Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1919-07-02

The war story of the engineer corps
at home and in France is told officially
for the first time in chapters of the
war departments brief history of
American war efforts, made public In
advance sheets. Many Of the record
ed accomplishments of the engineers
have been published before as isolated
incidents, but this is the first com
plete and connected story which gives
any idea of the extraordinary scope
of the duties modern warfare laid
upon engineering troops.
Probably the best illustration of this
so far as the troops in France are con-
cerned is the technical organization of
the units of the engineers which
reached the other side. There were
seven regiments and two battalions of
railway construction engineers, five
battalions for maintenance of way;
two battalions for maintenance of rail-
way equipment; four regiments and
one battalion TO operate the main
American railways in France; three
regiments to operate light railways
and their repair shops; two regiments
to operate the regular railway repair
shops; two regiments and six separate
battalions on general construction
work; two regiments for storing and
transporting engineer supplies; for
estry regiment; light railway CON
struction regiment: a road building
regiment; water supply regiment:
a mining regiment; a quarrying regi-
ment; a technical regiment for sur
veying and sound ranging; three sur
vey and printing battalions; two rail-
way transportation battalions; an cleo
trical and mechanical regiment; sew
eral separate companies to operate
cranes; a camouflage service; five in
land waterway companies to operate
canal boats and the like; five pontoon
trains and pontora park; a railway
transportation an stores battalion
and a searchlight giment.
And Then There vfcre the Sappers.
These special III 8, all composed Of
men trained in civ life in the United
States for the wor'; hey did in France,
were in addition to the fighting en-
sineers with each d vision, the sappers.
who formed about eight per cent OF
all of the combatant troops in France.
One section of tn report is devoted
to the development of 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 1903
locomotives before the armistice was
signed, of which SIS were in service
at that time. T. addition, 1898
freight cars were slipped abroad. both
engines and cars having been pro-
duced specially for service in France.
These were employed upon the 937
miles of standard guage track laid in
France by the engineers with equip
ment shipped from this country. and
the rolling stock was in addition to
great quantities of light railway equip
ment for front line work that was also
sent abroad.
Hospital trains we're obtained in
England, 10 of them with a total of
S04 cars having been completed by
December, 1918. with % additional
trains under construction. They cost
more than $4,000 per car, but It is es-
timated that to have produced them In
the 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 wifi 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
moving shops of this character in agri-
cultural communities as farming ma
chinery increases.
"The day has come" the report
says, when the travelling machine
shop will be a familiar sight upon
our rural highways"
Among the motorized shops created
were the photolithographic press
trucks, which were able to produce
maps from original sketches within II
houAoi dS Conlpdfeu WIN IOur Gays
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 en-
gineer corps produced machines for
this purpose which operated with ''un-
canny accuracy" one of them having
spotted 1T German gun positions in
a 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 airplanes were
carried out until it was possible to
determine the location of a raider at
night within an angle of three de-