Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-03-06
United States Engineer Troops In France
BY MAI GEN. CHARLES M. CLEMENT, U. S. A.
Before Members American Society of En-
gineers, Phila delphia, Pa.
:. GEN. CHARLES M. CLEMENT, U. S.

! into the mortar it hits a pin that sets
| off the little percussion cap, and that lit
| tie cap fires the shot out of the gun and
| then it commences to unwind the paper
| fuse that goes out and when that is I'M
wound the business begins, and If it I'M
winds too fast they have a funeral for
the fellow that fires it.
The British engineers have perfected
barrage work. | wish could show you
q diagram that is issued to an artillery
commander from the chief engineers Of
| flee telling him how to put down his bar
rage in a certain fight, and then he cal
| culates it out according to ali this mod
| ern figuring with regard to artillery
range in a way that produces results
They were successful in their last two
raids because they had invented a new
| species Of barrage fire which | am not
permitted to say anything about, except
to say that it is the highest kind of en-
cheering art, and it rendered the whole
front absolutely untenable to the Ger
mans When the British reached their
objective there was not a living boche
nor any to upset their reversing these
entertainments. What is known as q
consolidation was equally accomplished
by the result Of the mathematical accu-
racy Of this new system of barrage work.
You all know, OF course that barrage
is line of shell fire timed to fall in
reasonably straight line There is vari-
alton, perhaps, of rs to 100 yards in the
width of that and that is made inten-
sive or light, In accordance as the men
move forward or backward. They have
system of signalling which is more or
less elaborate, the meaning of which has
to be changed every day to get rid of
the spies; and they have now added to
that the intensity of machinegun fire in
the much -despised Lewis gun. which in
every army but ours is considered per-
lection as a military piece. Our mis-
fortune was that when they used them
on the Texas border they furnished us
with condemned ammunition and that
did not work. They use them over there
with good results, an dthey have effec-
lively added to the results
When / was on the American front
went out and visited the American train
ing school that Colonel Upton had put in
without sufficient help: he was absolutely
working with his own hands, with pick
and shovel to get the thing done, and
yet producing results far beyond any
work | saw of anyone. Give the Amer
lean an opportunity and he comes
across" with whatever has to be done.
He takes the three years experience of
his brother and pushes it ahead beyond
anything he has had. and these schools
are the wonder Of the Allied forces. The
men of ours-officers and enlisted men
side by Side-take up and carry on the
instruction given them is simply wonder
full to the French and English officers.
The accuracy of their rifle fire is truly
commendable. They are developing that
spirit that must prevail all over in this
war and in this country, that the men
cally taught that when he sticks his
bayonet in the sack of sand he must
growl like a dog. He does it. / have
seen me nrun ESQ yards and stab four
successive rows of dummies, jump down
in a trench six feet deep and with their
rifles put eight out of ten shots in the
bulls eye. One would think that they
would be completely winded, The men
who did this shooting had little bit of
a target, because the range was not
great. They gather those all up and
1 l4ln ~ 49,
not make fifty per cent has to start and
do the work all over.
Somebody asked me today whether en-
gineering was dangerous: he was q re-
| porter on one of the city papers. I said
| that the engineering work back of the
! salvage dump Is not particularly dan
| gerous, but If it is the engineers duty
| to lay out a line OF front trenches the
| minimum of loss Is $50 per cent. In other
| words, If twenty men ordered to map out
trench go over the ground with white
| tape so that 1t can be seen at night,
! thirty OF them viii be killed before the
| twenty lay the work out. In credit to
| the engineer be it said that there are
/ two mon to go over for every man that
fails; The aeroplane only has them beat
| EN- 15 per cent; 165 per cent of them die.
| Aeroplane losses seem very small as they
| appear in the papers, but there are ten
| men on the ground for one in the air.
Taking the loss of Just those in the air:
| it is 165 per cent If those that go up.
| This gives a little idea of the great seri-
BUSINESS Of this fight,
If you were to walk the streets of
| Paris and see three out of five women In
| black, ad almost every man wearing
black on his arm and you mingle with
| those people, you would find no smiles,
| but stern determination that there can
be but one end to this conflict. Somebody
asked, Us it true that France is bled
whittier I replied, Eyes, true in one
way they nearly froze last winter" In
4 1916 they had no field cultivated 1t
| became necessary to take men from the
/ army and have them go home and plow
! They had to make some provision to get
1 coal. They have raised the allowance
to $50 pounds of coal FOR every month
/ for family of four persons You know
what that. means from the little expert
ence we had last week. And that is
all you can get, rich or poor. Yet they
take it stoically. 1 took luncheon one
| day in Paris; it was a meatless day and
/ | invited lady-a relative of a friend
Of mine. we went to a little fsh-house.
/ never take sugar in my coffee. She
asked me for the sugar and she put If
in her pocketbook She said to me, 81
| suppose that is funny to you" | said,
,'Surprising-not funny" She said, you
| know II sugar was to be bought I could
| bnV IT - I said 7 boxTo - 5o.sIS