The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-23
MOVING AN ARMY
 A TASK NEEDING
 MUCH FORESIGHT
Vast Duties QuartermasteT Corps Must Perform
 When Troops Start

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 Few Americans outside of military circles have the slightest conception of the vast amount of work involved in entraintng and transporting large bodies of troops, with equipment and supplies. from one or several points to the fighting front
 Before a body of troops is entrained the time and place of every move is mapped out. including the date and place of entraining, destination, time of arrival. route. assembly point, time of troops leaving assembly point. route from assembly point to train, time of arrival at station. time of boarding train, time of departure of train, rate of travel over each section of routes time, place and duration of stops, time and place of feeding troops and animals, and Schedule. showing the assignment of troops and equip age to each car. Aside from this are countless details connected with pro- curing supplies. the disposal of troops and their care.
 All these preliminary arrangements must be made by an officer. of the Quartermaster Corps The first thing to be done is to procure lists. with weight, of all property to be shipped, obtain this material. and make out the biu of 1ading. This, with the num- Der of men and officers, constitutes a basis on which he estimates the num- Der and kind of cars needed. He then engages the cars and provides loading faci1ities such tas material for block ing and flashing, and constructs neces- sary ramps, or runways for entraining animals or wagons Next, on the arr rival of the cars, he inspects them from a.. thousand major and minor angles. All cars must be clean. Pas eenger cars must be fully supplied with water and ice, sufficiently light ed and heated and all other appur- tenances in peoper condition-A
 Stock cars come in for special at tention. Some of the things that may cost the government money and dumb nails, bolts or splinters, loose boards and rotten flooring. broken fixtures on hay racks. doors or troughs.
 Then the number of men or kind and quantity Of supplies allotted to each car is marked on the side or, steps, to- eefhex with the name of the organiza- tion- xn loading men three are assign ed to each section in tourist s1eepers or three to each two seats in day coach
 2 In making up trains it is preferable to have sections of moderate size and good speed, rather. than long trains with slow speed. Our War Depart ment requires maintained speed of z5 miles an hour, twice that of France or Germany.
 Another important point is to keep the troops of each unit with all equip ment together This is important in case of sudden attack. Imagine the 4 fate of unit of troops suddenly de- trained at the firing line without equipment.
 A possible element of delay lies in the timing of the arrival of troops at the station There must be no time lost by cars waiting for the troops The facilities for loading animals and wagons at each station on each route should be part of the Quartermaster CorpS records. Quick and nciseless loading and unloading of animals without confusion is an art in itself Dispositions of individual animals must be studied. Gentle animals should be placed opposite doors and therefore loaded last.
 The time of loading and unloading has been carefully tabulated and should not exceed the following: In fantry, one hour; cavalry and lighi artillery, one and one-half hours ; heavy artillery and engineers with bridge train, two hours. All move. raents, loading. e1trafning. detraintng feeding and watering and exercising men and horses are, made in military formation.
 With each train Kitchen cars arc provided. Otherwise baggage cars are fitted up by troops or arrangeents made for procuring meals, or at ieasi liquid coffee, at stations en route Feeding men and animals is in itself no small matter.
 All these problems are vastly more complicated in America, than fin Eur. 0pe, where the longest troop train i: run only 700 miles and mobilization is accommpanied by temporary sus. pension of civil traffic. In America we have runs more than 5000 miles long.
 It ia believed by experts that g.. 100000 men would bs needed ade. quateIy to defend the nation. The ori- ginal estimates of the War Depart. ,ment, however, are based on about half that number, that is 20 field ar mics of S2,000 men each, or 1,640, ,0OG men. In moving such military force the railroads must carry beside the r. 640, ,0o0 men, 100000 mounts and draught animals, 6O.00o vehicles and S360 big guns.
 To accomplish tfiis the Quartermas- ter Corps must have available at the right points 4z,300 passenger coaches t7,700 baggage ears, pI.100 box cars s7,9S0 stock cars and 15,500 flat cars making total of 1z4;5s0 cars, or T. 520 trains with as many engines,
 Here is the governments minimum estimate of the GF6BH weight of mater