Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-10-17
ORGANIZATION OF
18Th DIVISION
Next Contingent Of Recruits
Warned to Bring Heavy
Clothes.

| UoIu1u " UIJus 0Govy
Clothes.
Division Headquarters, Camp
Dodge, Ia, Oct. 15.-When the boys
from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and
North Dakota In the Eighty-eighth
division Of the National army board
their transports for lover there" next
spring, perhaps, they will form a COM
plete little army In themselves.
They will be capable of holding on
ly one and one-half miles Of that great
battle front that curves it's way across
Flanders and France for $50 miles.
But they will do complete job of
under the first line trenches, to the
hospitals that care for their wounded
1t is now possible to describe the
organization of the Eighty-eighth div
ision under the Pershing plan-with a
few omissions. The war department
has some special features in the or
ganlzation that it isn't telling anybody
about. They are to be May Day pres
ents for Fritz. American brains
haven't been too busy in preparing
for war to forget to invent a few Of
what enemies of old have called cyan
kee tricks" Just for instance, there's
new gas mask that is going to pro-
tect the men Of the u S. A., from the
deadly chlorine and the more deadly
'mustad" gas that the Prussian war
lords scientists have concocted. And
If all goes we'll, Fritz won't know any
thing about it's Yankee wrinkles until
he takes it from the American soldier
the German general talked about when
he offered a reward for the first khaki
clad lad killed or captured.
There will be about $4,000 of the
selectives from the four states in the
! Eighty-eighth. About 1920 of them
will be infantrymen, the backbone of
the division, divided into two brigades
of two regiments each, each regiment
/ to have from $500 to $500 men. Each
| regiment is divided into twelve com
| panies of fighting men with auxiliary
companies to take care of supplies and
regimental management, and a medi
cal detachment. Each brigade will
have a machine gun battalion Of about
900 machine gunners.
With the infantrymen and the trench
mortar batteries, the machine gun bat
talions will form the first line of of
Tense and defense. They will be II
:, the trenches. Just back Of these
y, fighters will be two regiments Of fielc
= artillery. Each regiment will consist
=, Of six batteries and each battery will
pump shrapnel and light barragf
,, shells from four three inch guns
- There are "a guns to the regiment ant
- 48 to the division. Back of these two
- regiments will be a regiment of heav,
artillery with "a six-inch guns to d.
"a their bit in caring for Fritz. There
Will be 181 men in each battery or {
= total Of 1885 in the three regiments
:, There will also be 1871 men In thu
trench mortar battery.
Then there will be a regiment O
:. LOO engineers who will build trench
- - es, lay out roads, erect bridges ant
;, map the country. There will be a sig
!, nal battalion Of 225 men who will built
and maintain the divisions nervous
- system. They will establish and oper
=. ate various signal systems to tell tn,
=. American gunners where to shoot an,
- when.
- The government is trying to kee,
!, secret the exact organization o
~ trains. There will be four Of them
ammunition, sanitary supply and en-
gineer trains and will be made up o
from 5000 to 1000 men. There vii
be base hospital and sanitary staff
&c Of about 500 men.
), y And just fourteen such armies a
~: the Eighty-eighth division were hurle
y, - forth to the attack at Verdun by tn
o. Germans.
49, The $1,000 men now at Camp Dodg
~ are figuratively marking time unit
the arrival of their brothers of tn
g third and fourth increments. It /
a. estimated the other increments wi
q g be called about October Is. The wor
~ now Is merely the hardening Of tn
., many strenuous setting up exercise!
..' plenty of food and much sleep-an
w discipline. Pershing said he wante
y, soldiers, disciplined men above a
- things, men who can salute properl
-, and march and obey orders.
- All men do not have complete un
~ forms. Every man has a big arm
~ overcoat They're not living in ""pa
NJ lor heated" barracks. It's bit uncon
40 Portable on cold nights All heatin
~, ~ plants have not been established
,n There is some complaint, but the va
-, majority Of the men grin and say
" I'VE sleep between good blankets an
we get good food-well soon get use
40 to the weather."
~ Camp Dodge commanders have as
ed that Willmar Tribune tell the DO,
,so from Kandiyohi county to come be
80 ter prepared than the first two incr
~ ments. They are to come with
heavy suit Of clothes and a servic
-, able pair Of shoes that will stand tt
~ strain of drill until uniforms and re
ular army shoes are issued. Some
the boys now here came in light sui
and silk shirts and low shoes. Al