The Humble Shelter Half

[Pete]

The reason the U.S. Army has an Adjutant-General and a Surgeon-General is because during the 19th century they were the only general officers authorized for their respective departments. My Revised U.S. Army Regulations of 1863 makes that point clear in its officer pay tables. The pay tables for the enlisted men of 1863 include the payroll deduction for support of the Old Soldiers Home in Washington DC, just like today.

Old Army publications provide clues about where some of our terminology came from -- in 1863 Boards of Survey were convened to investigate cases of missing Army property, which isn't much different than our current terms of Surveying Officers and Reports of Survey. Endorsements to correspondence are an old 19th-century U.S. Army practice that continue to this day -- see my "Guerillas Near Washington DC" thread in the Historians forum to read endorsements by JEB Stuart and Robert E. Lee to several of Mosby's reports.

[Fuchs]

I had such a primitive thing during my service as well - which is a shame, since there was a vastly superior, out-rightly ingenious design in the Wehrmacht.

The Zeltbahn 31 and 34 were quarter tents. They served not only as tent pieces, but also as ponchos, wind protection, float and stretcher.

http://zeltbahn.net/tent.htm
http://zeltbahn.net/poncho.htm
http://zeltbahn.net/float.htm

Finally, it was probably the first quantity-produced fabric with a camouflage pattern (and a quite good one, unlike UCP).


I never learned why exactly the Bundeswehr used such a crappy design until the 90's when such an ingenious predecessor was known!

[Pete]

My impression of the Bundeswehr during a field exercise at Munster Lager in 1979 was that they assume buildings in Europe will be available for billeting its troops. The U.S. Army retains an old frontier tradition of assuming its operations will always be in the wilderness, requiring tents, axes, shovels, and every other item of equipment needed to survive in the wild (although you couldn't tell that today from looking at one of our air-conditioned FOBs). Our 2 1/2- and 5-ton trucks even look like Condestoga wagons when the canvas is on the back. The U.S. Army has its Ordnance Corps for vehicle maintenance; the Bundeswehr has contractor maintenance support, and soldier mechanics are used only for quick repairs in the field.

By the way, when I was at Munster in 1979 I ate the famous German Army pea soup with a big wedge of black bread.

[rgregory]

Before the zeitbahn, there was Days Poncho tent shelter. It was essentially a shelter half with slit for the neck to go through. It was made out of painted cloth and was meant not only to provide some rain protection but also a water proof tent. I believe the patent date was 1860. There was also a knapsack that folded out to provide a shelter half. When it came time to move out the contents of the pack were placed back into the folded knapsack. The govt bought some of days poncho tents, but apparently he could not provide them in quantity.

[Pete]

This antiquarian and history stuff is useful for understanding how we got to where we are now, and also for predicting how the institution of the Army might act in the future when in similar circumstances. However, some years ago I had to part company with some Civil War buff friends when they began insisting that being obsessive about utterly trivial historical facts is evidence of a devotion to the greater cause of enshrining the Civil War in memory. History is nice, but only up to a point.

[Pete]

I had such a primitive thing during my service as well - which is a shame ...

If it works don't fix it.