The Army Pays

A Corsican landowner presented a claim for damages: U.S. soldiers, said he, had cut down six of his trees for firewood. Officials of the U.S. Army Claims Office asked how he knew the soldiers were Americans. He had a requisition--some penciling on the back of a can label. It was addressed to "Private Mortimer Snerd." Satisfied that only an American could have written that, the U.S. Army paid the Corsican $90 for his trees.

Such cases cram the files of the Claims Office, which follows the Army wherever it goes, last week was following in the Army's tank tracks across France. Since the war began the Army's uniformed attorneys have had their hands full. In the United Kingdom alone (where most of the damage was to walls, fences, buildings and British cyclists hit by Army vehicles) the Army has already handled 15,000 claims, allowed 11,000, paid out $1,010,000.

Some of the cases settled:

P: Mme. Felicie Giacobbi, walking down a street in Algiers where three U.S. soldiers and a sailor were playing catch, was hit in the face by a ball. Award: $47.50. (But the Army chalked up an error to the Navy, asked the Navy to pay.)

P: An English village presented a bill for ten shillings for services rendered: fishing an unknown G.I.'s false teeth out of a drain. Claim paid.

P: When a U.S. artillery unit let go with a practice salvo in England, 30 ewes in a neighboring field had miscarriages. The Claims Office figured that two-thirds of the offspring would have had a normal life span. Award: the value of 20 sheep.

Although it settles all legitimate claims for damage caused by its troops in noncombat activities, the U.S. Army does not pay for the things it destroys when it is actually waging war. When a U.S. Liberator, returning from a raid, crashed into the village school of Freckleton, England, U.S. soldiers carried the coffins of 36 children to a common grave. But someone else would have to pay for Freckleton's tragic damage.

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