Chris--We were issued just one mattress cover per GI. And the Arabs tried to sneak in under

the tarp and some got away before we found out what was happening. Some had their

boots stolen so when we took them off at night we tied them to the cot at the head end.

The casbarrs, me oh my. Gotta keep quiet here. Only officers had .45s' Our M1s' were by

our boots. Hey Sgtleo you woulld have a ball at rifle inspection, all that desert dust,damn!!

Roque

Dad had said he always had trouble with the arabs stealing anything they could get their hands on.

One of the few stories he told was when he was a train guard in north africa with the 794th MP Bn. He and 1 other MP was assigned the guard a supply train going to Tunisia.

( usualy there were 3 - 5 guards on a supply train < 6 if they were hauling Rocky`s combat boots > but there was only the 2 of them on this train. Then the train broke down in the mountains and it took 3 days to get it fixed & running again. So dad was on one side of the train and the other fella was on the other side. They couldnt sleep for the 3 days the train was broke down & dad said they were runnin low on ammo chasing off the arabs most every night.

All this talk about mattres covers and selling them etc but do any of you

know what the Army really intended the mattress covers to be used for??

How many of you had a mattress when you were in the ETO so why the cover??

Something to think about before I give you the answer.

Sgtleo

Sgtleo. We called them mattress covers We used them to fill them with straw and lay on them.

We only had them in No. Africa. we also had rubber insulated 35 gal bags for water and we

hung them on a tripod. The bags had spigots to draw water for drinking only. Put aterbrine

tablets in the water to purify it. Sgtleo you should have seen some of them arabs when they

cut holes on the corners, they would stick their legs through the holes pull it up and double it back to the waist, get a rope and tie it around leaving on end long that was brought from the waist between the legs to raise the cloth up and it made it look like pants legs.Hell of a looking sight. Roque

206mp: Yes, I recieved packages from home. Cookies were usually crumbled and a bit stale but great. One surprise I go was from my aunt. Package with a big loaf of home made bread. Bread was stale but found it had ben cut open, the center cut out and a pint bottle of Old Granddad Bourbon inside. From somewhere she found out this secret of safe shipment. What a safe way to pack it. Did we all enjoy this!!

I've heard that one before re: the bottle in the bread. Three cheers for your sweet aunt.

My guess on the matress covers was like Roque said, they were to be stuffed with straw.Horace Kepart's 1906 book on Woodcraft recommended carrying matress covers since they could be folded and easily carried. I have a feeling that SgtLeo's was a trick question but that's my guess.

I had not heard of the Arabs making pants. That sounds like quite a sight Roque! Dad said they used them to wrap their dead but I seem to remember him saying they wore them also. Do you suppose the old Arab Greybeards sit arouund telling their grand children about the shrewd deals they made with the American GI's?

Chris

Chris I didn't want to say what your Dad said.; It was right what he said,they were used

for other than straw. Roque.------- We didn't have them in Italy.-----

Them old Greybeards are gone by now, I don't think they live too long.

:alien2: :alien2:

Roque:-

I haven't heard or even thought of a Lister Bag for what seems forever.

Training in Florida with the 79th we used to buy ice from a local to put in

the bags and it made the water more palatable when itwas cold. This sets

the stage for a story that is Gospel Truth.

We had a guy from Texas,that honest Injun,believed in GHOSTS so we got

permission from the Cadre guys to set him up with a few men telling Ghost

stories. While this was being done - me(of course) and another guy stood

with our hands in the Lister Bag which now had almost ice water in it. We

were in the Large Plt. tents with the sides rolled up to get any air that we

could and he was laying on his cot in his scivvies. Sneaking up behind him,

we started screamimg like a Banshee and clamped our COLD hands on his

chest and stomach. Little did we know he was going to wet his pants and

then faint dead away. A Medic that was in the tent realized how bad this guy

was and after reviving him took him to the hospital.

When the Medic got back we got chewed out long wide and deep because

it was his and the Drs. at the hospital that we had nearly given this guy a

for real heart attack. We then knew we were in deep Doo Doo because the

guy we scared could have died from fright and they had to transfer him to

another Plt. as he refused to come back to the same one as we were in.

Company Punishment followed of course with threats of a Courts Martial if

he did in fact die or had to be discharged. I was only 18 and thought it was

a howl but what I did not know was how serious it could have been.

Answer to the Question on the mattress cover is the Cadre Men and other

Regulars told us that this was what your remains would go in until Graves

Registration Units made a more permanent container. So we were told "you

are carrying your casket when you pack your mattress cover.

Sgtleo

Oh dear me, now that sounds a bit morbid. Not a very pleasant thought to be carrying around, literally!

