Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-08-23
GUN HOSPITALS
LOCATED ALONG
WESTERN FRONT

FRANCE, Aug. 23.-In war the ques-
ton of wastage of material is seconl
only to that of men. Armaments be-
come rapidly unserviceable through
old age and casualties, the big guns
most of all. For gun casualties a
regular system of hospitals exist.
The frst-aid station is in the battery
itself, where, much as medical orderly
keeps a supply of medicine and band
ages, a trained artificer keeps as sup
ply Of tools and spare parts. He can
deal with any trifing accident that may
occur, or replace any small part that
may be broken. The modern gun or
howitzer is complicated piece of me-
chanism, requiring constant skilled at
tention if the best results are to be OBJ
tanned. This attention the artificer sup.
plies.
But, should the gun develop COM
plant beyond the powers of his tools
to rectify, or should an unlucky splin-
ter or shell wound it in some yulner
able part, its 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
Ordinance Corps. These workshops
are graded according to mobility, and
are all capable of more or less rapid
transfer from one 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, Ordinance Mobile Work
shop" to give it it's full title, is self
contained 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 engine of the au-
tomobile, light being furnished from
! the same source. The trucks look like
ordinary closed motor cars when tray
cling. hut on duty the sides of the vans
drop down to form platforms around
the machinery, and the interiors are
transformed into buzzing hives of ac-
Itivity. Their capacity is limited to the
work that can be handled on the COM
paratively light tools that they carry,
The next stage is the Medium Mo
lille 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 unload
ed 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 com
pact oil engine and dynamo, to be bolt
ed down to a hastily constructed foun-
dation. There are latkes, milling ma
chimes, every sort of machine tool that
is to be found in a general engineering
shop. The whole concern requires
about two days to set up and put in
running order. Nearly everything eX-
! cept certain intricate repairs, can be
performed here, and it is rarely neces-
sary for wounded gun to proceed any
further
But, for the accommodation of eral-
ly bad cases, there are a few Heavy
Mobile Workshops where anything
that is susceptible of repair may be
dealt with. These are equipped not
only with heavier machinery than the
Medium workshops, but with elaborate
additional machinery for special work.
In addition to the big machine7shop,
there are pattern-making shops,
wheeler's shops, a foundry, air COM
pressors, and every sort of device to
supply the needs of an army that fights
with highly scientific weapons. The
whole outfit is constructed so that 1t
may be taken down and packed into
trucks drawn by great tractor engines
The whole system is a miracle o.
organization for war which, although
at present mainly one of position, may
at any moment develop into one OF
movement Everything, workshops IN
cluded, must be ready to follow up an
advance. Provision Of machine shopG
at fixed points might meet the condi
tons of trench warfare, but they would
become useless as the line OF oattlf
left them behind So the Gun Hospit
ais. like the Field Ambulances ant
Casualty Clearing Stations, are fash
toned upon a plan that allows of ready
movement.
There remains the case of the gui
fIN