Sec. 562, P. L. & R.U. S. POSTAGE

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There's :zinc in practically all the tools of war

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COPPHR COmlllAllBO· \DECEMBER 10, 1943

'. A SPECIAL. NUMBER DEVOTED TO ZINC

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THIS issue of COPPER COMMANDO, official newspaper of the VictoryLabor- Management Production Committees of the Anaconda CopperMining Company and its Union Representatives, is devoted to the end-

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uses of zinc. The purpose of this issue is to demonstrate, not only to. zinc producers in our state, but readers everywl,ere, that zinc is a highlyimportant product in the war program. The issue itself, because ofspace limitations, covers the top'ic of zinc in its app~ication only to the'Army; the uses of zinc for the Navy are equally great .••• From time totime COPPER COMMANDO hopes to be able to bring the war more,closely home to its readers by showing readers themselves how vital arole they play in the war program. ,

COPPER COMMANDO is the official newspaper of the Victory Labor-ManagementProduction Committees of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and its UnionRepresentatives in Butte. Anaconda, Gr'eat Falls and East Helena, Montana. It isissued every two weeks ... COPPER COMMANDO is headed by a joint committeefrom Labor and Management: its policies are shaped by both sides and are dictatedby neither ... COPPER COMMANDO was established at the recommendation ofthe War Department with the concurrence of the War Production Board. Its edi-tors are Bob Newcomb and Marg Sammons: its safety editor is John L. Boardman:its chief photographer is AI Gusdorf; its staff photographer is Les Bishop ... ItsEditorial Board consists of: Denis McCarthy, CIO; John F. Bird, AFL; Ed Renouard,ACM, from Butte; Dan Byrne, CIO; Joe Marick, AFL; C. A. Lemmon, ACM, fromAnaconda; Jack Clark, CIO; Herb.Donaldson, AFL, and E. S. Bardwell, ACM, fromGreat Falls ... 'COPPER COMMANDO is mailed to the home of every employe ofACM in the four locations-if you are not receiving your copy advise COPPER COM-MANDO at 112 Hamilton Street, Butte, Or, better still, drop in and tell us. This isVolume 2. No.8. Photos. all from U. S. Government sources, are from the files of

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the Signal Corp's, Army Air Forces, the U. S. Navy and others.

THE suggestion for this special issueof COPPER COMMANDO came from.OlK Editorial Board at Great Falls whereJack Clark, Herb Donaldson and E. S.:.( Bard) Bardwell represent the editorial ~interests of your Labor-ManagementCommittee newspaper.

It was the feeling of our Great FaUsmen that the contribution of workers inzinc should be recognized. You prob-~y recall that, some months ago, weproduced a special issue on the end-usesof copper and this issue, although " ,smaller, is designed to do the same sortof job. Your editors would be' remiss if " ~Ithey were not to acknowledge once more ~the great help provided by the IndustrialServices Division of the War Departmentin Washington, which is under the direc- ~tion of Colonel Ralph F. Cow. ColonelGow and his staff have done a magnifi-cent job with providing us with the aU4

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thentic material needed for such an issue iand supplying us with action photo--graphs.

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ITHE Christmas Seal drive continues:early reports indicate that Montanans, as

. might be' expected, are giving their besttn the interest of fighting this worst of.aH diseases.

Don't forget that every dollar youcontribute in terms of Christmas Sealsgoes to fight this plague. If you are inSilver Bow County, make your checkpayable I to Frank L. Harrington, treas-urer, Silver Bow County TuberculosisAssociation, Silver Bow County Court-house, Butte. Deer Lodge County resi-dents should make their checks payableto Mrs. John E. McBride, Ladies' Aux-iliary, American Legion. Anaconda. Ifyou are a resident of Cascade County,send your check. for whatever you canspare, to Don Gibson, Cascade CountyTuberculosis Seal Drive,-Great Falls.

