Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-02-27


And they have worked out a perfect
scheme that ignores any idea of yards,
feet, meters. or miles, and co-ordinates
everything on fractions alone. The map
are made on scales that are universally
l-2500, ITO, 900, 100000. When man
sees that map, whether he can aead it in
meters or yards it matters not, he reads
all that is on it to his understanding,
which is all that is necessary. The old
cumbersome ways of designing routes
have also been overcome by the engi-
neer. The old army rule that required
general to put in his order, spelling out
in Roman capitals, the names of all
towns and roads, needlessly prolonging
the order, is abolished by this system of
maps. All of France has been mapped
III section of sheets numbered from
one up. Each sheet is divided into
number of squares and they are all eX-
actly alike in number. Each salare is
again subdiVided into four principal
parts; SO that when q man receives an
order to do certain thing he is referred
to shoot one, No. II. and one of the fou1
subdivisions. which are designated by the
rSt four letters of the alphabet. For the
very simple reason that men speaking
different languages cannot and d. not
pronounce the first four letters of the
alphabet alike. they have substituted ar
bitrary symbols to represent them; so
that c, which can be Kissed over every
tongue is the only one of the four letters
which remains as it was. "A" is lab"
"R" is "beer"-I suppose all engineers
don" l found most men said damn.
The sections are divided that way, and
if they want to locate cannon they
may mark one <ert these subdivided IL
tlon-19," sheet g." and they send that to
the batteHN commander and he can locate
It with&g fifty feet. Such messages can
be sent ny wireless or wig-wagged from
an aeroplane. 1t is a high triumph OF
military art. BY the substitution of the
new system for the old, whether the
reader be an Englishman, a Frenchman,
an Italian or even an American. the map
means just the same to him. 1t used to
be that map was handed to a regimen
tai commander and by him passed to
battalion commander and upon that map
he formulated orders. 1t is not so today
The map goes into the hands of the
squad leader, because the science is so
changed that the fighting is not done
by the commanding general. His work is
to see that his men are kept healthy,
well fed and well equipped and held to
the highest type of discipline. The fight
ing is done by the squad leaders and
company commanders, The men who do
what they have to do. The bayonet posi-
lively thinks in this war 1t was not
until the British and French soldiers
learned that the bayonet must think that
they became effective, so they are chang
ing their past defeat into present victory,
and are gathering strength which must
inevitably carry them across the Rhine,
unless there is q collapse in Germany be-
studying military science we were awak-
ened in the night and told to issue an
order. Once that order went out it be-
came the basis of the movement of the
forces under you. Commanding pro-
visional brigade several times / had to
work up those orders, and was Impressed
with the fact that if l were fighting !
would have little chance to get out whole,
because there was too big a field to look
at. 1t is all changed now They make
up their minds to attack certain point,
the commaIS + dictates to the engineers
the things he has in his mind, and the
chief of engineers goes out and produces
on the ground to a perfect scale a map
of the whole country that has to be ira
Versed in that engagement.
In the fight on the Messines Ridge,
whore l had an opportunity to study each
map-nearly six months were required
preparing the map, as called it--or the
plan-On the ground, of the region to be
traversed The aeroplanes took their
photographs every day-both the piano.
ramic photograph out of the sides of the
machine and fiat photographs from the
bottom. These were read by the micro
scope, printed by the photographer, and
then sent to the engineer to be worked
up not only on the practical map that
goes to the men but on this outline by
which they were to learn to read their
maps You may have seen the French
magazine called .Illustracion' depicting
large map around which was a railing
and a PLATFORM on which, the command
ers nd officers could study this map as
it grew from day to day and familiarize
themselves with the piece of ground that
was going to be covered in an attack In
the preparation for that attack, which
took nearly six months, every woods, ev-
cry house, every tree was marked, and il
they discovered that they had made
mistake and a better photograph showed
an error, it was corrected and everybody
brought back to study that part again
Here was a new development of military
engineering by the aid of photography
and the aeroplane The English engi-
neers co-ordinated and put upon the
ground an exact picture of the area oc-
cupied by the German army and when
the time came to move they moved ir-
resistibly over the lines laid down, to
complete victory, because every man en-
gagged had in his mind his primary OBJ
ject, his secondary object, and the ulti-
mate object of attack, and worked with
an intelligence that had been unknown
Victory will come in this war to the
best-educated men. 1t is not the aero
plane, the submarine, the hand grenade,
or bomb that is going to win, but the
brains of the soldier plus his confidence
in his rife and his bayonet. That is
why I feel that the advent of the Amer
lean soldier will give it triumphant VIC
tory, because we are sending thinking
men in the ranks and the officers who