New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-16

- "N" ~ iiNlHEe are IN course OF erec-
ton. The location is in a beautiful
section Of rural France.
! saw there to-day d battalion of
French soldiers going through all the
stunts Of modern warfare. while embryo
officers from over the sea looked on.
The pOilus captured mock German
trenches with an eclat Undesirable,
demonstrating rocket signalling, bayonet
charges, grenade and liquid fire, and
every branch Of field work. Immedi-
ately afterward the youthful Americans
were put through the same maneuvres,
entering into the work with a genuine
viii. 1t seemed odd to me as | saw
these young officersto-be, working and
acting exactly like so many Sammies In
training, as witnessed in other camps
IheN will know the game, | thought
when they get on the real job" And
to know the game from the ground up
Is the way properly to trim the bar
barians.
One thing stands out. That is the
use Of the rife. The rife is the Ameri-
can weapon, and, according 70 General
Billiard, who is here in 100 per cent
harmony of opinion with Generals
Pershing and Sibert, every man in rank
or file in the new American army must
be a marksman, in addition to being
able to handle the grenade.
Instructors are both British and
French. From the former a general
course in pioneering sapPing, using ma
chine guns and Stokes trench mortars
is obtained, and from the latter bay
onet attack, sniping, grenade and liquid
fire work. Thus, the methods in use in
both armies now holding the line
against the Boche are absorbed.
There are thirty-seven French and
British officers on the job. A number
with whom / talked expressed enthu-
siasm at the mental and physical stuff
in the future Sammie commanders,
and II was easy to understand why
after seeing them at work. For they
are the pick OF the home training
camps, coming from every branch Of
professional life, university graduates,
former army enlisted men, patriotic
sons of patriotic and wealthy fathers.
Intellect is written all over their physi
economies. "As sure as shootin, they'll
deliver the goods"
Work Like Enlisted Men
Company formation is preserved
among them exactly as if they were en-
listed men. Lach company is split into
each, and 10 facilitate Identification in
instruction each man wears a broad
band around his service hat, these rib
bons denoting the particular branch Of
warfare IN VIII ch he is specializing, for
there are special al well as general
classes.
Machine gun specialists wear yell
low ribbon, hand grenad: men orange,
rife grenade red, bayonet experts white,
liquid fire blue and so on, with the
good, oid-fashioned, tried and true
American rifieman wearing a band Of
green.
1t is General Billiards intention TO
have this first lot Of men act as in
struetors for their fellows TO follow.
And a point l noted with genuine
pleasure was the absolute cordially
between the british, French and Amer
lean officers, those instructing and
those being instructed. They were
truly as one family and truly working
together as brothers and allies in a
great cause. The stuff they showed me
BODIES i'll for me barbarian Boche, for
which the gods be praised.
Before leaving for headquarters
General Billiard drove me some miles
away to a special school where Ameri-
can aviation mechanics are receiving
instruction from French experts.
Courses in repairing all kinds of air
planes are in progress, including the
practical rebuilding of a fighting or
observation plane. The work at this
school consists of textbooks and lect-
ure instruction in the afternoon, with
practical work in the forenoon. This
practical work consists in part Of the
removal from machine by French
expert Of some important or unim-
portant part, which the American has
TO find as missing and improvise or
reinsert into position. Every mag
mary trouble that can come to an en-
CINE is deliberately created, and the
student has 10 locate the trouble and
master it. The French instructors ara
high in praise of American aptness,
as shown in this school, and several
told me that as mechanics "les Ameri-
Gains" were "epatant."