Army & Navy – EQUIPMENT: Brass Knuckles

To the office of every U.S. general in SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force) in Britain last week went a neat, sealed package from Washington. Inside each package was an elegant calfskin belt with pistol holster and a big shiny buckle embossed with the U.S. seal.

The generals admired the belts, tried them on for size. Snorted a two-star general: “Hell of a thing or the field—a sniper could pick out the buckle at 1,000 yards.” A brigadier general gloomed: “No good as a shaving strap either—all that stitching.” Having received no instructions on what to use the belts for, the generals concluded that somebody in Washington was designing a wardrobe for the march down the Wilhelmstrasse. The belts were tossed in bottom drawers.