Maintenance companies, chemical

Early in November 1943, First Lieutenant Howard D. Beckstrom of the US 701st Chemical Maintenance Company based at Baltimore received orders to prepare to go abroad. He was one of an elite group of chemical warfare experts. Trained at a special centre at Camp Sibert in Alabama, it was one of Beckstrom s jobs to supervise the movement of chemical munitions. His destination on this occasion, he was informed, was the main supply point for the Allied armies in Italy the Adriatic port of Bari. His cargo was part of the vast American chemical stockpile 100 tons of mustard gas. 

Chemical maintenance companies were not as extensively utilized in the Pacific war as they were in Europe. Only two maintenance companies got west of Hawaii, and one of these, the loth, ended the war... 

The shortage of mortar spare parts harassed battalion commanders from the early days of the Normandy fighting and remained unsolved throughout most of the European operations. The solution of this problem was a primary mission of a CWS spare parts team which visited the Continent during the winter of 1944-45. In its final report the Spare Parts Team praised the work done by the chemical maintenance companies on the component parts of the mortar. With ingenuity and versatility these companies improvised, cannibalized, and even manufactured sufficient spare parts to permit the continued... 

During the first nine months of 1943 the loth Chemical Maintenance Company at Brisbane, commanded by Capt. John J. Shaffer, conducted extensive flame thrower tests in order to locate the major sources of trouble, a project which included the thorough overhaul of all flame throwers in the Southwest Pacific Area. The unit discovered that most malfunctions resulted from deteriorated cylinders and batteries which had succumbed to the deleterious temperatures and humidity of the tropics. All flame throwers shipped to the Southwest Pacific or carried as equipment by units arriving in the area were thoroughly tested, repaired, and waterproofed by trained technicians under the direction of Colonel Copthorne and his staff. Though fundamental defects remained, the work of the SWPA Chemical Section went a long way in effectively preventing a repetition of the mishaps suffered on Buna. 

Although the flame thrower had performed dismally at Buna, Sixth Army had received reports of the successful use of the weapon on Guadalcanal and New Georgia. On the basis of these reports it appeared that a dependable flame thrower could be the answer to the problem of pillbox destruction. By October 1943 the rigorotis tests conducted by the loth Chemical Maintenance Company demonstrated that the flame thrower could be made reliable. Sixth Army therefore decided to include the weapon in its future combat operations and asked that Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces Far East, increase the... 

The 706th Chemical Maintenance Company (Aviation) was redesignated as 769th Chemical Depot Company (Aviation) as of 20 December 1943. 

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