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*THE A. W. V. S in Butte is making an>appeal for magazines to be distributedto service men at the various railroad ,stations. Anyone familiar with the workof this group realizes that this auxiliaryis doing a fine j60.

tThe service boys like many types of

magazines, notably the comics, detectivestories and westerns. Some of the indi-cated preferences of the fello':rs are:Time, Life. Collier's. Saturday EveningPost, Cosmopolitan, Red Book, Huntingat'\d Fishing. Esquire, The New Yorker,Readers Digest. American ..Liberty. Popu-lar Mechanics, Popular Science, Path-ftnder. Newsweek, U. S. News, and •movie magazines.

Go through your magazines todayand see what you can pass along to the _men in service.

BECAUSE 'of the great emphasis placedby our military leaders on the need forcopper, we are sometimes inclined to losesight of the importance of zinc: It is per-fectly true that copper is the more im-portant metal and that the winning ofthe war, as well as the length of time ittakes us to win it, will depend probablymore on the production of copper than itwill on the production of zinc.

But at Anaconda and .Great Falls theboys in the zinc end of the industry aredoing a tremendous job to shoulder theirgreat share of the war's burden, They areproducing zinc in great quantities. Alongwith zinc producers throughout theUnited Nations, they are delivering theirshare of the war's goods. In addition tothat, they are supplying to the MetalsReserve that required storage of zincslabs which are always on call in the eventof an emergency.

Some months ago, COPPER COM-~MANDa, as the official newspaper of ourVictory Labor-Management ProductionCommittees, undertook to show its read-ers the importance of copper and how itis related to the war program. In thisissue we would like to have you join usin a survey of the part which zinc playsin the war.

There are few materials of war inwhich zinc, either as a metal or as an al-loy, does not play an important part. Themen at Anaconda and Great Falls who

Zinc, like copper, plays animportant part in the w.arpro-gram. This issue of your La-

, bor-Management CommiHeenewspaper is dediccred to thezinc producers of Montanawho have consistentlysmashed production recordsand who are doing their greatshare to help win the war.

* *-*work in the zinc operations should knowthat they are contributing greatly to thewinning of the war through keeping upthe production flow of this importantmetal.

"THE wartime uses of zinc are many andvaried. It would be best probably to giveyou an idea of how they are broken downand then show you, in words and in pic-tures, the many types of military devicesinto which zinc goes.

These headings would start with am-munition. Zinc goes into cartridges of alltypes and kinds.

A second heading would be guns for.there are few guns in use on world bat ...tie fronts today which do not containzinc.

Zinc producers play their part alsoin contributing to the production of tanksand combat vehicles. These vehicles in.elude, of course, light, heavy and mediumtanks, scout cars, infantry carrier trucks.ambulances, jeeps and transport trucks.

Zinc goes into every type of aircraftflown. When you look up in the air andsee military planes flying overhead, youcan realize that there is zinc in everyoneof them. The men at Anaconda and GreatFalls who are busy producing zinc forUncle Sam have done their part to makeeach one of those fly. .

In Signal Corps equipment zinc isan important factor, and this must be con-sidered a separate heading, for radio sets.central telephone sets, telegraph andtelephone equipment, radio compasses.cameras and many other types of SignalCorps equipment require zinc for their.successful operation.

The Quarterrnasterls Corps looks tozinc to supply it with needed material.

Lives are being saved every fightingday by zinc, because the Medical Corpsrequires zinc in much of its equipmnet ...

Battles can't be fought without theengineers who back up the fightingforces. The engineers use equipment of

TH ERE'S :zinc in the -155 mm gun. There are two pounds of :zinc in the gun itselfand 167 pounds in the carriage. Here two soldiers are removing a powder ch~rgefrom the container, preparatory to firing the gun. Zinc is about ready to fire.

ZINC is in these Kodiak Island guns in the Aleutians. Here is a crew of a 37 mmanti-aircraft gun en route to their posit ion. This gun, if fired steadily, wouldexpend over three hundred pounds of :zinc in ten minutes.

HERE'S an action sa;ot in North Africa, taken at the time when our boys ,weredoing their stuH here. That's a crew of a 105 mm Howitser of the Field Artilleryand the crew is loading and setting the gun for fire. It will shoot over fifty pou ..d.of :zinc in one minute..4.

which zinc almost always plays a vitalpart.

