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machine shops and mechanics which must exceed by twice or thrice the total of those in a humming town like Coventry. Such factories have had to be manned, and manned with labor able to meet the sudden emergencies of war. The labor has all had to come from home. Clerks, engineers, fitters, mechanics, quickly settled down to the monotonous_regularity of military life and the communal existence of the barracks, huts, and tents in which they live. True it is that every consideration possible has been shown for their happiness, comfort, and amusement. They have their own excellent canteens, reading rooms, and places of entertainment. They are not forgotten by the Y. M. C. A. or by the Salvation Army and Church Army, whose work cannot be too highly spoken of. They are individually looked after by their own heads of departments with solicitude and kindness. The gramophone, the joy of the dugouts, the hospitals, and the billets, is a never-ending source of entertainment.

The workers are by no means unable to amuse themselves. They are well provided with cinematographs and frequent boxing tournaments. Gardening, too, is one of their hobbies, and from the casualty clearing stations at the front to the workers' huts at the bases are to be counted thousands of English-made gardens. The French, who know as little of us as we do of them, were not a little surprised to find that, wherever he sojourns, the British workman insists on making himself a garden.

Huge bakeries, the gigantic storehouses, (one is the largest in the world,) factories, and repair shops are filled with workers who are a visible contradiction of the allegations as to the alleged slackness of the British workman. The jealousy that exists in peace times between most army and civilian establishments does not seem to be known.

The War Atmosphere

The authorities at home seem to hide our German prisoners. In France they work, and in public, and are content with their lot. Save for the letters “P. G.” (prisonnier de guerre) at the back of their coats it would be difficult to realize that comfortable-looking, middle-aged

Landsturm Hans, with his long pipe, and young Fritz, with his cigarette, were prisoners at all.

The war atmosphere and the patriotic keenness of the skilled mechanics and labor battalions in France have enabled the Commander in Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, who has personally visited the bases in hurried journeys from the front, to accomplish what in peace time would be the impossible. Transport alone is a miracle. The railways are so incumbered that it is frequent to see trains nearly a kilometer (five-eighths of a mile) in length. As one travels about in search of information mile-long convoys of motor lorries loom quickly toward one from out of the dense dust, and it is by this combination of rail and road that the almost impossible task has been achieved of keeping pace with the German strategic railways, which were built for the sole purpose of the quick expedition of men and supplies.

Vast War Schools

Scattered through the army behind the army are schools where war is taught by officers who have studied the art at the front. Here in vast camps the spectator might easily imagine that he was at the front itself. Here the pupils fresh from England are drilled in every form of fighting.

There is something uncanny in the approach of a company to a communication trench, in its vanishing under the earth, and its reappearance some hundreds of yards away, where clambering "over the top," to use the most poignant. expression of the war, the soldier pupils dash forward in a vociferous bayonet charge. At these great reinforcement camps are gas mask attacks, where pupils are passed through underground chambers, filled with real gas, that they may become familiarized with one of the worst curses of warfare. The gas itself is a subtle and at first not a very fearsome enemy, but the victim is apt to be overcome before he is aware of it.

And at these miniature battlefields, all of them larger than the field of Waterloo, are demonstration lecturers who teach bombing, first with toy bombs that explode harmlessly with a slight puff,

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and then with the real Mills bombs which have a noisy and destructive effect altogether disproportionate to their size and innocent appearance. The various types of machine guns are fired at ingenious targets all the day long. There are actual dugouts in which pupils are interned with entrances closed while gas is profusely projected around them, so that they may learn how to deal with the new weapon by spraying it and flapping it away when the entrance is uncovered at a given signal.

Crater fighting is taught with an actual reproduction of a crater, by a lusty Sergeant who has seen much of the actual thing, and tells the men what to do with their bombs and with Germans.

German Prisoners

In the centre of one of these schools there arrived, while I was on the scene, a great number of German prisoners on their way to the base. I do not know how many young soldiers just landed from England were being trained that day. Certainly many, many thousands, and I do not wonder that the prisoners were amazed at the spectacle before them. One of them frankly confessed in excellent English that his comrades were under the impression that we had no men left. The food supplied to these German prisoners here, as everywhere, was excellent, and they did not hesitate to say so. Temporary baths and other washing arrangements were fitted up for them, they had an abundance of tobacco, and were just as comfortably off in their tents as our soldiers not actually in barracks. Their condition on arrival here, as elsewhere, was appalling. Imprisoned in their trenches by our barrage of fire, they had been deprived of many of the necessities of life for days, and on their arrival ate ravenously. Most of them were Prussian Guards and Bavarians, and the number who had the Iron Cross ribbon in their buttonholes was eloquent testimony to the type of enemy troops our new armies have been fighting.

