New Britain herald., 1919-05-15
|tMPLETE HISTORY
 OF J. 5. ENGINEERS
Fold Officially for First Time in Departments History

4and in France is told officially for the | 8first time in hapterS of the war de- ! spartment's brief history of American l Swar efforts made public today in ad~ l avance sheets. Many of the recorded Accomplishments of the engineers < have been published before as isolated aincidents, but this is the first complete Band connected story which gives any aldea of the extraordinary scope of Ithe duties modern warfare has laid aupon engineering troops. Probably the best illustration of 7this so far as the troops in France are 3concerned is the technical organiza- ation of the units of the engineers (which reached the other side. There 8Were seven regiments and two battal- lions of railway construction engi- 8neers; five battalions for maintenance \ of Way; two battalions for main- k tenance of railway equipment; four regiments and one battalion to oper- ate the main American railways Tn @ France; three regiments to operate light railways and their repair shops; M two regiments to operate the regular $ railway repair shops; two regl- ments and six separate battallonS on k general construction work; two regl- nlents for storing and transportlnS engineer supplies; a forestry fesl- M Ipent;. a light railway construclloh Fl regiment: a road building regiment; @ water supply regiment; a mining regl- @ lnent; 8 quarrying regiment; teen llical regiment for surveying and K sound ranging; three survey aud printing battalions; two railway trans Dortation battalionS; an electrical ana mechanical regiment; several Sepdrdte E companies to operate cranes; caln- @ ouHage service; five inland waterway & companies to operate canal boats ana the like; five pontoon trains ana a M pontoon park; d railway transporta- # 1ion and storcsybattalion and search 8 light regiment. r Sd These special, units. all composed CT M men trained in civil life in the United M States for the work they did i'll # France. were in addition to the fight M ing engineers with each division, the N sanpers. who formed about eight per K cent. of all the combatant troops 1T M France. ,
 One section of the report is devoted z +a the deyelopm of American rall- x ways in France and +otthe productloil @ of railway equipment in tue ChlIeu @ States to meet the, call from the iron.
 There were shipped to France l,3o3 @ locomotives before the armistice was M eiorad of which 9O& were in service @ o+ that time In addition, l8,3 |M fraiorh+ ears were shipped abroad, botf ES engines and cars having been produced 5A specially for service in France. 1hese I were employed upon the 931 miles o @ standard gauge track laid Tn frahcF @ by the engineers with equlpmen @ shipped from this country and the AS rolling stock was in addition to grea @ quantities of light railway eQulpmen
 for front line work thatswas also sen KS abroad
 Hospital trains were obtained Il R England 19 of them with a total o M BOA cars having been completed b. 8 December 1918, with 29 addlt1ona
 trains under construction. They cos
 more than $1S,000 per car, but It
 estimated that to have produced then
 in the United States and dsshipped then
 would have cost $4O,0O0iper car
 The report lays stress on the tac BN that great progress was made ouflh @ fhe war in the development of roa
 building, railway and other engineer @ ing equipment which will be of Valu
 commercially in peace time. Tn @ motorized machine shops alone, 1t a stated are practically certain, to brl1
 about in this country the use. of moH @ ing shops of this character in agr
 cultural communities as farming ma
 chinery increases.
 The day may come" the repo
 says, when the travelling machir va shop will be a familiar sight'upon ol @ rural highways
 Among the motorized shops create
 were the photolithographic pre-
 trucks which were able to reprodu @ maps from original sketches within
 hours as compared with four days r @ ouired by similar French and Britt: @ units.
 A special chapter is devoted @ listening instruments developed du @ ing the war to locate hidden gur M Improving upon allied designs, t
 engineer corps produced machines f @ this purpose which operated wi
 .'uncanny accuracy" one of the
 having spotted IF German gun po @ tions in a single day. Subsequent
 these were followed by instruments
 even greater power and at the clc
 of the war there were 12 comple
 outfits, each covering a five m
 stretch of front, at work on the Anne
 jean lines.
 KS Similar development of instrumel # for locating hostile airpIanes we
 carried out until it was possible to # termine the location of a raider
 night within an angle of three
 grees. The American types produc
 were easily portable and quickly
 LID to aid the searchlights. hint
 the scientific developments Wh
 were in sight in connection with tn # sound ranging devices is contai1 M in the following paragraph:
 When the fighting stopped
 military scientists and others co-op
 ating with them were working on
 development of a sound ranging
 paratus intended to give troops wa
 ing of shells fired by the enemy # their direction. The preliminary