Chemical warfare depends uponzinc. Gas masks contain zinc, and eachfighting man must have a gas mask. Zincdust is used for generating smoke screens.

To outline the needs of the Navy forzinc would fill many issues of COPPERCOMMANDO. Our battleships, cruisers.submarines. airplane carriers and nearly•all other forms of fighting craft and.equipment need zinc to make them ef-fective.

Flares and bombs contain zinc. Infad, it would be difficult to make a wordpicture of modern warfare wi thout re-ferring in practically every paragraph tozinc and its importance.

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~ ou can bet your bottom dollar that :zincgoes into ammunition-you could shootmighty few bullets without it. Con-sider the 105-mm cannon, for .example:If it were fired without ceasing, it wouldshoot away more than fifty pounds ofsinc every minute the cannon was fired.The victories now being won by theUnited Nations fighting forces are duein some measure to :zinc.

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..THE bullets and the shells which are be-ing hurled at the fighting forces of theAxis today contain zinc.

The major military use of zinc is forammunition where it is alloyed with cop-per to form brass. For every ten poundsof copper used in brass two and one-halfto five pounds of zinc must be used.

To give you an idea of the amount .of zinc required to fight this war, let uspoint out to you that each million cart-ridges for small arms requires about12,000 pounds df zinc.

If it were possible to fire a 105 mmcannon steadily over a period of time. itwould consume more than fifty poundsof zinc for every single minute the can-non was fired. That takes an incredibleamount of this vital metal.

One of the most important guns usedin battling the Axis is our famous 37 mmanti-aircraft gun. Let's assume that thisgun couldalso be fired steadily over a con-siderable time. If it had been fired, letus say, for a solid hour, you would findout that in each ten minutes of firingmore than three hundred pounds of zinchad been used in the ammunition ex-pended.

We are all familiar with the 7S mmshell. Ten brass cartridge cases for a 7Smm shell contain more than five poundsof zinc, and more than three pounds ofzinc are used in making the cartridgecase of a 9(>mm shell.

One 15S mm high explosive shellcontains one and one-half pounds of zinc.

DECEMBER 10, 1943

Gons~ Wlt.t IOOcI is .... IIHIAition If you don't

ha-ve lU"S to fire it froM? Here againzinc plays its iInportant role, for virtuallyevery gun in 11M Oft tM Allied fightingfrOilts has 80Me siwc in it. The 4O-nll"gun, jtlst to live )'GU an idea, coMmsabout thirty-five povlHls of ziRc. Not

~ only that--this gun requires 238 ~uttdsof ziRe ift the gun carriage.

BUT ammunition wouldn't be worth any-thing if we lacked the guns for it. Hereagain zinc, like copper, plays an impor-tant role.

We haven't the space to tell you ofall of the types of guns which use zinc,but perhaps some of these figures will beinteresting to you, particularly to thosemen on the production front who are get-ting out the zinc.

In each .30 caliber automatic rifle,there is about one-tenth of one pound of

"zinc.Each 40 mm gun contains about

thirty-five pounds of zinc. Not only that,but there is zinc in the gun carriage, too.It is estimated· that there are approxi-mately 238 pounds of zinc in the car-riage of a 40 mm gun.

A 155 mm gun contains about twopounds of zinc, plus 167 pounds in thecarriage.

The gun carriage of a 37 mm guncontains about fourteen pounds of zinc.Each 90 mm gun mount contains about250 pounds of zinc. .

You wouldn't probably give a secondthought to the amount 'of metal in the re-coil mechanism of a gun, but in the 155mm gun the recoil mechanism alone con-tains about one hundred twenty-twopounds of zinc.

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FRONT.COVERWe show you the picture of the soldieron the front cover because practicallyeverything the soldier works with thesedays contains zinc: On page ten )'Ouwill find some of the items listed inwhich zinc is used. Look at the ,asmask the fighter on the front page iswearing. There is about one-third of apound of zinc in that mask. You mightsay that that isn't very much, but whenyou multiply it by the number of menthese gas masks have been issued to.you find that in gas masks alone overtwo and a half million pounds of zinchave been used and that is for the U. S.Army only.

