The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1917-08-23
GUN HOSPITALS NECESSARY.
Armaments Become Rapidly Unser.
viceable From Old Age and
Casualties.
lAssociated Pressl

Behind British Lines in France,
August 23-In war the question OF
wastage of material is second only to
that of men. Armaments become rap
idly unsarviceable through old age and
casualties, the big guns, most of all.
For gun casualties a regular system
Of hospitals exists.
The frst-a.d station is in the battery
itself, where, much as a medical or
DERBY keeps a supply of medicine and
bandages, a trained artifcer keeps a
supply of tools and spare parts. He
can deal with any triaing accident that
may occur, or replace any small part
that may be broken. The modern gun
or howitzer is a complicated piece of
mechanism, requiring constant skilled
attention if the best results are to be
obtained. This attention the artificer
supplies.
But, should the gun develop a COM
plant beyond the powers of his tools
to rectify, or should an unlucky splin-
ter Of shell wound it in some vulner-
able part, it's removal to hospital be-
comes necessary. Gun hospitals are
workshops, wonderfully organized to
deal with the work that falls to their
lot, and stated by skilled men of the
Ordnance Corps. These workshops
ere graded according to mobility, and
are all capable If more or less rapid
transfer from n point to another.
They are styled light, medium, or
heavy, according to their powers of
movement and their capacity for deal
ing with work requiring light or heavy
tools.
A Light Ordnance Mobile Work
shop" to give it it's title, is self-con-
tanned upon two or three motor trucks
ingeniously arranged. The floor of
the ~lorries carries light lathes and
drilling machines, driven by electric
transmission from the engines of the
automobile, light being furnished from
the same source. The trucks look like
ordinary closed motor cars when trav-
cling, but on duty the sides of the
vans drop down to form platforms
around the machinery, and the inter-
iors are transformed into buzzing
hives of activity. The capacity is lin
tied to the work that can be handled
on the comparatively light tools that
they carry.
The next stage is the MEDIUM Mo-
bile Workshop" This is no longer
self-contained on motor trucks, ready
to timber up and be off at a moment.
1t carries machinery that must be un-
loaded and installed in some convenient
shed. The whole is transported on
motor trucks, but the work is not car
ried on in the trucks. There is a com-
pact oil engine and dynamo, to be
bolted down to a hastily constructed
foundation. There are lathes, milling
machines, every sort of machine tool
that is to be found in a general en-
gineering shop. The whole concern
requires about two days to set up and
put in running order. Nearly every
thing except certain intricate repairs,
car be performed here, and it is rarely
necessary for a wounded gun to pro-
coed any further.
But, for the accommodation of really
bad ones, there are a few "Heavy Mo-
bile Workshops" where anything that
is susceptible of repair may be dealt
with. These are equipped not only
with heavier machinery than the Med
ium Workshops, but with elaborate
additional machinery for special work.
In addition to the big machine-shop,
there are pattern making shops,
wheeler's shops, a foundry, air COM
pressors, and every sort of device to
the needs of an army that
fights with highly scientific weapons.
The whole outfit is constructed so that
it may be taken down and packed into
drawn by great tractor en-
gines.
The whole system is a miracle of or
ganization for a war, which although
Mt present mainly n of position, may
at any moment develop into one of
movement. Everything, workshops in
must be ready to follow up an
advance. Provision of machine shops
fixed points might meet the condi-
ions of trench warfare, but they would
useless as the line of battle
eft them behind. So the Gun Hospi-
;als, like the Field Ambulance and
Casualty Clearing Stations, are fash
oned upon a plan that allows of ready
There remains the casc of the gun
hat through long and honorable SER
ice is worn out, 1t is removed from
he battery, to be replaced by one of
number that lie in readiness at one
# the gun parks behind the lire,
md is taken back to an arsenal to be
'ebuilt. The inner tube, whose riling
n some cases is worn nearly smooth,
S removed and another inserted in it's
tead, after which the gun is ready
o take its place, once more in the en-
of an active battery.
NOTICE TO TAXPAYERS.