"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
...
On 7/06/2017 9:35 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

There have been many complaints in r.c.m about how difficult it is
to
buy tools and material elsewhere. A Brit expat told me that
metalworking as a hobby is considered a sign of insanity in Spain.

Wow. Talk about a different mind set. I grew up watching my dad
repair almost anything, and while not having a mill or lathe,
nonetheless, made an amazing array of stuff. Making and fixing
things was just the reality I grew up with.

A WW2 British account of American commandos in Burma expressed
amazement at the range of skills our common soldiers possessed or
rapidly learned, from handling mules to learning how to use
artillery,
neither of which British infantry (he claimed) would touch. Other
armies had to train recruits to become drivers, a skill practically
any American already knew. The Air Corps ordnance company my father
commanded made a refrigeration compressor out of a Jeep motor, to
cool
their beer in the New Guinea jungle heat.

Good ol' Yankee ingenuity!

Jon

The British author was especially impressed that the world's most
mechanized nation could find 800 qualified mule drivers among 3000
troops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill%27s_Marauders
It doesn't mention that they had no ground supply line and depended
entirely on air drops into jungle clearings, proving we could operate
effectively that way as well as with our usual massive logistical
support.