HANDBOOK FOR ASSAULT CLIMBERS. [World War II training brochure for United States Army Coast Artillery Corps - U.S. Army C.A.C. at the West Virginia Seneca Rocks Maneuver Area.]

POOR CONDITION. Evidently an exceptionally scarce if not rare surviving U.S. Army WWII publication. Mimeographed leaves in a partially staple-bound brochure/booklet. 28 pages (double-sided printing) plus unpaged front and rear covers. Approx. H 10.5 inches x L 8 inches. Sheets toned, stained, and soiled with age-related brittleness; shallow edge-wear particularly at tops of front cover and pages 1-2. Typescript-style text and simple illustrations presumably reproduced by mimeograph which would be the most readily available printing device in a rural Army camp training base. Some printing smudged or missing letters (mis-strikes carried-over from the original typescript?). Simple illustrations on front cover recto, pages 9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 22, and rear cover recto. Front cover illustration notes "1943" at its lower right which presumably is also the publication's issue date. The front cover illustration is the only one decorative in nature with all the other more-or-less being instructional. Three original binding staples applied at left margins; staples are quite rusted/disintegrated with last two leaves entirely detached and all others only tenuously attached; varied staining and short tearing adjacent to staples' puncture holes. Foreword (pages 1-3) credited to "A.W. Gower, | Colonel, CAC, | Director" with page 3 text listing four training officers (all lieutenants) and noting "hundred of climbers who have taken the Assault Climbing Course at Seneca School, West Virginia Maneuver Area." An expansive training area encompassing five counties in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, the WVMA began in August 1943 under the command of the 13th Army Corps with the purpose to prepare U.S. Army troops for alpine operations in the geographically-similar mountainous terrain of northern Italy. Although more than 100K troops received training at the WVMA, cursory research indicates that high-angle rock and assault climbing instruction was far more limited - approximately 180 soldiers cycled through that course every two weeks which, if accurate, would mean that fewer than 5000 soldiers would have received such training (and hence copies of this brochure) by mid-1944. Furthermore, as a base-specific training brochure, copies would have either been discarded at the end of training or handed down to the next incoming group - they certainly would not have been carried in one's rucksack to the ETO. Hence, with such hinderances to preservation, it is not too surprising that OCLC does not locate any copies among member institutions. Description copyright David Hallinan, Bookseller.…