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For your consideration is an original and historically significant U.S. Seventh Army Western Military District directive dated 9 November 1945, issued from Headquarters, Seventh Army, Western Military District, APO 758, U.S. Army, under file designation AG 411 CA and titled Unauthorized Removal of Road Maintenance Material. The memorandum addresses a practical but critical problem confronting occupation authorities on the approach of the first postwar winter: German civilian road-maintenance agencies had positioned stockpiles of sand, cinders, wooden snow fences, and other materials along highways specifically for snow and ice control, only to have some of these supplies removed by members of U.S. Forces for other purposes.
The order states unequivocally that such removals were to cease at once, placing responsibility directly upon unit commanders to prevent further appropriation of materials reserved for winter highway maintenance. The directive is particularly evocative of the logistical pressures of late 1945, when reliable road transportation was essential to civilian food distribution, military movement, communications, reconstruction work, and emergency services. By protecting locally accumulated winter-maintenance stocks, Seventh Army headquarters was seeking to preserve the infrastructure necessary to keep roads operational during the approaching cold season.
Issued By Command of Lieutenant General Keyes, referring to Lieutenant General Geoffrey Keyes, the document bears the typed authentication of Frank N. Spacek, Captain, AGD, Assistant Adjutant General, together with a lower A Certified True Copy certification by Elsie J. Chaman, Captain, WAC, Acting Assistant Adjutant General. Its distribution to Corps, Divisions, Military Government authorities, Adjutant General records, and other headquarters sections demonstrates that the instruction was intended for implementation throughout the Seventh Army/Western Military District rather than as an isolated local order.
Produced as an original period stencil-mimeographed certified headquarters copy, the sheet retains the characteristic monospaced type, uneven ink impression, official file and distribution notations, upper-left filing perforations, light toning, and minor handling wear consistent with administrative use. Preserved in fine original condition, it is an unusually tangible primary-source artifact of American occupation administration, winter road preparation, civilian infrastructure protection, and military logistics in Germany in November 1945.