DECEMBER 10, 1943

TEAMWORK is the keynote of anti-aircr aft artillery success. Here's a 90-mm gunshown in full recoil. Zinc, of course, is in these shells, but it is also in this sturdygun mount. Zinc producers have provided over 250 pounds of ztnc for the gunmount alone.

THERE isn't act~ally much zinc in an M-l rifle, berieved by the United StatesArmy to be the finest soldier rifle in t he world today. Actually there is onlyabout one-tenth of a pound of zinc in each. But don't forget to multiply thatamount by the number used.

THIS 37-mm anti-aircraft gun is from Battery C of the Seventy-first Coast Artil-lery. The gun is shown in f~ring position ready for enemy planes and there areabout fourteen pounds of %inc jn that businesslike gun carriage..5.

'A LOT of zinc goes into tanks and combat vehicles, not to mention the huge truckswhich the Army needs to transport troops and fighting supplies. Based on forty-two pounds of zinc to each slab, it is estimated that each one of these trucksshown above required at least one slab and perhaps more for its construction. Weall know that tanks take zinc just as they require copper. Here is a shot below ofan M-5 light tank on the desert at a California desert training center. I There arenineteen pounds of zinc in it.

TauksandCODlbatVehiclesOver the paved highways, the desertsand the snow-choked roads of the world.American - made tanks and combat

4 vehicles are moving. There is zinc inevery ·one of them. You may discover

_ ~ here for yourself that a light tank, just'1 to give you an idea. has about nineteen

1 pounds of zinc; a scout car has aboutthirty-five pounds. Our military leaderscouldn't conduct this war without hav-ing zinc available to them.

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THE tanks and combat vehicles of ourUnited Nations all require zinc to be ef-fective. Not only are the vehicles them-selves dependent upon zinc, but the gunsthey carry and the shells the guns firealso require zinc.

A light tank, for example, containsabout nineteen pounds of zinc while eachscout car contains about thirty-fivepounds of this important metal. There areeighty-seven pounds of zinc in an M-4tank .

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WHEN the Army Air Forces swept over North Africa and thisregion was conquered for the United Nations. the NorthAmerican B-25 gave a good acount of itself. 193 pounds of zincare needed to build and equip this great battler.

WHEN the history of World War II is completed, reporterswill pay great tribute to the famous P-39. And in paying it, •zinc will play its part. There are twenty-five pounds of zinc inthis great plane.

NINETY-FIVE pounds of zinc are represented in each one ofthese great Douglas A-20·s. shown above in formation. Youare ~IIfamiliar with other Douglas planes flown on virtually allthe commercial air lines ...

WHENEVER you read of the devastating bombing raids overCerman cities, you can pretty well count upon it that amongthe raiding planes is the Consolidated B-24-two of them a,eshown here in flight. Figure 132 pounds of zinc for everyone.

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HERE'S one of the better flying formation shots to come outof the Army Air Forces photographic files. For each one ofthese Republic P-47's there must be ~7 pounds of zinc (thatincludes spares, of course, as all t~ese figures do).

THE lead ship in a formation of Curtis P-40's peels off foran attack in a practice flight. Each of these. with spares, re-quire fifty-one pounds of z,inc. This is rated an outstandingfighter plane •

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AMERICAN bombers return from Italy: This formation of U. S. Army Air ForcesB-26 Marauders is seen over Stromboli Island during the return trip from a bombingmiSSion over Italy, one of the many which toppled Italy into unconditional sur-render. To build and equip each of these great planes, 205 pounds of sine areneeded, including spares. Stromboli is north of Sicily and west of Italy and is partDf the Lapari chain. •

THOSE are Lockheed P-38's in the smail picture in the center. Lightnings havebeen giving a fine account of themselves in the war and each Lightning withspares requires 72 pounds of zinc. That is a North American P-51 Mustangfi~hter in the picture at the bottom. This plane has four heavy barrel guns inthe wings; 125 pounds of sine are required to build and equip each Mustang •

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Tanks and other mechanized equip-ment require zinc for some of their mostvital parts, including carburetors and fuelpumps.

A slab of zinc weighs forty-twopounds and there are one to four slabsused for M1e construction of every arm-ored car. At least 0Ae slab of zinc is usedfor every infantry carrier truck.

