The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-22

Sioii"A ihoh lo HciP Iic 1lSHtLlS uldu. These civilians contributed largely to the allied success. Napolean with all his ex- perience could never have foreseen the cos mopoltan organizations necessary for the success of modern army. Before this war such organizations as the refrigeration units, forestry battalions, reclamation units, salvage organizations and fire department battalions were unknown.
 The fire department units were not used on the front to fight liquid fire or gas, but were stationed in the service of supplies to protect the billions of dollyars' worth of supplies from fire. These battalions were made up of picked men from the fire de- partments of the large cities of the east. Only their efficient equipment and organiza- tion enabled them to save many millions of dollars worth of material so necessary to our fighting men at the front. Besides suc- cessfully fighting the accidental fire, they defeated organized attempts at the destruc- tion of our docks and upplies-altogether another matter that!
 We all realized from the start that every effort would be made by the Germans to cripple our troops and that our miles upon miles of docks and warehouses scattered along the coast of France offered the fire bug tempting chance. Several attempts to burn these docks had been made before July, 1918; but they were clumsy and the guilty ones had been promptly captured and punished. We kept a close watch, ana nav ing had no serious fire, were congratulating ourselves on the fire situation when, in Jnnp 1913 Wo rQceivo1 of our assistant provost marshals statoined at La Rochelle, one of our sub-base ports, which woke us up to new dangers.
 This A. P. M. reported: For the past eight nights, on each night we have discoy- cred fire on the gasoline docks. By good, fortune we have been able to quench them before they made fair start. But sooner or later, unless steps are taken to capture those who are responsible, we are sure to have a fire that will seriously cripple the entire American army by destroying at least 75 per cent of our gasoline supply. Strn- gent orders against the carrying of matches are enforced; we search every German pris- oner before allowing him to pass through the gates; and any one found violating this order is severely punished; but still the fires continue. We have rsed every effort to find the guilty ones, but have learned noth- ing, and want your help in solving the mys- tery."
 The commanding general considered the matter very serious, and ordered that every possible means should be employed to catch the firebug and punish him. At this point we had prison compound with over 5000 s,, cJ% 4Iz:. labor was used by both the French and the Americans, since they came from our camp we were responsible for their actions, and it was our duty to solve the mystery and punish the guilty. We felt convinced that the German prisoners were in some way set ting the fires and We concentrated on that trail.
 Our first move was to put extra men to watch the prisoners while at work. Several were secreted in and around the docks for that purpose. Even while these men were on watch, fire was set which undoubtedly would have destroyed the entire dock sys- tenn but for favorable shift in the wind which enabled the fire department to quencn it before it made much headway. This said little for the efficiency of our present plans and before we got others going the enemy succeeded in setting another fire, this time at the French chemical plant, and the plant was totally destroyed.
 Yet here, as at our dock, the prisoners were careful searehed before being allowed to enter the preaises.s .ssssssis