Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1919-02-14
WONDERFUL STORY OF
SERVICE OF SUPPLY
Told in Letter from Arthur E. John
son, who Served in Largest Ad-
vance Depot in France.

thur E. Johnson, supply 70. No' oO9',
O. M. c., A. E. F., No. 782395, A. T.
O. No. 712:
''Now you have asked me what
am doing and where I am at. Well,
have never been in the front line
trenches but have been in theAdvance
Zone all the time and cannot tell
YOU of any bloody battles or the like
except of one attempted air raid
which proved unsuccessful and dis
astrous for the 'Boche' as our anti
aircraft batteries soon put him to
flight and our aeroplanes dOwned him
before he could get back to his lines
again. It sure was fun to watch the
shell bursting in air and listen to the
booming of the 75's and the swapping
pops of the anti-aircraft machine
guns. So many fellows write letters
home telling of the battles they have
been in and everything and a lot OF
other lies when they have not even
heard cannon roar, but can't DC
that and that is why you have never
received any startling letters from me
but I will try and see if l can give
you a little idea of this village, camp
and Advance @. M. Depot.
Just few years ago if you or had
made tour of France, in all proba-
bility we would have stopped for
few minutes in this quaint little viii
lage of Is-sur-TilIe The definition of
the name is, Is (the name of the
village) sur lis the French word for
'on') and Tile lis the name of the
river flowing thru the village.) On
looking around we would have no
ticed that it was surrounded by some
of the most beautiful hills that one
could ever look upon. The river, or
rather the creek, as we would call it
at home, travels its course thru the
heart of the village and gives it
very picturesque appearance. This
stream serves as the wash tubs for
the entire village as all the women
bring their laundry here to wash. The
manner in which they wash the
clothes seems indeed to be very crude.
This stream is lined on both sides
with women doing their Washings as
we'll as the laundry work for some
10000 soldiers in this camp. They
have a board about three feet square
that they lay on the rocks at the
waters edge and get down on their
knees on this board, then they take
one Of the pieces of laundry, soak it
in the water and soap it well and lay
it in a bundle on this board and beat
it with a small paddle, carved from a
piece Of hardwood, and they repeat
that sort of an operation until the
clothes are clean, and it would sur
prise you how clean and white they
get the clothing.
until four years ago this little
village had a population of 1000 in
habitants and was scarcely known to
the general public. When the war
first began it's population diminished
to but 1000 inhabitants.
Several months ago, when the
United States declared war on Ger
many, Is-sur-TiIle was just a few
miles in the rear Of the front line
trenches and it was here that the
American EXpeditionary Forces de-
cided to build up the largest Advance
Depot in France, in which several
branches of the service are represent
ed, the first being that of the Quar-
termaster. Thus the construction Of
the Advance Quartermaster Depot
No. 1, Service of Supplies, s. o. s.
as it is called in the army.
THE first American soldiers were
assigned to duty here a little over
one year ago. They slept in their
pup tents thru all kinds of weather
until barracks were built for their
comfort, as they called it, with the
mud ankle deep in the barracks, and
that is not exaggerated at all. Com
panies and companies of soldiers
were sent here almost every day I'M
til the population has reached over
the 10000 mark.
''It was thru the good work and
co operation Of all that made It POS
s'hle for this depot to feed and supply
the whole American Army at the
frost. The depot was kept running
day and night, with both day and
night shifts, which kept on an aver
age of fifteen trainloads of supplies of
all kinds moving daily to the front
to be distributed among the different
Railroads where they we're immed1-
ately delivered to the different divi-
siOns and organizations.
"There is little better than rs
miles of railroad trackage here in
operating yards and warehouse
trackage.
"The main office at this depot,
where all the paper work is done, is
run on a system that cannot be beat
as the work is divided in seven or
rather eight different branches,
namely, Record, Subsistence, Trans
portation, Statistical, Property, Wood
Supply, Fuel and Forage, and FL
nance. Each of these branches are