Norwich bulletin., 1918-01-29
Wastaqe of the BattIefieIds.
Correspondence of The Associated

ACOTfSSPOHqeuee or IEe <A5SoCidleu Press.)
 On an average eight trains a day are bringing to Le Mans the wastage at the battlefront consisting of thous- ands of tons of damaged and ruined soldiers equipment. There have been as many as seventeen trains day heavily loaded with this material picked up on battlefelds and around camps. Le Mans would be the para disc of ragmen and dealers in second hand goods were it not for the fact that the French army is finding its own use for such of this material as 1 it is able to recuperate or repair. 1 Establishments located at Le Mans, France, by the quartern1a ster's de pertinent recnperate monthly 50.003 l outer garments, 125,ooO under gar znents 3,5e0 pairs of shoes, 6e,U00 pairs of trench boots, 25,00o steel hel- | n1ets, 270,000l sheep skin capes and l 120, 900 pieces of equipment. These l articles are made ready for use again by disinfection, renovation and re- pairs. There are in addition, made each month from pieces of clothing that are not repairable, 100, 900 pairs of slippers, 10000 cases for soldiers canteens, 50,eoe forage caps, 75, 900 shoe faces, 20 e0e cloth cases. for bread
 
 l The recuperation and repair of worn and damaged articles began in the spring of 1916 in vast warehouses and l repair shops in which 5000 persons in- cluding 1000 refugees, mostly women are employed.
 Here and at Les Murlins, northwest of Orleans, among the quays from which the rlobilized men of the 5th military region went off to war in Au- gust. 1914, German prisoners of wal l now line up in front of incoming freight trains and unload quantities o1 great sacks that lock like the product of 8 gigantic raguan's shop. This i'll. descrlbabie mass invokes the confusion ;i as well as the tragedy of the battle II field. There are pierced and dented } helmets worn and stained pieces o uniform, forage caps, great coats leg :, gings, army shoes and trench boots If some of them pierced by bullets some 5 torn by sl1rapnel and others shredded
 1 by violent contact with barbed wire. et All of them are covered with layer of mud of varying thicknesses and no
 infrequently a garment presents { t stain of an indefinable color, alway VI easily recognized but gotten rid 0 sl with difficulty. These garments re ]. sceiEe special treatment. They are frs s thrown into receptacle where the,
 go through a long and thorougl | cleansing before being treated as oth r CT garments.
 l3 The first operation on the arrival Q e la train is the sorting of the load int f three piles, leather, metal and clotl s 1 The cloth and canvas go at once int . immense disinfecting tanks that are il : 1 operation night and day, and iron : 1 there to the laundry. Then they g Il to another warehouse where they ar = separated into repairabie and unre . l pairabie; here there is great deal C
 1 ripping to separate trimmings fror d 1 garments and to divide the garment !, l thmeselves into pieces of as nearly un form size as possible to facilitate thei q transportation into comfortable slip = l pers.
 fI The. sf1eep-ski are purified by l. sulphur application in the, abandone ,Pi vault of an old cemetery nearb e where 5000 of them are treated eac = day, after which they are made pIi
 1 able and ready for wear again by e beating machine. Some of them a, # able to take, another turn at the fror if but the most of them, along wit d pieces of uniform are distribute ,e among the assembling stations at tf f rear for the equipment of auxiliarie ', and among the hospitals for the clotf ,- ing of convalescents.
 Rags are sold here at the rate of
 hundred bales per day, weighing in tt
 aggregate about twelve tons. Tn
 represents the wear and wastage
 clothing received at Le Mans alone; g j equal quantity is received at L.
 MurlinS. -'
 H Kettles braziers lanterns, drum
 musical instruments and all kinds l 1 tolls also pass through here on the Jiway to Rennes to be dealt with |
 special establishments where the pc
 centage of recuperation is said to very slight.