There is a slab of zinc used in theconstruction of every ambulance, and aslab is required also for the constructionof each transport·truck.

Consider even the lowly·' jeep."These little vehicles. which have provedthemselves so useful in this war, use zincalso-a slab of zinc is used in the con- 'i;

st.ruction of every ten jeeps.

AircraftAnybody knows that sine is required inthe construction of aircraft. In thesefigures, given below, you can get an ideaof how much sine is required for ourfighting air forces-the War Departmentincfude$ zinc, required not only for theconstruction o-f the planes, but for spareparts needed f~r maintenance and re-placement. And don't forget there iszinc in the bombs and shells these planesare dropping.

YOU don't need to be a zinc producer tobe told that zinc is an important factor inthe construction of all aircraft - itdoesn't make ~ny difference whether it'sa trainer or a bomber or what it is. Everyplane that flies has zinc in it.

In aircraft construction, rough stockweights are given with spares. That meansthat the 'amount of z.inc represented ineach plane includes not only the actualamount of zinc needed to build and equipthe single plane but it includes also theweight of spare engines and other partsrequired for the maintenance of theplane. Rough stock weights are usuallythirty to forty per cent greater than theweight of metal in the completed plane.But it is easy to see that when the ArmyAir Forces provide planes for a certain op-eration. the command must make provi-sion fo~ spare engines and parts so thatthe plane can be kept in operation.

The North American 8-25, whichmade a great name for itself with theArmy Air Forces in North Africa, re-quires 193 pounds of zinc.

Among the planes which did such agreat job on bombing missions to Italyand which helped topple Italy into un-conditional surrender was the famousB-26 Marauder. Each of these greatfighting planes need 205 pounds of zinc.The Curtiss PAO has proved itself an out-standing fighter plane in the Mediter-ranean, South Pacific 'and Far Eastern

DECEMB£R 10, 1943

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theaters. For each one of these PAO'sthere must be fifty-one pounds of zinc.

The history to be written about thisgreatest of world wars will devote muchspace to the fighting capacities of theNorth American P-51 Mustang fighter.The Mustang, which was built first in1940, is in service with the United StatesArmy Air Forces and the Royal AirForces. Each one of these deadly fightersneeds, including spares, 125 pounds ofzinc.

The P-47 is Republic's great con-tribution to the fighting forces and tobuild and equip each one of these planestakes eighty-seven pounds of zinc. Thereare seventy-two pounds of zinc neededfor the Lockheed P-38, another greatfighting ship.

On many of the commercial trans-port lines of the country fly the greatDouglas planes. The Douglas organiza-tion has developed, in behalf of UncleSam, the Douglas A-~O and each onemust have ninety-five pounds of zinc.

Famous in flying lingo is the Aira-cobra, known as the Bell P-39. Thisplane, too, depends upon zinc and its re-quirements total twenty-five pounds.Each Consolidated B-24, another planewhich is making fighting history thesedays, takes 132 pounds of zinc, includ-ing spares.

The most famous of all heavy bomb-ers is the B-17, the' Flying Fortress, thatis smashing the Axis on all fronts. Each8-17 requi res 181 pounds of zinc.

These figures tell only part of thestory of the use of zinc in aerial war-fare. Zinc is used in communicationssystems in planes, also. All of us knowthat bombs dropped by planes contain

DECEMBER 10. 1943

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COMMUNICATIONS systems for the Army requires zinc. too. At the left an Armybfficer is giving instructions to jumpmasters over the "walkie talkie" before para-chutists jump. That is a more elaborate radio set-called a field set-up--in thepicture ab~ve. Radio sets like these all require zinc-some as little as one pound.while larger ones may take up to 354 pounds,

zinc. The flares which light the bomb-ers' targets contain as much as a poundand a half of zinc.

Like copper, zinc contributes its.share to keeping our planes aloft. If thecontinental invasion of Europe is to suc-ceed, zinc will have played its part alongwith other vital metals in assuring vic-tories for the United Nations.

