The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-05-17

iZation OF the UNITS OF TIE elioiiiS@''
which reached the other side. There
were seven regiments and two bat
faIions Of railway construction engl-
neers; fve ba1talions for maintenance
of way two battalions for mainten-
snce Of railway equipment; four reg
inaents and one battalion to operate
fIfe main American railways iE
France; three regiments to operate
LIGHT railways and their repair shops;
I'VE regiments to operate the regular
railway repair shops; two regiments
and six separate battalions on gener-
al construction work; two regiments
for storing and Transporting engineer
supplies; forestry regiment; a llSh'
railway construction regiment; a road
building regiment; water supply
regiment; mining regiment; quar-
ryfng regiment, technical regiment
for surveying and sound ranging;
three survey and printing battalions;
two railway transportation battalions'
an electrical and mechanical regiment;
several sepa arate companies 10 operate
cranes; a cam mouflage service; five
inland waterway companies to oper-
ate canal boats and the like; five pom
toon trains and pontoon park; q
rai1way transportation and stores bat
talon and a searchlight regiment.
Ti.ese special units, all composed
of men trained in civil life in the
United States for. the work they did IN
France, were in addition TO the fight
ing engineers with each division, the
sappers, who formed about eight per
cent of all the com batant troops in
France.
One section Of the report is devoted
10 the developnlentof American rail-
ways in France and to the production
Of railway equipment in The United
States to meet the call from the front.
There were shipped to France 1893
locomotives before the armistice was
signed of which 90S were in service at
that time. IN addition, 1913 freight
ears were shipped abroad. both Ell
gines and cars having been produced
specially for service in Franc These
were employed upon the 937 miles of
standard guage track laid in France
by the engineers with equipment
shipped from this country and TIC
rolling stock was in addition to great
quantities of light railway equipment
for front line work that was also sent
abroad
Hospital trains were obtained in
England, l9 of them with total OF
304 cars having been completed by
December, 1918 with % additional
trains under construction. They cost
more than $4,000 per car, but it is
estimated that to have produced them
IN tile United States and shipped them
would have cost $4,000 per car.
The report lays stress on the fAct
that great progress was made during
the war in the development of road
building, railway and other engineer
ing equipment which will be Of value
commercially in peace time The mo-
torized machine shops alone, it is
stated, are practically certain TO bring
about in this country the use of NOV
ing shops Of this character in agricnl-
4ural communities as farming machin-
cry increases.
1.-The day may come" the report
says, when the travelling machine
shop will be familiar sight upon our
rural highways
Among the motorized shops created
were the photolithographic press
trucks, which were able to reproduce
maps from original sketches within
- hours as compared with four days
required by similar French and Brit
ish units.
A special chapter is devoted to lis
tening instruments developed during
the war to locate hidden guns. I'M
proving upon Allied designs, the engi-
neer corps produced machines for this
purpose which operated with ''uncan-I
NY accuracy" one of them having
spotted. III German gun positions IN
single day. Subsequently these
were followed by instruments of even
greater power and at the close Of the
war there were II complete outfits.
each covering a five mile stretch of
front, at work on the American lines
Similar development Of instruments
for locating hostile ariplanes were
carried out until it was possible 20
determine the location of raider at
night within an angle of three degrees.
The American types produced were
easily portable and quickly set up to
aid the searchlights. A hint at the
scientific developments which were in
sight in connection with these sound
ranging devices is contained in the
following paragraph:
when the fighting stopped our
military scientists and others cooper
ating with them were working on the
development of a sound ranging ap- |
uaratus intended to give troops warn
ing of shell fred by the enemy in their
direction. The preliminary expert