World War II

When the United States entered World War II, Col. Fenton commanded an Advance Depot, Quartermaster Corps in Verdun, France. Quartermaster Corps offered combat support, and Col. Fenton's unit supplied the Third Army with rations and Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL) while in combat. Advance Depots were behind the frontline but advanced with it to keep supplies near but at a "safe" distance.

These maps typify Col. Fenton's maps from World War II. Below the slides are maps that Col. Fenton used as commander of an Advance Depot, with explanations of the overprint and annotations.

This map of Verdun is the most annotated in the collection of WWII maps. The annotations represent the names and types of supplies stored in specific depots.

Supplies are categorized by class:

Class I is Rations - food, water, health, and comfort items;

Class II is Clothing and Equipment;

Class III is Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants (POL);

Class IV is Construction Materials;

Class V is Ammunitions.

Note that there are no Class V annotations.

This copy of the Darmstadt map has two overprint annotations, one circle around Gr. Gerau [Groß-Gerau] northwest of Darmstadt, connected to a second circle in the upper left margin enclosing a solid black crescent symbol and one circle around Truppen-Übungspl. Southwest of Darmstadt with a line connected to a second circle in the upper left margin encircling a solid black symbol of a funnel with a handle. The symbols indicate classes of supplies.

The crescent symbol represents Class I - Rations

The funnel symbol represents Class III - Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants (POL)