Signal CorpsEquiplDent

Zinc is doing a job in helping the SignalCorps maintain contacts at the fightingfronts. One of the great uses of zinc forthis branch of the War Department isfor radio sets. Modern warfare de-mands that the branches of a fightingforce keep in touch with one another.and zinc plays its important role in thisessential wartime picture.

THE vast communications networkwhich, in many respects, is the backboneof a successful military operation, de-pends heavily upon zinc. Let's-look overthe outstanding contributions which zincmakes to the equipment of our SignalCorps.

Zinc is neededin radio sets used bythe Signal Corps. These sets are of vary-ing size, depending entirely upon theuses to which they are put. There is aslittle as one pound in a handy-talkie, butin the case of the largest communications

systems, as much as 354 pounds can befound in each set.

Telegraph and telephone facilitiescome under the authority of the SignalCorps and zinc is used in all of thesesystems. A central telephone set willuse about eighty pounds of zinc alone,and there are thousands and thousandsof them.

You yourself can probably figureout the many other uses of zinc in SignalCorps equipment. It would probably besufficient to say that zinc is also used inradio compasses, Instruments and cam-eras.

QuarterlDastersYoil fathers and mothers and sisters andbrothers of men in the fighting force.know that one of the big jobs of OUI

military leaders is to keep the boytproperly clothed and equipped. That'(where the Quartermasters Corps comelin. Zinc is used in so many items o~equipment issued by the QuartermastersCorps that it is impossible to give quanti.ties. But you can count on this: Th.Quartermasters Corps needs zin~ in near.ly all materials issued to its fighting men.

•Irs the job of the quartermastersCorps to see that the men in the fight-ing forces are properly clothed andequipped. In carrying on this vast and.9.

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THIS is a field unit with a radio operator on the job. 'Radios in warfare also are, dependent upon sinc.

vital work. the Corps depends upon zincproduction.

It is a startling fact that almostevery article of clothing' used by theArmy contains zinc. Take a look at thatlad on the front cover. There are fewthings that he has on which do not con-tain zlnc jn one form or another. Zincis used in belts. boots. caps. coats. over-coats. shoes. jackets. leggings. ski boots,snow shoes and tents.

Medical CorpsEquiplDent

.Today the Medical Corps is doing anamasing job in saving the lives of oursoldiers. And in the equipment it usesS"inc is a vital ingredient. Soldiers livesare being saved today because of the jobzinc is doing.

YOU may recall. in our issue regardingthe uses of copper in war. the many dif-ferent forms of medical equipmentwhich requi re copper. Zinc also makesits contribution to medical equipmentand helps. just as copper does, to savethe lives of our boys, to prevent disease

. and to help keep them in tip-top physicalcondition. A visit to a field hospitalwould soon show you the need for zinc,

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Medical instruments, sterilizers andX-ray equipment all contain zinc asmetal or in alloy.

Hospital sterilizers require up toeighty pounds of zinc. Distilling appa-ratus for .pure water contains about23 pounds of zinc. These are only afew highlights of uses of zinc in Medical_Corps equipment, but they should giveyou an idea that few operations in thiswar can be carried on without zinc.

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Enginee~EquipDlent

Whether it's an anti-aircraft searchlightwhich pencils through the dark and fogto spot an attacking bomber, or whetherit's a ponton bridge to help fighters andfighting equipment, sinc has plenty todo with it. The engineers depend uponsine to help them do a job. And theengineers, as you know, are the boys whohave no fears •

PRACTICALLY all engineer equipmentcontains zinc. It is used in 'all types ofinstruments. It is necessary in demoli-tion equipment. It is not possible tomeasure the number of lives which havebeen saved because of the use of anti-aircraft searchlights which ferret outenemy planes. In each one of thesesearchlights there is zinc. A 60-inchsearchlight and carriage, for example, re-quires fifteen pounds of zinc.

One of the greatest problems con-fronting an army is to keep its waterpure and much time and money has beenspent in seeing that the boys do not be-~ome afflicted with typhoid and otherdread diseases through drinking badwater. A water purification unit con-tains about ninety pounds of zinc.

Those of us who follow the warcarefully are familiar with the ponton

THERE is sinc in practically everything a soldier uses.·'Quartermasters Equipment" in this issue.

