OUR ARMY TODAY
by Kendall Banning'02. Funk & Wagnails, 1943, 259 pages. $2.50,
Kendall Banning is an old hand at writing books about the army and the navy. This is his latest, and very good and timely it is, too.
In July 1939 our army totaled about 174,000 men; today the number runs to millions. This book tells about our army, how it is trained, what weapons it' uses, and how it has improved since World War I.
The author doesn't claim that it is more courageous or more militarily competent than certain other armies but he does claim, and proves, that "it is the best paid and the best fed and the best equipped army today."
He first discusses the composite soldier, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 144 pounds in weight, etc. He then discusses his weapons that he carries, that is, the "hand and shoulder" weapons. He takes you through the stiff training for tanks and describes a tanker as "the toughest man in the army." He takes the reader to the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the very heart of the most historic and romantic Indian country of the Wild West. He discusses field guns and later on discussing fixed coast artillery pieces reveals the astonishing fact to the uninitiated (that means most of us) that we pay $1,135,940 for one 16 inch gun firing a total time of 7.875 seconds. If I remember correctly we had some of these guns in France in 1918 fixed on railway trucks. They were something to remember.
He tells of the flying cadets whose training costs Uncle Sam $25,000, or four or five times what it takes to send a man through four years of college. He describes the alienist's tests to show whether the candidate is worth the risk. He mustn't be one to crack up later and waste such an investment.
This is an excellent book for the soldier, or for the man who expects to be a soldier, or for the parents whose son is a soldier. It deserves a wide sale.
There are many photographic illustrations, and the author had the collaboration o£ many officers and enlisted men in his task. The book is authoritative.
