White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1919-06-22

III German Gun Positions In sinole
pay-corps Also Produced Most
Powerful s~earchIieht in Use.
The var story Of the engineer CORDS
ut 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 CON-
plete and connected story which gives
any idea Of the extraordinary o
Of the duties modern warfare laid
upon engineering troops.
Probably the best illustration of this
40 far as the troops In France are con-
cerned is the technical organization of
fbe units of the engineers which
reached the other side. There were
eve regiments and two battalions OF
railway construction engineers, Ave
battalions for maintenance OF way;
W. battalions for maintenance of rail
way equipment four regiments and
one battalion to operate the main
American railways in France: three
regiments 10 operate light railways
and their repair shops; two regiments
10 operate the regular railway repair
shops two regiments and six separate
battalions on general construction
work two regiments for storing and
transporting engineer supplies a for
estry regiment; a light railway con-
struction regiment: a road building
regiment: a 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-
irical and mechanical regiment: sev-
eral separate companies to operate
franes: a camoufiage service; FIVE In
land waterway companies to operate
canal boats and the like; Ave pontoon
trains and a pontoon park a railway
transportation and stores battalion
and a searchlight regiment.
And Then There Were the sappera
These 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 fighting en-
gineers with each division. the sappers.
who formed about eight per cent OF
all Of the combatant troops in France.
One section Of the report Is devoted
10 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 armlstice was
signed. OF which 90S were in service
at that time. In addition. 1898
freight cars were shipped abroad. both
engines and cars having been pro-
duced specially for service In France.
These were employed upon the a37
miles Of standard gunge 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 were obtained In
England. 10 OF them with a total OF
3A ears having been completed by
December, 1918. with 20 additional
trains under construction. They cost
more than $4,000 per car. but IL IL e.
timated that 10 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 will be Of value
commercially in peace time. The mo-
torized machine shops alone, IL IN
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
chlnery increases.
.'The day has come" the report
says, when the travelling machine
shop will be a familiar sight upon
our rurai highways"
Among the motorized shops created
were the photolithographic press
trucks, which were able to produce
maps from original sketches within IL
hours, as compared with four DAYS
required by similar French and Brit
ish units.
A special chapter In 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" n of them having
spotted lit German gun positions In
n 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 u five-mile stretch or
front, ut work on the American ines.