The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-18
DE7AHED STORIES MADE PUBLIC TELLING HOW
 WAR DEPARTMENT SOL VED ITS GREAT PROBLEMS
American Engineers Met Tasks Which Faced Them
 in Marvellous Manner
By Associated Press

By Associated Pres.
 Washington, May 1.-The war story of the engineer corps at 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 today in advance sheets Many of the recorded accomplishments of the engineers have been published before as isolated incidents, but this is the first complete and connected story which gives any idea of the extraordinary scope of the duties modern warfare has laid upon engineering troops
 Probably the best illustration of this so far as the troops in France are con- cerned is the technical organization of the units Of the engineers which reached the other side. There were seven regi- ments and two battalions of railway con struction engineers. five battalions for maintenance of way; two hattalions for maintenance of railway equipment; four regiments and one battalion to operate the main American railways in France; three regiments to operate light railways and their repair shops; two regiments to operate the regular railway repair shops: two regiments and six separate battalions on general construction work; two regi- ments for storing and transporting en- gineer supplies; forestry regiment: n light railway construction regiment: a road building regiment; a water supply regiment; a mining regiment: quarrving regiment technical regiment for sur veying and sound ranging; three survey and printing battalions; two railway transportation battalions: an electrical and mechanical regiment; several sepa- rate companies to operate cranes; q camouflage service; five inland waterway companies to operate canal boats and the like; five pontoon trains and pom toon park; railway transportation and stores battalion and a searchlight regi. ment.
 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 engineers with each division, the sappers, who formed about per cent of all the com blatant troops in France. N One section of the report is devoted to the development of American railways in France and to the production of rail way equipment in the United States to meet the call from the front. There were shipped to France 1903 locomotives before the armistice was signed, of which 90S were in service at that time. In addi- tion, 1S,313 freight cars were shipped abroad both engines and cars having been produced specially for service is France. These were employed upon the 937 miles of standard gauge truck laid in France by the engineers with equip. ment shipped from this country and the rolling stock in addition to great quantities of light railway equipment for front line work that was also sent abroad Hospital trains were obtained in Eng land. 19 of them with total of 304 cars having been completed by December, 1918, with 29 additional trains under con- struction. They cost more than s1S060 per car. but it is estimated that to have produced them in the United States and shipped them would have cost $40.000 per car.
 The report lays stress on the fact that
 great progress was made during the war in the achievement of road building, rail- way and other engineering equipment which will be of value commercially in peace time. The motorized machine shops alone, it is stated. are practically certain to bring about in this country the use of moving shops of this character | in agricultural communities as farming machinery increases.
 "The day may come," the report says. when the travelling machine shop will .. be familiar sight upon our rural high ways"
 Among the motorized shops created were the photolithographic press trucks,
 which were able to reproduce maps frore original sketches within F hours as com pareQ with TOUT QdyS required Dy SlmlldT French and British units.
 A special chapter is devoted to listening instruments developed during the war to locate hidden guns. Improving upon al- lied designs, the engineer corps pro duced machines for this purpose which operated with ''uncanny Accuracy" one of them having spotted 117 German gun positions in a single day Subsequently these were followed by instruments of tor al the cInSp or
 the war there were 12 complete outfits, each covering five-mile stretch of front. at work on the American lines.
 Similar development of instruments for locating hostile airplanes were carried out until it was possible to determine the location of a raider at night within an angle of three degrees. The American types produced were easily portable and quickly set up to aid the searchlights. hint at the scientific developments which were in sight in connection witis these sound ranging devices is contained on the following paragraph;
 s'When the fighting stopped our mili- tary scientists and others cooperating with them were working on the develops tended to give troops warning of shell fired by the enemy in their direction The preliminary experiments found that at Al miles these mechanisms could detect the firing of the gun as long as 19 seconds before the shell arrived, thus giving troops ample time to get under cover. Such a development was possible be- ca use of the far greater speed with which earth vibrations travel than those Of sound in the air.
 Except for lack of time in the brief seconds between the firing of the gun and the arrival of the shell, it would be quite possible with this proposed appar- atus to calculate almost exactly where the shell would land"
 The corps produced also a new form of searchlight more powerful than any that had preceded it in any army and with which the second field army had been partially equipped.
 '1t weighed the report says, "one- eighth as much as lights of former de- sign, cost only one-Vhird as much, was about one-fourth as large in bulk and threw a light 10 per cent stronger than any other portable protector in exist. ence.
 The engineers were at work when the fighting ended upon a mechanism which would enable them to control searchlights from distance
 The chapter devoted to the work of