JAPANESE SUPPLY DUMPS
FOREWORD
The photographic material compiled in this publication is the latest information available on Japanese supply dumps and depots. It is published to aid the Photo Interpreter in his analysis of such installations. The information in this publication is divided, into five sections as arranged in table of contents.
Dumps are temporary stacks of military supplies. Generally, a dump will contain only one class of supplies and will vary from large facilities in rear areas, to small piles of supplies in forward areas.
Supply dumps can be broken down into three types;
(a) Permanent - Located in rear areas - usually in a patterned layout in separate buildings.
(b) Distributing - Located in stacks or buildings on beaches or docks or in wooded areas at road and rail terminal points.
(c) Temporary - Located in forward areas - in storage pits, buildings, magazines or stacked in wooded areas. |
The layout will indicate whether dump is ammunition,. explosive, gas, fuel,food, ordnance etc. Ammunition dumps are spaced at wide intervals to minimize the destruction of a entire dump if one stack is destroyed. Also heavy blast walls and underground storage indicate heavy explosive material.
Fuel dumps vary from large tanks in rear areas to small drums in forward areas. The drums are dispersed in pits,holes, earth covered shelters, loose under foliage, and stacked in neat rows.
Food, engineering, and other supplies are spaced at close intervals and when not in sheds and huts are stacked in the open, covered or uncovered with less regular appearance. In forward areas the loose store dumps are filled largely by this type material when large areas of the ground are covered. Tree groves, plantations and other vegetation are used to hide the dumps as much as possible.
When dumps cannot be detected due to foliage, camouflage, etc., the main key to a location may be the number of tracks and roads leading to and within the dump area.
Charles H. Cox
Lieutenant Colonel, USMCR
Officer-in-Charge
Photographic Interpretation Center
U.S. Naval Air Station, Anacostia, D.C.
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