[Illustration: ENGLAND P-51’S IN FORMATION. Each plane in this formation has two wing tanks attached.] [Illustration: ENGLAND A MEDICAL BATTALION QUARTERED IN TENTS, Cornwall, England (top). A U. S. hospital installed in Quonset huts (bottom). The hospital plan in the United Kingdom called for over 90,000 beds in existing installations, conversions, and new constructions. The program was later increased by 30,000 beds by using tents for the hospital units.] [Illustration] [Illustration: ENGLAND U. S. ARMY NURSE, wearing a helmet and fatigue uniform, preparing an intravenous injection; a kerosene lamp provides illumination. Hospital personnel worked under conditions similar to those they might encounter upon their arrival on the Continent after the invasion. Army nurses gave widely varying types of skilled service, some of them in field hospitals and others in the general hospitals farther behind the lines. World War II was the first war in which nurses received full military benefits and real instead of relative officer rank. There were more than 17,000 Army nurses in the ETO in May 1945.] [Illustration: NORTHERN IRELAND FIRING GERMAN WEAPONS. In order to become familiar with German weapons and to learn the capabilities of enemy arms, U. S. infantrymen fired them during training in Northern Ireland in the spring of 1944. The men in the top picture are firing a German standard dual-purpose machine gun (7.92-mm. M. G. 34). The soldier in the bottom picture is firing a German rifle (7.92-mm. Karbiner 98K--Mauser-Kar. 98K) which was the standard shoulder weapon of the German Army and very similar to the U. S. rifle M1903.] [Illustration] [Illustration: ENGLAND MEMBERS OF AN ARMORED INFANTRY REGIMENT firing U. S. weapons during training in England. In 1941 the Ordnance Department began its experiments with the rocket launcher, which resulted in the invention of the 2.36-inch rocket launcher (bazooka). This was the first weapon of its type to be used in the war. Designed originally as an antitank weapon, it was used effectively against machine gun nests, pillboxes, and even fortified houses. It required only a two-man team--a gunner and a loader--and as it weighed only a little more than a rifle it could be carried everywhere (top). The crew of a 60-mm. mortar M2 firing at a simulated enemy position (bottom).] [Illustration] [Illustration: ENGLAND