Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-08
No Wonder Germany Quit
By MAJOR FRANK G. MAHIN
OF the Army Recruiting Station

The late war necessitated and de-
veloped an entirely new kind of
work for fighting troops to do and
that was Intelligence. In the old
days Military Intelligence was car
ried on by a specially trained lot
of officers and by spies. In this
war it became necessary for each
battalion of infantry to have an in
telligence officer and about thirty
enlisted men, Observers, special
scouts, craftsmen and soforth.
Each morning the intelligence of
fiCer put in a report to the Regi-
mental Intelligence officer covering
all activities of our own and the
enemy. The Regimental Intelli-
gence officer consolidated the three
battalion reports and forwarded
this report to the Division, then it
went to the corps, then to the Field
Army, then to American Headquar-
, ters and finally wound up in the
Allied Headquarters. Every mo-
ment of the day and night, trained
observers studied the Boche lines
through powerful telescopes set up
in what are called observation posts
or o. P's. Nothing is too small or
insignificant to report. Each thing
reported is stated as occurring at
certain numerals called co-ordi-
mates which indicate the exact spot
on the map. For instance, the re-
port of the Battalion Intelligence
Officer would state that woman
was seen walking north at .O15 -
.3S9 at 1913 o'clock. To avoid err
ror the 24-hour system was always
used so 1913 o'clock would mean
313 p. NJ. Smoke was seen COM
ing out of the Boche trenches be-
l. tntc n
would indicate the installation of
gas tanks for gas attack. The re-
port would further show the exact
number of shells the Boche sent
over into the battalion sector, the
time of arrival and the size OF the
shell, also as nearly as could be de-
termined the location of the batter
les doing the firing. The working
up of these reports was an endless
lob, One of the main duties of the
battalion Intelligence officer was to
go round each day through the
trenches and ask questions ana MS
ten to conversation in order to pick
IN bits of information. When he
got something his first remark IN
va ariably would be what are the
co-ordinates," so that naturally his
nickname was always "Old Co
ordinates.' But of all the jobs he
had his hardest was to get the
necessary information out of the
patrols. He would wait at scout
headquarters from about A. M.
until the last patrol came in, usually
about 6, and each patrol leader
would report to him. Then would
come a funny argument. The poor
scout had been out in No Mans
Land and the Boche trenches all
n
chilled to the bone, soaking wet,
sleepy, and with a lovely crouch.
As soon as he would see "Old Co
ordinates" he would begin to swear,
but would. nevertheless, start right
| off: "I went out of G. G. at 21.1O
o'clock with men. We went over
| into the Boche trenches. worked
back to their third line where we
had a fight. Came back into G. c.
| at $40 o'clock" What were the
co-ordinates of the point you en-
tered the Boche wire?' would come
the question. "How the He'll should
I know" would be the answer.
| Then both men would bend over the
man and the scout would point out
| on the map the route he had fol-
| lowed, where the fight had occurred
and the route he followed coming
| back. "Old co-ordinates would pa
| tiently figure out the co-ordinate es
and then go on questioning as to
what the scout had seen here and
there, what was the condition of a
certain trench which had previously
been reported in bad condition, and
so forth until he felt he had
squeezed his scout dry, whereupon
| with much profanity and growing
: the scout would depart for bed.
Then poor "Old co-ordinates'' would
start in on the next scout and fire.
quently he would have to put twelve