The army behind the armyPowell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
History
The army behind the army
Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
United States. Army; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
Over the body was worn a one-piece flying suit of waterproof, airproof
material, reaching from throat to feet, buttoned tightly at wrists and
ankles, and lined throughout with fur. Through these suits, between the
fur and the outer coverings, were placed wire cables terminating in
snap-fasteners at neck, wrists, and ankles, to which could be attached
silk-covered wires leading to other electrical heating units in the
helmets, gloves, and moccasins, all of which were warmed by a current
drawn from the generator on the engine. Hence, though our aviators not
infrequently flew in a temperature of thirty degrees below zero, they
were as warm and comfortable as though they were sitting before a log
fire at home—much more comfortable, in fact, than were their relatives
and friends in America on the fireless Sundays which made uncomfortable
the first winter of the war. On his hands the aviator wore, in addition
to the electrically heated gloves, a pair of muskrat gauntlets extending
nearly to the elbow; on his feet, over the electrically heated moccasins,
another pair of moccasins, lined with sheepswool, reaching almost to the
knees. It is scarcely necessary to add that our air-fighters spent more
time in dressing than does a chorus-girl in a comic opera, and that when
they were dressed they looked like a cross between an Arctic explorer and
a deep-sea diver.
The question of obtaining the fur for lining this clothing presented a
perplexing problem, for there were required vast quantities of pelts
or skins of extreme warmth and sufficiently strong to withstand rough
usage, but not too bulky or heavy. After considerable investigation it
was found that these requirements were met by the skin of the Nuchwang
dog, which inhabits one of the provinces of north China, though I have
no doubt that sable or ermine would have answered the purpose equally
well had cost been no consideration. The demands of the American Air
Service required practically all of these skins that could be had in
China and necessitated the lifting of an embargo to bring them into
the United States, which, thanks to the co-operation of the War Trade
Board, was obtained. The last purchase before the Armistice was signed
called for 500,000 of these dog-skins. A strange thing, was it not,
that the lust for power of one William Hohenzollern, late of Berlin and
Potsdam, should bring about, among countless other things, the slaughter
of half a million dogs in far-off China? Though figures are, as a rule,
dry things, the magnitude of the Air Service’s clothing problem can be
better appreciated by my giving a few of them. The work in hand for
air-clothing when the Armistice was signed involved upward of $5,000,000.
Fifty thousand fur-lined flying suits at $36.25; over a 100,000 leather
helmets at $4.50; a like number of leather coats at prices ranging from
$10 to $30, and 80,000 goggles at $3.50 a pair reflect the major items
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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