In one great branch of the clerical departments is kept a complete record of every British soldier from the hour of his arrival in France to his departure, or death. Think of the countless essential correspondence and forms that must

necessarily be filled up to achieve that end efficiently and with accuracy.

Another department, which exists for the satisfaction of relatives and possible decisions in the Court of Probate, keeps an exact record of the time of death and place of burial of every officer and private soldier in France, whether he comes from the British Islands or the dominions. Such establishments necessarily demand the use of much clerical labor.

It should be remembered always, in regard to such a department as that which follows the course of every soldier in France, that a Tommy is a difficult person to deal with. It is more than possible that there is a considerable number of men who have been reported as missing and dead who are not missing or dead at all. One case was discovered while I was at a certain office. It was that of a soldier who had been reported missing for more than a year, but who was found in comfortable surroundings doing duty as an army cook in a totally different part of the field to that in which he disappeared.

A Pathetic Duty

There are countless departments of which the public knows nothing. I have only space and time to deal with one more. It is that which watches over the recovery of the effects of dead men and officers. There are separate departments for each, but I only saw that affecting the men.

The work begins on the battlefield and in the hospitals, where I saw the dead bodies being reverently searched. A list is carefully made there and then, and that list accompanies the little familiar belongings that are a part of every man's life to one of the great bases on the lines of communication. The bag is there opened by two clerks, who check it once more, securely fastening it, and sending it home, where it eventually reaches the next of kin. I watched the opening of one such pathetic parcel during the final checking. It contained a few pence, a pipe, a photo of wife and bairn, a trench ring made of the aluminium of an enemy fuze, a small diary, and a pouch. was all the man had.

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They told me that nearly every soldier carries a souvenir. In one haversack was found a huge piece of German shell which had probably been carried for months. The relatives at home set great store on these little treasures, and though the proper officials to address are those at the War Office, London, the people in France are often in receipt of indignant letters from relatives asking why this or that trifle has not been returned.

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One of them which arrived that day

said: "I gave my son to the war, you have had him, you might at least return all his property intact. Where are the pair of gloves and zinc ointment he had with him?"

The work of collecting these last mementos of the dead is carried out with promptness, care, and very kindly feeling, despite the monotony of the task, which begins in the morning and goes on to the evening, a task which is increasing daily with the size of the war.

Preparing the Somme Offensive

By a French Officer

[Translated for CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE from L'Illustration]

'T will be one of the greatest claims to honor of the French General Staff that during the very height of the battle of Verdun they staged the offensive on the Somme. The Germans, on their part, had had, from the close of the battle of Champagne (September-October, 1915) to the last days of February, 1916, four months of relative calm on the western front, to prepare their undertaking on the Meuse, (Verdun.) On the contrary, it was while victoriously resisting the most powerful effort of the German Army that our high command conceived and realized another battle.

What the preparation of an offensive is we shall try to indicate by broad strokes. The region behind the battle front is an immense workshop, in which the instruments of battle are manufactured; arms, munitions, material of every kind, brought regularly to the advanced depots and put at the disposal of the leaders for the execution of their plans. The representatives of the nation, the people, all will co-operate, each according to his rôle. The advanced position becomes a great storeyard, in view of the coming battle.

First, the ground must be prepared. The engineer corps construct railroads: lines of normal gauge, with large capacity, along which circulate enormous

tonnages of munitions, supplies of every kind, and also the heavy guns mounted on rails; lines of twenty-four inches gauge, which will make it possible to carry munitions far forward, and which will form a network serving all the depots. It is necessary to lay the rock ballast, and for this purpose quarries are opened and worked, a system of military trains established. And when the track has been laid it is necessary to construct the stations and platforms. Plank villages thus rise from the earth in a few days.

To fix the position of munition depot is a problem. It must be hidden from the enemy's view, as much as possible in a dead angle, in order that it may escape artillery fire. About the depots, along the roads everywhere, it is necessary to dig shelters, to establish firstaid posts, to burrow into the earth. While these excavations are going on other forces of men build new roads, widen the old roads, mend them, regulate traffic on them. Further forward they are working at the trenches, at the connecting trenches, which must be wide and numerous, and at the troop quarters. This is only a part of the task. Add the reconnoissance of artillery emplacements, the installation of platforms, the organization of the ground. And all this activity, carried out through several

weeks, must escape the notice of the enemy, his observers and aviators must discover nothing of it. But we, on the contrary, must be perfectly informed as to what is going on within his lines.

It has been told how, before the release of our offensive and during its opening days, the German Drachen were rendered incapable of accomplishing their work by our aviators. Since that time the enemy sausages" have only attempted a few ascensions at long intervals, and quickly interrupted by the apparition of one of our pilots. And just as the captive balloons were unable to remain in the air, so the German aviators were unable to pass behind our lines. But if the enemy was ignorant of our preparations, we were well informed as to his organization. The position of his lines, the defensive works, the gun emplacements, had all been sighted and measured.

