[maple_leaf_eh]

The long wooden crate reminded me of two things.

There are wartime Youtubes showing unskilled workers cracking open similar wooden crates containing US made warplanes. The sequence of work included which side to open, and where to lay it as a work surface, then which parts the swarm of unskilled labourers removed next so the skilled assembler could carry on.

The other recollection was from 1988-89 when I was a clerk at the Logistics wing of Force Mobile Command Headquarters. I was mail and file clerk for a dozen or fifteen staff officers, and everyone was preparing for Exercise RV89 in Wainwright. The concept of moving large numbers of vehicles across the country was one topic I'd ask about. Someone or somehow I found the contemporary ship loading manual with its diagrams. The part I remember was the fold-out drawings were Liberty ships with open holds and deck cranes. Roll-0n Roll-Off shipping was well-known and the army was using them, but the manuals hadn't caught up.