The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-06-02

depots operating In 361 buildings COW
ertng 8.269,666 square feet OF moor
space, and with additional open stor-
age spare Of 1o,328,5s3 square feet
These were the great central pan
tries and wardrobes OF the A. e. #.
The largest Of them were at Gievres,
st. Sulpice. Monitor, Montierchaume.
Paris and Is-sur TILE. all of which
carried a stock Of general supplies
such as subsistence, clothing, fuel and
miscellaneous stores. Gievres, the
largest military supply depot in the
world, was designed to take care of
the needs OF the entire 8. o. s. 1t
has a history that not even beans and
canned willy can rob of romance.
Speaking OF Beans and Things.
And speaking OF beans and things,
there were exactly 20,o00.o00 pounds
of beans waiting for us at Gievres the
day the war ended. In addition to
flour, corn meal and bread enough to
feed Chicago's 5000 900 people for
thirteen days. Gievres could have me.
a soup line stretching from Maine to
California with confident smile with
the 100000 cans on it's shelves. There
were tucked away in one corner that
day $4,000 new brooms and the mill
lions that had preceded them may
have had something to do with the
clean sweep" the American army
made on this side. The X. P.'s would
have been happy to have seen the 49,
600 bright and shiny pans stacked up
on one side of the depot, and the ex-
kaiser might have been equally happy
to have gotten glance at the SIS
tons of rope right across the way.
More than $2oo,0oo.oto of supplies
passed through the quartermaster
depot at Gievres alone up until the
time of the armistice. Business was
done here on big scale. One morning
a single order was received for 1885,
600 cans OF tomatoes; 100000 pounds
of sugar: 100000 cans OF canned beef;
and 10000 pounds of beans. Ten hours
later the order was filled, loaded in
457 freight cars and on it's way
The total amount of money spent by
the auartermaster corps in the A. E. F.
from the time of the arrival of the
first troops to March /. 1919, was $685.
$4,000.
A. Regular Mess Kit Load.
II anybody has any doubts as to
where the money went, they will be re-
assured a Bit to know that the rations
issued the A F.. r. during the month of
November. 1918, cost s52.50o.o0e. or
more than half the cost Of the entire
American army In the year 1915. Dur
ing that month the A. +. +. ate $4,000
coo pounds of fresh beef. and it took
twenty ships to bring over the pota-
toes consumed during those thirty
days, 350.o0t.n0 pounds. or 900 ship
tons enough II placed end to end to
reach from Coblenz to san Francisco
On the last day Of the month we ate
100000 pounds of bread
The work of the ausrtermaster de-
partment of the A. F.. r. was divided
into nine parts. including administra-
ton. supplies, personnel. finance. &C
counting. salvage. remount, construc-
ton and repair. and graves registra-
ton.
|. az the different phasees ~ its atf4sf-
ties represented by these different d.
visions. the functions of the division
OF supplies were the largest and most
important This one division was
charged with fifteen different and
distinct duties==cinthinx--- subsistence,
bakeries, animal drawn transportation
traffic. travelling officers. supplies and
stationery, fuel, forage. cold storage
and refrigeration. administration. gar
den service, storage and warehouses,
gasoline and oil and miscellaneous.
This division kept the A. f, F
wardrobe 80 fun that there has never
been any dearth OF clothing in the A
f. +, 1t fed the American army and
fed II better than any other army in
history was ever fed. The figures in
suffered from a bad mess must remem-
Der The old adage about many a slip
betwixt cup and lip" and look else
where than the historical records of
the auartermaster department for COM
fort
Ative L. This Day.
To this division of the @ NJ G. the
A, II, F. looked for its daily bread and
not without getting t. The produc-
ton of bread in the A. r. r Increased
from the first baking OF !!.s7s pounds
at Diion on August g. 1917. to 1870. ood
pounds on November 80, 1915, when
there were sixty-nine bakery estab-
itshments operating throughout tie A.
r. F. A. mechanical bakery was placed
in operation at 1s-sur-Tiile December
!. 1915. with normal capac city of
s5e.f-oo pounds of-trrH4 dattv-sr7T
10000 pounds in an emergency Ar
rangements had been made to establish
two more like II to keep pace with the
100000 army program cut short by
the armistice
The A. F. F. had woodpile and A
coal bin of sufficient proportions to
keep any ordinary army service busy
replenishing them. There were eight
coal storage yards in the A. E r. with
capacity of l.efe 900 tons and they
were kept nearly fun at the time. Tn
TO October l. 1915. there had been s25.
WV coFoS OF WOOD IN the A. f.. F. wood
rile. 100000 Of them coming from the
French and $4,000 cut by us.
However. winter was coming on. the
A. e. F. was getting larger every day.
and signs Of peace were faint--so what
was called the fuel wood project ad :
vance section was formed with $500 Ell, :
listed men under the command OF "A
competent forestry officer. These men
followed closely In the wake Of our ad :
vancinK armies. sometimes working in
woods filled with gas and in their gas
masks. and produced in three months
time $4,000 cords OF wood. or one
third of the total amount that would
nave been required for the entire win
ter II the. troop program had been car
ried out
Forage has been a great problem in
the A. f. r. Tens and tens of thou
sands OF animals that must be fed.
hay, oats and bran. as hard to ind in
france as needle in haystock. and
rothing harder to transport. During
the war. irrespective of large purchases
IN Europe. the forage section of the
supplies department landed aSs.2se.744
pounds Of hay. 42s.3se.aso pounds of