The destruction caused by our artillery was regularly followed. In order to learn the effect of a shot several means are employed. The first is to send patrols to find out the condition of barbed-wire entanglements and defensive works. But human testimony is always fallible; the conditions of observation during the night are bad; it is possible to see one point and not see a neighboring point, or to be completely prevented from seeing anything by bullets or machine-gun fire. But we have at our disposal an eye which makes no mistakes: the eye of the photographic lens-and aerial photography is yet another new tool for our aviators.

Every evening before the battle of the Somme was begun a map of the German trenches was drawn up, in accordance with what the photographs revealed. On it was distinctly marked what had been completely destroyed, what was not, and what was incompletely indicated. Thus, the corps were informed as to the work of their artillery and as to what remained to be done. The conditions of a complete preparation were wanted. And they were gained, to the complete satisfaction of our infantrymen. The German first-line trenches were leveled; the nets of barbed wire,

however closely woven they might be, were annihilated; the most substantial organizations were knocked into ruins.

One of the first problems of armies during a campaign is that of communications. It can be imagined to what a degree, in a war in which the fronts have become stabilized, among an infinity of wheels and organisms, this problem is complicated, and what an amount of new works an offensive will require. In this domain the installation of telephone lines dominates everything. It could never have been imagined beforehand to what an extent they would be employed. In August, 1914, if the General Staffs of the armies were connected by telephone with their army corps, that was as far as matters went. In the war of movement there were, to carry orders, connecting agents and messengers.

Today not a service but has its telephone line, and in constant use. For the artillery, the telephone is the indispensable auxiliary; it is by telephone that the observers in balloons communicate with the batteries. Therefore, how much work and what consumption of telephone wire! On July 15, 1916, 12,420 miles of wire were in use in the army of the Somme. A thousand telephone operators were employed. Wireless telegraphy also renders precious services, particularly in the control of gunfire. But each of these organs of the army would deserve a special study, and our purpose is only to show what a battle is.

When these immense works of organization have been accomplished, when what would require a year and more in normal life has been realized in a few weeks, when everything is in place, the hour of battle arrives. The date is chosen, the hour is fixed, the moment when the assault is to begin.

Then from the lines of departure, from which they have started, to the enemy positions which they are approaching, the actual fighters have to play their part. In the complexity of the conflict, the dispersion of the action, and the episodes of the battle, the high command of the army does not intervene. It will recommence its activity as soon as the general devel

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opment of the situation becomes known to it; up to that moment it is the leaders of the small units who orient the battle. It is they who work for success. But behind them the immense, minutely regulated machine is carrying on its work.

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To begin with, it is necessary to be informed, quickly and well, as to the positions attained. Reinforcements must be pushed forward, and the battle must be fed. All the experiments which have been made are utilized in order that connections may work as perfectly as possible. Heliographs, flags, optical signals, Bengal fire, runners when the lines are cut every system is put into use. the services of the infantry airmen have been particularly remarkable. And the officers detailed to orient the artillery, going forward with the waves of the assault and followed by a telephonist unrolling his reel, keep the firing batteries perfectly informed as to the points hit and the shots to make. The barrier fire follows the movements of the infantry in their advance.

The infantry has reached the objectives which were fixed for it. It must now stop there and consolidate its position. Behind it also begin the organization of the conquest and the preparation for the next battle.

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and the workmen must be brought forward, then, to begin with; the loose earth in the enormous holes left by the largecalibre shells must all be removed and replaced by pebbles; then earth must be added and the whole rammed down hard. And this difficult task has often been performed under enemy shells.

Each day the ravages of the day before must be repaired. The arrival of supplies must be made secure, the pas-. sage of carts and movable kitchens must be provided for; new emplacements for batteries and for observers must be sought; drinking water must be brought -13,200 gallons, at least, for each army corps; the crews of well sinkers must be pushed forward to the conquered villages, the water must be sampled, tested for poisons, for it may always be feared that the conquered Germans, before abandoning a position, may have poisoned the wells. The depots of munitions and material must also be moved forward, the troops who are to take up positions in an unknown territory must be oriented, the traffic control must be organized.

And in the rear, while the front is being organized, the animation redoubles and extends. The convoys come up in order, the regiments march toward their destined stations, the wagons of the sanitary department go and return, and the railroads are busy. Along the road reserved for motor traffic the regulating commission exercises its function, as it was organized in the Verdun region, each of its divisions assuring good circulation along a fixed space.

Everything is order and method. Each one knows his rôle-and fills it.

[graphic]
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