselves
convinced that Nazism and Jap-
anese militarism must be de-
stroyed. They gave proof of the
power and efficiency of democ-
racy.”

Already sixteen of ‘Carlson’s
Raiders” have been commissioned
from the ranks.

During campaigns, Carison
Said, one of the most effective

Setence Feature

Test Men,

Union Experience
| Makes Good Soldiers

methods of education was to have
a post-mortem discussion after
each engagement. Privates were
encouraged to question the de-
eisions and tactics of non-coms
and officers, and put forward
ideas of their own.

“These post-mortems increase
the Inowledge not only of the
men but also the commanders,”
Carlson said. “Many minds are
better than one in solving prob-
lems.” In modern warfare, he
added, a commander who seeks
to hide his errors by isolating
himself from his troops increases
his risk of failure.

‘Carlson was the first foreign
military observers to travel with
China’s famous Hight Route
Army. Between the years 1938-41
he spent many months with the
fuerrilla forees in North China.
Much of the success of his raid-
ers, he says, is due to lessons
learned from the Chinese guer-
rillas.

“The high degree of political
education in the Bight Route
Army permits its officers to dis-
cuss a forthcoming operation not
only with the troops but also with
local civilians whose cooperation
is needed,” he said, adding that
the cherished hope of all mem-
bers of his unit, including him-
self, is to fight JPORIOSE in oc-
-cupied China.

“After living and fighting with
my men for 15 months I can say
this: our type of training and in-
doctrination has exceeded all] ex—
pectations,”’ the colonel conclud-
ed. “Correct training of troops
vitally affects the nation’s wel-
fare for two reasons: first, it in-
volves the success or failure of
military operations; second, it
can greatly reduce- the number
of casualties.’

Machines

For High Altitudes

(Ce for jobs as pilots, gunners, bombardiers in

high-flying warplanes can be tested for their ability to
“take it’ in the numbing cold and gasping lack of air that
always prevail far up in Fine stratosphere, without ever leay-

ing solid ground. It’s all done in
the stratosphere chamber.

In this apparatus, now a stand-
ard part of the pre-fight examin-
ation equipment at our great
training fields, from 70 degrees
above zero to 70 degrees below
may be experienced. At the same
time the air pressure may be
dropped from a normal, or 14.7
pounds per square inch, to little
more than two pounds. Both tem-
perature and pressure changes
may be accomplished in from five
to ten minutes. This simulates
what happens when the airplane
climbs at top speed from sea lev-
el to about 40,000 feet.

The stratosphere is the upper
region of the earth’s atmosphere,
beginning at about 35,000 feet.
The stratosphere chamber is a
huge metal cylinder, often called
strato-chamber for short, in
which temperature and atmos-
phere and atmospheric pressure
can be lowered and raised at will.
In it men, instruments and ma-
terials may be tested to deter-—
Mine their endurance and reac-

tions ‘in the conditions under
which they must perform in these
thin-aired upper regions.

At the 40,000-foot level, the
temperature is fairly constant,
about 67 degrees below zero Fah-
renheit. Nearer the earth, it may
at times be even lower. The air
pressure is about 2.7 pounds per
Square inch. At that low pressure,
a man can live only a very short
while. The absolute limit is re
ported to be approximately 42,000
feet. The “safe-ceiline” is in the
néighborhood of 38,000 feet, a
little less than 714 miles.

Of course, a man cannot live
at these altitudes without a sup-
plementary supply of oxygen. He
cannot live at 25,000 feet without
this oxygen supply. Above 42,000
feet, he cannot live even with TRE
because the air pressure is so low
that he is unable to inhale the
oxygen. Near the earth, the
weight of the air forces its oxy- |
gen into the blood stream: through
the lungs. In the upper stratos-
phere, the pressure has decreased
to a point where respiration is no
longer possible.

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