The Quartermaster Corps

Publication of this volume completes the subseries dealing with Quartermaster operations during World War II. Two companion volumes of this group have described the Quartermaster organization and achievements in the United States, and a third has told about operations in the Pacific in the war against Japan. The principal Quartermaster function in World War II was to supply items needed by all Army troops, most notably, food and clothing. But the Quartermaster Corps was more than a supply force; it provided many services, such as bath and laundry facilities, necessary to the health and comfort of the troops. The prompt collection and careful identification and burial of the dead and the respectful and suitable disposition of their possessions were essential services that contributed much to the morale of the front-line soldier. While established to serve the Army itself, before the war was over in Europe the Quartermaster organization found it had also to provide minimum support for millions of war prisoners and destitute civilians. However prosaic a history of providing goods and services may seem at first glance, this was an activity of vital concern to the American soldier, and in the Mediterranean and European theaters it was an enormous and highly complicated operation. By the spring of 1945 the Quartermaster organization in the European theater was feeding and clothing and otherwise providing necessities and comforts to more than seven and one-half million people, the largest human support operation by a single organization in all history to that time. Inevitably Quartermaster officers and troops could not satisfy everybody, and made some mistakes; it is to the credit of the authors of this volume that they have tackled fairly and squarely-if not laid to rest-a number of controversial issues. Since so much of the Quartermaster effort was essentially civilian in its character, the general as well as the military reader should find this work instructive.