Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-06-25
PLANTS AMERICA
MADE IN FRANCE TO
SUPPLY THE ARMY
Gievres Built Into a City
BY Engineers of the
U. S. Army
$50 STORAGE HOUSES
Has Rcfrigerating Plants, Engine
Terminal, Remount Depots and
Others
France, on board the "a. Z. F.
Special"
April 30, 1919
Dear ALL

Our journey inland from Bordeaux
led us first to Tours, where we ar
rived yesterday morning for the pur-
pose of visiting the main salvage
plant located at St. Pierre du Corps.
Having visited this plant before I
took the advantage of this stop to
run up to the Office at Headquarters
and get my mail. was glad to find
a letter from home but disappointed
to receive an order rcvoking my leave
to Italy. No reason for the latter
was assigned, pcrchance it is the re-
suit of recent developments at the
Peace Conference.
or the salvage plant l shall not
write as l told you some time ago of
my previous visit. We left about
0 a. M, on the main line of commun-
ication, over which the bulk of the
supplies for the A. E. F. pass, en-
route for the great intermediate sto-
rage project at Gievres, which is the
largest depot supplying the American
forces.
Work on the General Intermediate
Storage Depot was commenced in
August. 1917, when the name
"Gievres" meant nothing more than
the location of a village SO small that
it was neglected on most maps. Am
erican engineers transformed it in
little more than, a year into city
that stretched north and south nearly
seven miles and east and west ap-
proXimately one and one-half miles.
In addition to the structures neces-
sary to house its soldier population
of $4,000 it contained 1870 ware hous-
es with covered area of 4,500,000
square feet, one of the largest refrig-
Grating plants in the world with Ca
pacity for freezing and storing 49,
100000 pounds of beef and produc-
ing 500 tons of ice daily, large en-
ginc terminal, gasoline and oil stor-
age, rcmount depots, and various 9TH
er and auxiliary activities.
We were taken about the project
on flat cars, getting off only to go
through the rcfigcrating plant.
Aboard the cars we were taken out
to Romorantin, nearby, to view the
facilities of Air Service Production
Center No. 2. Here more than 500
acres of flying fields were cleared arA
100000 square feet of buildings of all
sorts erected, creating a vast plant
where large proportion of the air
planes, liberty motors, and other Air
service equipment were assembled
and prepared for use. Here, too,
wrecked and disabled planes were
sent for repair. The plant is now
preparing serviceable material for re-
turn to the United States.
I believe that l said in my previous
letter that we were favored with
beautiful weather at the ports. We
daily expected a change, however,
knowing France too well to dare hope
for continued period of pleasant
weather. Yesterday the blow fell with
a vengeance. If, in speaking of the
immense plants at Romartin and Gle
vres, l have failed to make you ap-
preciate their magnitude, it is per-
haps due to the fact that impressions
were dulled by a chilling rain and
sleet that fell throughout tn time
we were viewing the projects. You
can imagine our delight, therefore, in
finding upon our return to the cars
that the Y. M. G. A. had put a good
supply of fresh doughnuts and hot
chocolate on board. These were serv-
ed to us as we travelled from Gievres
to Mehun.
You may perhaps recall that sew
eral months ago you sent me a clip
ping telling of a great ordinance base
to be erected in France at cost of
$25,000,OO0. The project referred to
was the Mehun plant, which, altho it
did not attain the size contemplated,
due to the early termination of hos
tilities, is an aggregation of immense
steel shop and warehouse buildings
covering several acres. The pro-
ject at its inception, contemplated the
provision of facilities sufficient for
the maintenance and repair of all
ordnance material used by the A. E. |
+. Many of the great buildings were
erected and the machinery installed,
overhead travelling cranes,
but the. plant has been concerned
since the signing of the armistice
L, - f.,