Right on target about the mattress covers, Sgtleo. I just couldn't say it. Roque

I found several references about selling mattresses to the Arabs. In seperate memoirs it said they woult tie rope to the mattressfrom aboard a train and drag the Arab until he let go. They would then sell the mattress cover in the next town. They were being paid $20 each so there was quite alot of bartering between the GI's also. One soldier said the deals were revenge for all the stuff they stole

Chris

twobisquiit-- This is the first time I have heard about what some did with the mattress

covers. And I don't think G I's of my time would do something like that. Course we were

set up out in an area where you saw Arabs and camels. So I won'tcomment on your post.

I DON'T MEAN ANY BAD THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS AS IT IS NOT INTENDED. ROQUE

Some web links to mattress covers...

http://30thinfantry.org/researching.shtml

...As soon as possible and practical, the body was placed in a body bag, which sometimes consisted of only a mattress cover, and buried in a shallow grave of a temporary cemetery, although carefully marked and identified...

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http://www.medalofhonor.com/RussellDunham.htm

...Dunham's bright blue eyes show the anguish when he tells the story of how he single-handedly knocked out three German machine gun nests and saved the lives of hundreds of U. S. soldiers. Sgt. Dunham was leading foot soldiers of his platoon of Co. I, 3rd Infantry Division through the German lines at Alsace-Lorraine in France. "We broke through the German lines and were behind the enemy, " Dunham said. German machine gunners opened fire on the advancing U. S. infantryman and many soldiers fell dead in the snow. "We were pinned down by the German machine guns," Dunham recalled. Dunham mustered all his courage and quickly decided to attack the German machine gunners to save his comrades. He wrapped a white mattress cover around his body to camouflage himself in the snow. He loaded his belt with hand grenades and ammunition, picked up a fast firing automatic rifle and ran up the hill to face the German machine gunners. A German rifle bullet ripped into his back, spun him around, and he rolled down the hill. He was bleeding from his wound but he struggled back to his feet and ran back up the hill firing the automatic rifle at the machine gun nest. The mattress cover wrapped around Dunham's body was soaked with blood, making him an easy target for German soldiers. He continued up the hill, firing his rifle and throwing hand grenades. "I got so close in the German gunner that I stared right into his eyes," said Dunham, who tossed a hand grenade and silenced the machine gun. Dunham continued to run forward in the face of a hail of bullets, knocking out two more German machine gun nests and capturing enemy soldiers. His bravery on Hill 616 is a part of the World War II history...

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http://home.earthlink.net/~iversonom/ioaVEday.html

...The flight from Frankfurt to England was a rough ride, enclosed in fog most of the way. We were not able to land at an airport in south England so we dropped through a small hole in the clouds and fog and landed near Manchester. At the railway station, we met a British Major who invited us to ride in his rail cabin with him. Somehow we ended up at a camp near Salisbury, Tidsworth where the 2nd Armored Division was encamped before the invasion. We were given a mattress cover and straw to stuff it with. That was our mattress. I can remember getting the hiccups and everytime I hiccuped the mattress made a noise. About 2AM I went over to the gym and stood on my head and counted one hundred. It worked!...

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http://books.google.com/books?id=lj6yUefc2...8uVTL1ureJrlXqo

Page 30 will pop up on your screen

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http://members.home.nl/alasoe/Temporary%20...N.%20Europe.htm

See WWII Burials on that page

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http://www.pr.com/press-release/32861

...Here are the realities of that war: opening the casualty blanket rolls, seeing the dead being buried in mattress covers, the sounds, the smells and the fears of men in infantry combat. A glimpse, too, of the boys who fought the battles of World War II as they grew up or matured during the Great Depression, the rigors of infantry basic training, life in England in the weeks leading up to D-Day...

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http://www.gallagher.com/ww2/chapter12.html

...On top of the bad news about the setback in the war, we were getting off to a bad start at this new camp. It created an immediate dislike for the place that would only get worse as time went on. The first thing that happened was we were each given a mattress cover. Next, we stood in a long line leading up to a pile of straw. They shoveled the straw into the cover with a pitchfork; that was to be our mattress while we were in camp. Straw mattresses - how primitive, even for an Army camp! Grimes commented, "I thought this stuff was only used to mix with horse manure." I had not heard so much griping from my fellow GIs since the first time we arrived at Camp Irwin on the Mojave Desert during our stateside training...

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http://www.pjstar.com/stories/090907/TRI_BE6NA98S.022.php

...During a trip to the commissary for groceries, Perry and her family saw bodies of military casualties stacked inside mattress covers...

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Well that should give some idea of real life situations during the war.

**********A BIG AMEN TO THE ABOVE.******** ROQUE

Joe, you certainly had a wonderful Aunt! She was resourceful &

smart too! to her!!