The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-08-23
CASUALTIES AND OLD
AGE GET BIC GUNS
A Regular System of Hospitals Is Main
tanned for Them Behind the Fir
ing Lines,


Behind British lines in France, Aug. 2
i Correspondence Of the Associated Press
In war the question of wastage of ma
terisl is second only TO that of men
Armaments become rapidly unserviceabl'
through old age and casualties, the bis
guns most of all, Fer gun casualties q
regular system Of hospitals exists.
The first aid station is in the battery
itself, where, much as a medical orderly
keeps a supply of medicine and bandages
a trained artificer keeps a supply of tools
and spare parts. He can deal with any
trifing accident that may occur, or re-
place any small part that may be brok'
en-. The modern gun or howitzer is a
complicated piece of mechanism, requir'
ing constant skilled attention If the best
results are to be obtained. This atten-
ton the artifcer supplies.
But, should the gun develop com
plant beyond the powers of his tools to
rectify, or should an unlucky splinter of
shell wound il in some vulnerable part,
its removal to a hospital becomes neces-
sary. Gun hospitals are workshops, won
derfully organized TO deal with the work
that falls to their lot, and stalled by
skilled men of the ordnance corps. These
workshops are graded according to mo-
bility, and are all capable Of more or
less rapid transfer from one point to an
other. They are styled light, medium or
heavy, according to their powers of
movement and their capacity for dealing
with work requiring light or heavy tools.
A light, ordnance mobile workshop
TO give it its full title, is self-contained
upon two or three motor trucks, inge
niously arranged. The floor of the lor-
ries carries light lathes and drilling ma
chimes driven by electric transmission
from the engine of the automobile, light
being furnished from the same source.
The trucks look like ordinary closed mo-
tor cars when travelling. but on duty the
sides of the vans drop down to form plat
forms around the machinery and the in
teriors are transformed into buzzing
hives of activity. Their capacity is linn
tied to the work that can be handled on
the comparatively light tools that they
carry.
The next stage is the medium mobile
This is no longer self
tanned on motor trucks, ready to timber
up and be off at moment 1t carries
that must be unloaded and in
stalled in some convenient shed. The
whole is transported on motor trucks,
but the work is not carried on in the |
trucks There is compact oil engine |
md dynamo, to be bolted down to a hast |
ly constructed foundation. There are
athes, milling machines, every sort OF
machine tool that is to be found In a gen
sral engineering shop. The whole con-
FERN requires about two days to set up
md put in running order. Nearly every
hing except certain intricate repairs,
AN be performed here, and it is rarely
necessary for a wounded gun to proceed
my further.
But, for the accommodation of really
,ad cases, there are few heavy mobile
where anything that is sus-
eptible of repair may be dealt with.
These are equipped not only with heavier
than the medium workshops,
nut with elaborate additional machinery
or special work. In addition to the big
machine shop, there are pattern making
hops, wheeler's shops, foundry, air
ompressors and every sort of device to
upply the needs of an army that fights
With highly scientific weapons The
zhole outfit is constructed so that it
nay be taken down and packed into
rucks drawn by great tractor engines.
The. whole system is a miracle of or
anization for war which, although at
resent mainly one of position, may at
ny moment develop into one of move
rent. Everything, workshops included,
lust be ready to follow up an advance. {
revision of machine shops at fixed {
oints might meet the conditions of
rench warfare, but they would become
seless as the line of battle left them be- !
ind So the gun hospitals, like the field
mbulances and casualty clearing sta
ons, are fashioned upon a plan that
lows of ready movement.
There remains the case of the gun that $
trough long and honorable service is
orn out. 1t is removed from the bat. +
'ry, to be replaced by one of a number
rat lie in readiness at one of the gun
,rks behind the line. and is taken back
an arsenal to be rebuilt. The inner P
lbe, whose riding in some cases is worn 7
,arly smooth, is removed and another II
serted in its stead, after which the gun
ready to take its place once more in
e emplscements of an active battery