Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-27
us. WAREHOUSES;
OF ENORMOUS
SIZE IN FRANCE
Harrisburg Soldiers Permitted
by Censors to Tell of Inn
mense Work

| supplies to the American armies in
France are is just becoming gen.
orally known now that the armis-
! tice has been signed and the censor
ship regulations greatly relaxed. In
u general intermediate storage de-
/ pot" covering approximately forty
| five square miles, equal to the terri
tory embraced by line drawn be-
! tween the top of Allisons Hill and
the west bank of the river and con-
tinued to Lancaster, Sergeant First
Glass Linwood w. Wanbaugh and
Sergeant First Glass Edward l.. Wan
baugh, writing home to their father,
Linwood B. Wanbaugh, 119 North
Seventeenth street, give some gen.
eral idea of the stupendouS scale on
which operations were carried on.
The Sergeants Wnnbaugh write:
You have often wondered what
sort of a camp we are in, where II
is located and just what we are DO
ing here. Since the censorship has
been lifted to some extent we are
able to answer some of these ques-
tions, although our description can
/ only give you faint idea of the
vast magnitude of the project. one
must be here to really appreciate
what has been done and what stllI
! is being done as the camp itself is
! spread over a territory of approx
mately forty-fve square miles. 1t
is nothing but warehouses and a COD
web of tracks and railroad yards.
The warehouses are fifty rect wlue
and anywhere from 800 to 6OO rect
Ilong. Just how many of them there
are we do not know, and. we think
There are not many people who do
ht,f 1nnnf has IFS OWN
warehouses, which are all in one
group and given a name, such as
Medical Sub POST Quartermaster,
Signal, Engineer, Gas and OIL, Y, M.
IC. A., Ordnance, Aviation, Cold Stor-
age, etc. Each one or these organi7
cations is a depot in itself, and all
combined make one large "General
| intermediate Storage Depot"
There is anything stored here from
a pin to locomotive. Grub! Why, we
have seen enough grub to feed an
army, standing in the fields covered
with 'paulins, let alone what perish
able supplies were stored in the
warehouses. The Ice Plant here
has a cold storage plant that they
say will hold enough meat to feed
two million men for ten days. That
was some time ago; but just what
lit will hold now after they have 1T
almost completed we do not know.
This place is not only a storage
depot for keeping supplies already
made and ready for use, but there
lis machinery and skilled labor here
Ito supply anything that is not over
here or cannot be brought here in
time when it is needed. There is
an up-to- date machine shop here
which can turn out any kind OF
lathe work that you could want.
They have their. own foundry and
make castings. There is a carpenter
shop here that can turn out finished
work from the green tree just
brought in from the forest. There
lis anything here that an army could
or would want and more too. And
another thing-there is corral
here that will contain 5000 horses
or mules. Not only contain them,
but also the men here who can at
tend to any that might be brought
back from the front injured or
gassed.
The Aviation section was a fine
sight to see. There were great hang
ars there, and the place when in full
swing looked like a monster indus
trial concern in the United States.
We do not know the capacity of the
place, but 1t must have been large.
They not only attended to the
erection and care of the machines
just from the States, but also acted
as a repair center for those machines
which might have become smashed
and broken in battle. Right after a
large drive and all through the large
Allied drive, 1t was a common sight
to see a trainload of broken ma
chimes coming into the camp at one
time. The depot as a whole is a
large concern, and nothing more can
be said, of part of it than can be
said of the rest.
We have often spoken about the
greatness of this camp, but could
never tell you just how large 1t is,
and we-2O men with one officer
came here in October, 1917, to start
the largest medical depot in the
world. At that time there were
companies D and F of the Fifteenth
4 Engineers at this camp and that
4 was all. We slept in mud and en-
dured all the hardships pertaining
to soldier life, but everything work.
ed out in due time until now we are
as comfortable situated as the sol
diers in the United States. To locate
our position get your map of France
and mark the boundaries of the camp
as Selles, Romarantin, Chalris and
/ IVillefrance. This is on the p. and
o. railroad from Tours to Vierzon.
Although it is not thoroughly deveI-
oped the camp contains nearly seven
hundred miles of railroad trackage;
1T contains five railroad yards, ship
ping or classification, each having
twenty tracks capable of holding
100 cars. And we remember when
wo used to have to go into the
French yard at Gievres and push, by
manpower, the cars for our depot
into the one string of track that
then run into our camp. At pres
ent the greatest work of all is the
scheme of getting the cars out of
the depots after they have been
LOADED or unloaded. The number OF
cars handled in this camp in one
day would make the record day of
the Enola yards look sick. 1t was
all handled by the Americans, built
by the Americans, with material
which was brought over from Amer
lea. That is one of the reasons SO
many people in the States cannot
understand why the boys cannot get
home in a short time. They simply
don't know and haven't got the least
idea Just how much material the
United States has brought into this
country and just how much she now
has in storage here that is thus far
unused.
Our depot is the largest Medical
Supply Depot in France and is, we
believe, the largest one known We