WWII Shovel COVER M1910 ("AIRTRESS MIDLAND 1942") Near Mint!

Description: WWII Shovel COVER M1910 for the "T-Handle" entrenching tool made by AIRTRESS MIDLAND, Inc. of Davenport, Iowa. NEAR MINT! This example from AIRTRESS MID. INC." of Davenport, Iowa, the "heartland of the nation," was produced in the opening months of the war and would have been in the Quartermaster supply system for issue for the all of the earliest campaigns in French North Africa in November 1942 (Algeria-Morocco, OPERATION TORCH); the Mediterranean (the invasion of Sicily OPERATION HUSKY in July of 1943; and Italy, (Salerno, OPERATION AVALANCHE, etc.) as well as all subsequent operations, amphibious and airborne in both Europe and the Pacific. It is often overlooked that Army troops, e.g. the 164th Infantry Regiment fought alongside the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal in November 1942 . The soldiers of the 164th Inf. Regiment, under the command of COL Bryant Moore were affectionately and respectfully nicknamed by the marines of the"Old Breed" as "the 164th Marines" + Despite the introduction of the superior M1943 Folding Shovel, the M1910 "T-Handle" Shovel remained in service through the end of the war by both U.S. Marine Corps and Army personnel. This ORIGINAL Cover is made of heavyweight Light Shade OD#3 Canvas Web, unlike current reproductions which are made of a much lighter weight duck. + As to be expected this very early-war example has a heavy CAST ALLOY (not stamped steel) 5/8" Adjustable Strap Buckle, and blackened steel Ball Tip and blackened steel M1910 Belt Hook. +The "U.S" surcharge is boldly and crisply stamped on the front is wide serif font, as was the practice on AIRTRESS MIDLAND gear.+ The contractor data of the famous tractor-seating manufacturer, AIRTRESS MIDLAND, INC. of Davenport, Iowa, is legibly stamped beneath on the reverse in two lines. AIRTRESS MIDLAND 1942+ AIRTRESS MIDLAND was well known for their "Ride-on-Air" and "Air-Cushion" tractor seats, as well as other commercial seating, and produced a wide variety of canvas web gear for the War Department up until 1949. + ZERO tears, holes, frays, seam separations, abrasions, loose stitching to the canvas web or edge binding! Only a slight tint SPOT on the reverse and a barely visible SMUDGE on the front above the "U.S.". + SPOTLESS interior! + The original black printed GUIDE MARKS for the factory seamstress are still visible! ***** "Holes, Shovels, and Picks"Excerpted from the handsome, carefully researched work by Denis Hambucken, A G.I. IN THE ARDENNES: The Battle of the Bulge, (Pen & Sword Military Books, Ltd., 2020). "Second only to his rifle, the infantryman's most important tool is his ENTRENCHING TOOL. The M1943 entrenching shovel features a swiveling head that can be fully extended, angled as a hoe, or folded back for storage. The M1943 gradually replaces the M1910 Shovel, although many soldiers prefer the T-handle over the older model. Wherever a unit stops, the first order of business is usually digging in for concealment and protection against shelling and small arms. If they are only stopping for a few hours or to bivouac for the night, soldiers dig individual slit trenches about two foot wide, two foot deep and as long as the soldier is tall. Remembers William Campbell of the 28th Infantry Division: "It was like digging a grave." If the position is to be held, one or two-men foxholes are dug about four to five feet deep, usually with a step at the bottom, upon which soldiers can sit down, or stand to stay out of pooling water or to fire their rifles. According to army manuals, a foxhole with two feet of clearance above a crouching soldier protects him from tanks passing overhead, but German tankers learn to skid their treads over foxholes to collapse them and bury occupants alive. The longer they remain in a defensive location the more elaborate their underground "homes" become. Foxholes are improved with roofs made of logs, doors or corrugated steel taken from nearby buildings and covered with earth for protection against tree bursts and mortar shells. The floor is lined with hay or pine boughs. Soldiers carve out shelves for supplies, candles and ammunition. Frank Mareska of the 75th Infantry Division recalls that the much-dreaded German 88 guns left no time to duck:“You only venture out of your foxhole if it was necessary. Pissing or shitting had to be done either in a K or C-ration box, period! Renderings could then be thrown out over the parapet of your foxhole.”Larger holes are dug for machine guns and mortar positions, sometimes, entire vehicles are entrenched. When visibility is limited by falling snow, fog or obscurity, companies dig listening slit trenches some distance outside their perimeter to post sentries.Hard-frozen ground is doubly murderous for the infantry: It makes shells more deadly as they explode on the surface, rather than penetrate the ground, and it also makes it much more difficult to dig in. John McAuliffe of the 87th Infantry Division recalls that setting up a mortar position involves digging a large, two to three-foot deep circular entrenchment in addition to individual foxholes for the crew: "Sometimes we were digging a hole and we were almost done and they'd say: 'OK, we’re moving out!'“. After a long day of fighting, many are too exhausted to dig. In some places, the frozen ground is simply too hard for the entrenching shovel and few men carry the cumbersome MI910 pick-mattock.Most vehicles carry full-size shovels, axes and pickaxes. John Di Battista of the 4th Armored Division recalls: "The mattocks were heavy enough to go through the crust of ground. Once the crust was broken out, entrenching tools could do the job.[...] We were desperate hugging the ground waiting for our turn at a pick."Some units are provided with half-pound blocks of TNT with pull-type fuse lighters, fuses and blasting caps to blast through the rock-hard crust of the frozen ground. An obvious disadvantage of the TNT method is the attention it draws. Rocco Moretto of the 1st Infantry Division recalls: "Everything was going beautifully but the TNT threw up heavy black smoke in the explosion areas. The enemy observing this quickly began to rake our positions with heavy concentrations of fire and we began to sustain heavy casualties." Naturally, soldiers do not bother to fill their foxholes as they leave, consequently, Europe is riddled with millions of holes. It is not unusual for a foxhole to be occupied alternatively by American and German soldiers. After the war, It falls to landowners and farmers to fill in hundreds of thousands of foxholes and shell craters which are troublesome for machinery and hazardous to livestock. A post war survey of the grounds of the Castle of Rolley, an area of about 730 acres near Bastogne, counts no less than 2,490 foxholes to fill in.

Price: 105 USD

Location: Little Rock, Arkansas

End Time: 2025-01-05T15:36:46.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.45 USD