The United States Army made it a point to recover and re-use from the battlefield as much equipment, clothing, and ammunition as possible. Ordnance Department vehicles and weapons such as tanks, trucks, machine guns, and artillery pieces were evacuated and routed to the correct unit. The Ordnance Department established several types of evacuation and maintenance companies, dealing with tanks, motor vehicles, light and heavy weapons, and other items, and corresponding to the extent or difficulty of repair;

• Ordnance Evacuation Company

• Airborne Ordnance Light Maintenance Company

• Ordnance Light Maintenance Company, Infantry Division

• Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company

• Ordnance Medium Automotive Maintenance Company

• Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company (Field Army)

• Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company (Tank)

• Ordnance Maintenance Company (Antiaircraft)

• Ordnance Maintenance Battalion, Armored Division

Ex-Quartermaster units were suffixed with "(Q)."

First echelon maintenance was performed by the users of the equipment, while second-echelon maintenance was performed by maintenance personnel directly part of the using organization, or designated to service it for minor repairs (light maintenance). Third-echelon maintenance was performed by separate medium maintenance units, while fourth-echelon, or "heavy" maintenance, was performed by separate heavy maintenance units. Fifth-echelon maintenance was the complete reconditioning of materiel and manufacturing of new parts at rear-area depots.

The Quartermaster Corps established two types of units to recover and repair Quartermaster materiel, the Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Company and the Quartermaster Salvage Repair Company (Semi-Mobile).

The Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Company;

supervises the collection, classifies, stores temporarily, and disposes of all classes of salvage within its area of operation. It operates primarily in corps and division areas, picking up salvage at salvage collecting points, salvage dumps and railheads, and evacuating it to Quartermaster repair units and depots and to the dumps, depots and repair shops of other arms and services, Additional labor troops may be assigned if the job in an area becomes too large.

The Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Company had a company headquarters and three platoons, each with two sections. One man from each of the seven Technical Services was attached to assist in sorting received items.

The Quartermaster Salvage Repair Company (Semi-Mobile);

is responsible, within the limits of its facilities, for the repair of all Quartermaster clothing ond equipment received. It operates primarily in the vicinity of a salvage dump in the army or corps area, receiving property for repair from a Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Company or from other sources.

Each Quartermaster Salvage Repair Company had a company headquarters and two platoons, with each platoon having a shoe repair section, a clothing repair section, and a textile repair section. in the European Theater of Operations, the textile repair section was usually replaced with an "equipment maintenance platoon" responsible for the repair of Quartermaster "general and special purpose equipment." If items could not be repaired at the salvage repair company but were still deemed worth saving, they were evacuated to the Communications Zone Quartermaster facilities.

Non-Quartermaster troops also participated in the salvage of items;

The collection of salvage does not rest entirely with Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Companies, but is a responsibility of all unit commanders, Corps and Division Quartermasters responsible for furthering the efficient operation of the Quartermaster Salvage Service within their areas. Troops collect salvage in the fighting zone and bring it back to designated points where the Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Company picks it up.

It is explicitly noted that salvage existed in large numbers in battlefields and in "hospital areas and cemeteries" and these areas would be checked for items first. In the U.S. First Army, a central field army dump was operated where the collecting companies would drop the salvage that they had collected before it was routed to the repair companies. In the Third Army, one salvage company was assigned to each army corps, who then routed the collected items to a field army dump. In the Ninth Army, no field army dump was set up, and the collecting companies assigned to each corps shipped salvage items to the nearest repair companies. In the field armies where so designated, each army corps used a Quartermaster Battalion to operate a salvage center manned by at least one Quartermaster Salvage Collecting Company and at least two platoons (eight trailers) of a Quartermaster Laundry Company (Semi-Mobile).

Received items underwent sorting and classification before reissue. After sorting, classification, determination of salvageability, sterilization, cleaning, or fumigation, and repair, Quartermaster items were divided into four categories; A, B, C (or CS) and X. Class A items were essentially like new, while Class B items were noted as being repaired. Class C or CS items were repaired, but were "only of such appearance and of such serviceability as to justify [their] issue to troops moving overseas and its shipment to overseas theaters for issue." Class X items were repaired by the cannibalization of other items, and were not suitable for issue as Class B items. When finished, Class A and usable Class B items were shipped to the field army Quartermaster Class II (clothing and equipment) and IV (construction materials) depot. Soiled Class B items, and Class C (or CS) items, were laundered and then repaired if necessary. Class X items were shipped back to Communications Zone Quartermaster depots.

Sorting:

a. All ammunition removed from clothing and belts

b. Clothing was searched for personal property. Enemy clothing was searched for documents to be turned over to intelligence officers.

c. Salvage was separated according to arm or service. Personnel from the Ordnance Department, the Chemical Warfare Service and the Signal Corps assisted in this classification. The Ordnance Deportment personnel examined and neutralized any bombs, grenades or explosives collected.

d. Clothing, shoes and individual equipment were sorted by item.

e. Parts of unserviceable articles were salvaged if they could be used in remanufacturing. In this class are included copper, brass, and parts of firearms and automobiles.

Classification:

(1) Serviceable items not requiring laundering which oould be returned immediately to stock.

(2) Serviceable items, which, after laundering, could be returned to stock.

(3) Unserviceable items requiring repair and laundering before being returned to stock.

(4) Non-Repairable items.

The Quartermaster Laundry Company (Semi-Mobile) had a capacity to provide laundry service for up to 48,000 troops per week in armies, corps, divisions, and hospitals when operating eight hours a day for seven days, using all sixteen of its laundry vans. Several sections of laundry companies routinely operated next to divisions, operating clothing exchange points.

Quartermaster Sterilization Companies and Quartermaster Fumigation and Bath Companies (Mobile) assisted in the task of cleaning items exposed to bodily fluids, toxins, poison gas, or that were "infested" (presumably with pest animals like insects or mice). It was found that the Fumigation and Bath Company (Mobile) was better suited to this task, as well as the task of providing routine showers to men; the bulky fumigation chambers were noted as being used rarely. Men exposed to gas were supposed to be treated at Medical Gas Treatment Battalions, but since no poison gas was intentionally used, these units mostly performed other functions or lent out their vehicles to units that needed them.

Instead of operating separate collecting and repair units where divisions would send minor salvage items, it was proposed after the end of the war in a General Board study to make a "divisional utilities company" a part of each division. The company would have a headquarters (2 O, 27 EM), a Bath Section (no O, 10 EM), a Laundry Platoon (1 O, 57 EM), and a Recovery and Repair Platoon (1 O, 83 EM). There was also a proposal floated where a shower unit (the bath section of the divisional utilities company) with sufficient men to both operate and maintenance the facilities, as well as assist the men using them, would be a permanent part of each division at division level so that soldiers could safely wash up regularly. It was noted that a bath unit, using twenty-four shower heads, could bathe an entire division in four days if the division was shifted to a temporary non-combat status.

Sources:

Mayo, Lida. United States Army in World War II, The Technical Services, The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront. Washington: United States Army Center of Military History, 1968.

Risch, Erna, Chester L. Kieffer. United States Army in World War II, The Technical Services, The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services Volume II. Washington: United States Army Center of Military History, 1955.

United States. United States Army. The General Board, European Theater: Service Operations of the Quartermaster Corps. s.l.: s.n., 1946.