Read the section entitledt

DECEMBER 10, 1943

THE Medical Corps of the Army requires zinc in virtually allof its operations. There are eighty. pounds of zinc in steri-

lizers. about twenty-three pounds in distilling apparatus. Zinchas lots of medical uses.

bridge (not pontoon, as many peoplethink>. These bridges enable troops and

. equipment to move qui c k I y acrossstreams and other normally impassableplaces. They are put up quickly and they ,are built ruggedly to withstand massmovement of troops and materials. Alarge ponton bridge takes over 500pounds of zinc for its construction.

CheIDi~alWarfare

IN the annals of modern war, no wordstrikes terror to the heart of the civilian

h h d" ..as muc as t e wor gas.But the United Nations have long

since learned to prepare rhernselve.,against the ruthless enemy-an enemythat will stoop to any device in order towin. Lon g ago our generals became

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aware for the need of protecting ourfighting men in the event of gas at-tacks. Thus, each soldier today isequipped with a gas mask. Zinc hereagain plays its important role, for thereis about one-third of a pound of zinc ineach gas mask today. That does notsound like much, but multiply this smallzinc requirement for this one item alonefor an army of seven and a half mi IIionmen and you will see that there are twoand one-half million pounds of zinc inthe gas masks of our fighting men alone.That is a staggering zinc requirement andit has been met.

Zinc dust is used in generatingsmoke screens as a part of chemical war-farp.. These smoke screens conceal themovements of trooosand en;tble fightingforces. as they did in Italy for example.to move in under the protection of asmoke sc reen.

* * *THE Engineers turn to zinc for their searchlights and carriages.In the searc~light shown below at the 'eft, there are about

DECEMBER 10. 194i

THIS report of the uses of zinc in mod-ern warfare is confined, purely for rea-sons of lack of space, to the uses of zincin Army operations. It would take manypages to detail the uses of zinc in Navyoperations-we hope in the near futureto be able to show yo~ that also. Someinkling of the importance of zinc in. naval operations can be gleaned from thefact that the PT boat. smallest of theNavy units. uses 1,800 pounds of zinc.If the smallest unit of .the Navy uses1.800 pounds of zinc, we leave it to yourown imagination to figure how manypounds must be used in 'the constructionof an Iowa class battleship.

It shouid be enough to say that thecontributions being made by our fellowworkers on the zinc production front aretremendous. At Anaconda and GreatFalls these loyal and devoted workers.many with sons in the fighting forces, areconstantly breaking production records.These boys are backing up Uncle Sam tothe limit, not only with their purchasesof War Bonds but with their actual dayto day plugging on zinc production .

fifteen pounds of zinc. In the water purification and supplyunit at the right are ninety pounds .

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Zin~ Helps to Win the WarI

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IT isn't easy for workers in basic in-dustries such as ours to understandthat we have a war job too and thatwe are doing our share to win it. Aswe h a ve pointed 0 ut in earlierissues, the man who produces tanksand guns and planes can see theactual results of his work. But whenwe see in pictures the results of ourwork and understand that in each. one of these fighting implementsour products are essential, we beginto get a better grasp of our role inthe war.

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IN virtually every Army operation z.incis to. be found-the zinc producersamong us are contributing vastly to thewinning of the war by their fine produc-tion of this metal. We've all read andheard a lot about ponton bridges-thereis one shown in the large picture above.A ponton bridge of that size requiresapproximately 500 pounds of zinc. Andtake it from the War Department, thesebridges are mighty important in fightinga major war.

We haven't intentionally neglectedthe Navy-as we explained, we didn'thave space to do it justice in this issue.But as we said earlier, since a PT boatalone uses 1,800 pounds of zinc (that'sa shot of PT' boats in the picture at theleft) , you can get some idea of what thez.inc requ irements of the Navy and theUnited Nations might be.

So that's the story of zinc and whatit is doing for the Army. We hope youhave enjoyed seeing the end-uses ofzinc and that the zinc producers amongus will thereby gain a clearer idea of howfine a contribution they are making tothe United Nations' war program .

DECEM BER 10,.1943