The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-04

tervals to enable the traffic on In . terior lines to leave them and cross to those places near the border where needed
 So far as the writer knows there are no figures available of the amount of material a modern war requires, but it Is positively staggering in It's total The quantity of ammunition now used in one battle is often more than formerly was used in an entire war. An instance was the desperate attempt of the French to break through the German lines in the fall of 1915, when they are said to have fired at least 5000 900 rounds of ar tillery ammunition, to say nothing of millions of rounds of ammunition used in rifles and machine guns. r is not possible to estimate accurately the weight of powder and shell used, but we know that they have guns firing shells ranging from three to twelve inches in diameter. The three inch shell and the powder to fire il weigh about IS pounds, to which must be added at least two pounds of ac- cessories required in packing and transportation. so that each shot from three-inch gun requires the trans- portation to the Trout Of 20 pounds If all the French guns had been three inch only. the 3,00o000 rounds in one battle would have weighed 30,000 tons. But as a sfx-inch shell, for instance requires seven times as much powder shell and accessories as a three-inch shell, the weight of ammunition actu- ally used was much greater than 30 900 tons.
 During mobilization and the early stages of the war there will be many and rapid movements of large bodies of troops Here roads and automobiles will be deciding factors, for as everybody knows from the progress of the war in Europe, the one who gets the start has an enormous advantage that will cost the other side many times the original loss to overcome Later, in the beginning of a campaign. when movements are rapid and there is little opportunity to intrench, three-inch guns and shrapnel will be very largely used, but just as soon as there is time to intrench there will be an opportunity for the larger guns to come up to fire high explosive shells to drive the enemy out of his intrenched positions. This may be called the second or trench warfare stage of the campaign when hundreds of thou sands of rounds of high explosive shells will be required for every % miles of bat tie front. In all these operations the numb CT of automobiles required will be tremendous, but with the vast number in general use and being manufactured every day it is inconceivable that there ever will be a shortage after the first confu- sion is over
 It is said that from July 1902. to July, 1915, we manufactured 2,S24527 motor cars of every description, pleasure and busi- ness. Of this number 1,70l,427 were man. ufactured in the last three years and judging from the rate of increase in the numbers being manufactured, the annual output will be a million or more very soon. From this enormous number of cars it ought to be possible to get to- gether 1000 machines Of all sorts in any locality in weeks time and in considerably less time. in thickly popu- lated localities.
 On an average each of these machines will carry four soldiers fully equipped with 300 rounds of ammunition and 10 days rations, in add ton to the driver of the machine. A soldier fully equipped but without ammunition or rations, will weigh close to 200 pounds. Ten days ratons and 300 rounds of ammunition will weigh 55 pounds more To the above should be added the weight of the driver and his rations, making the total weight not far from 12Oo pounds, which all ma chimes except the very lightest will carry at 20 miles per hour over good roads.
 With 2000 machines we could transport 6O0 900 to 800.00O men 150 to 300 miles per day if we had sufficient good roads in the war zone The capacity of any road for moving troops by automobiles may be computed about as follows: On roads paved over a width of 16 feet two ma chimes can travel abreast and, allowing $50 per mile for such a road, would de- liver 1000 men per hour where wanted; that is, approximately S500 men per hour for each eight-feet width of paved sur. face. assuming the automobiles to aver age 20 miles per hour. Of course all ma chimes with lower speed than. 20 miles