THE ARMY SERVICE CORPS OF THE BRITISH ARMY AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TRANSPORT AND TRANSPORTATION AT THE FRONT IN FRANCE LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE OFFICERS OF THE [QUARTERMASTER [CORPS AND QUARTER- MASTER RESERVE CORPS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C., ON MAY 2 AND MAY 9, 1917, RESPECTIVELY By LIEUT. COL. F. K. PUCKLE, A. S. C., BRITISH ARMY WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1917 . •r • , ^ C \ 0 .**- )°1 1 1 (/ « THE ARMY SERVICE CORPS OF THE BRITISH ARMY. MAY 2, 1917. GEN. SHARPE: I know how much we all feel indebted to Col. Heron for his address last evening. I think it may be a pleasure for you to know, and some- what of a relief for you all to be informed, that Col. Heron’s report was found, and the regret that we feel in connection with that is that he wasn’t able to continue his very entertaining remarks which he made last night, due, he said, to the fact that his report had not been returned to him. We hope, however, that we might induce him to supplement at some future time the short talk which he gave. But, seriously speaking, gentlemen, we have had a very enter- taining account of the functions of one of the divisions of the Depart- ment of the Quartermaster General last evening from Col. Heron, and I know there was impressed upon all very strongly and very forcibly particularly his description of the group system of decen- ^ tralization, showing that it is possible by the adoption of that system to facilitate the training of reserve officers. This evening we are going to be favored by hearing an account from Col. Puckle of the method of operation of the supplies and trans- port branches of the Department of the Quartermaster General. Gentlemen, I have the pleasure of introducing to you Col. Puckle of the Army Service Corps. COL. PUCKLE: Well, gentlemen, we had better first arrive at what the work is which is done by my branch. The actual charge of the Army Service Corps concerns Supply and Transport. Transport is not the same organization as “Transportation,” as you will learn, but consists only of mechanical transport, horse transport, pack, camel, and such extemporized methods as come up from time to time in various parts of the world. In France almost entirely mechanical and horse transport, and, in the case of an advance when we tempo- rarily get past good roads, pack transport has to be improvised. 100372—17 (3) 4 There is an organization which came into being from the first of December last year entitled “Transportation.” I will only touch X on it lightly. It embraces the handling of supplies — -both ammu- nition and supplies proper— at the ports and docks, and rail trans- portation and light rail beyond the railheads. We will leave that alone for the time being because it is an organization outside of the control of the Army Service Corps. It is handled, in fact, by a major general (ex-manager of one of our railway systems), aided by certain other railway experts, and a number of temporary commis- sioned officers. Now, in regard to the definition of the word “supplies” as under- stood by us. “Supplies” concerns only the subsistence of men and horses; that is to say, rations, forage, fuel, and light, petrol and oils, disinfectants, hospital comforts, and such local resources as can be obtained in the country in the way of coal, straw, fruit or hospitals, vegetables, milk, etc. It might be instructive to give you the strength of the corps as it was and as it is. In peace time the strength of the Army Service Corps was 435 officers and from 10,000 to 12,000 men; it is now ap- proximately 10,000 officers and 200,000 men; that is nearly double the number of the entire original expeditionary force. The subject is so big that to-night I propose to handle Supplies only, and, if another opportunity is available, will deal with Trans- portation and transport. I will, however, touch very lightly on Transport where relative to the transportation of supplies — espe- cially in the field. There are now five expeditionary forces. The greatest, of course, is in France and is well over two millions. There are also expedi- tionary forces in Egypt, Salonika, Messopotamia, and East Africa. The organization at home under the Quartermaster General: There is a Director at the War Office who combines Supply and Trans- port, and he and his staff handle this enormous force, or group of five forces, plus the troops in England. They also handle the per- sonnel of the Army Service Corps. The original expeditionary force was only eight divisions — indeed only six went over at first, the seventh crossed in October and the eighth in November. The total strength of the first six was about 120,000. By the beginning of 1915 it was recognized that the command comprised too many divisions in the form of one force. (I may add that there were also several territorial divisions which were in being previously, and which came out in the course of the first few months t 5 ^ of the war.) It was therefore decided that two armies be formed. A third was formed in July, 1915, and a fourth and fifth during 1916. So much for that. We will revert to the organization of the armies directly. f Now re the War Office: It arrives at the supply requirements in the several fields, and the requirements at home, by the usual sys- tem of estimates; the ordinary requirements of the normal ration are known. This ration had been laid down long before the war began and was arrived at in consultation with the Medical Branch of the service; thus with regard to the standard ration there is no necessity to call for estimates, as increases in strength and decreases due to casulaties are modified through the stock as a matter of routine; but for changes, either additional abnormal rations or substitutes, or additional articles that are required by the various branches of the service, the amounts are arrived at through calling for estimates which are sent in due course to England from France through a system of correspondence called the “nightly letter” — a very useful innovation of this war. The “nightly letter” is sent by the direc- torate in France and comprises what would in the ordinary course take perhaps 20 to 30 separate letters; that is to say, each paragraph in this letter deals with one of the various points either already under discussion or the new ones raised from day to day. Supplies are collected in bulk in England and from abroad by the usual system of agents, purchasing organizations, and boards. It is very much the same system that obtains in peace. Contracts are i put through the Contract Branch at the War Office, so that particular labor is taken off the hands of the A. S. C. in the various commands and districts. The personnel office I have mentioned before. The dispatching supply depots in England are scattered round the ports of the coun- try; the main one in the south is Newhaven. Now, we will go on to the organization in France, which concerns us more closely. At General Headquarters, which we will refer to as G. FI. Q., there is the Quartermaster General of the Army in France, who has equal jurisdiction there as the Quartermaster General at the War Office has over all the expeditionary forces in the field and at home. Under him is a Director of Supplies and a Director of Transport. To-night we are speaking of the supply directorate only . The D . of S . has under him a Deputy Director, Assistant Director, and Deputy Assistant ^ Director. The Director himself is the right hand of the Quartermaster General on supply services; his deputy carries out the office routine l 6 and enables his chief to attend conferences, and do as much inspect- ing and traveling about the country as time will • permit. The Assistant Director is more particularly concerned with what we term “provision,” i. e., the actual routine work of watching the supply situation, brigading the demands of the different parts of the coun- try as they come in and embodying them in the “nightly letter” to England. The Deputy Assistant Director is concerned with personnel almost entirely. For the first year or so of the war we had one line of communica- tions only. As far as the number of ports was concerned, and the area covered by this line of communications, it has not varied much to this day. However, the strength of each army and the number of troops on the line of communications increased to such an extent that it was recognized that one man could not handle this vast organization and it was divided into two parts, the northern and the southern line. The northern line runs from the front back to Boulogne and Calais — Dunkirk is subsidiary thereto; the southern line to Havre and Rouen with Dieppe subsidiary. There is a Supply Directorate on each of these. The functions of Deputy Director, Assistant Director, and Deputy Assistant Director are, in propor- tion, similar to those in the office of the D. of S. at G. H. Q. At each of the four main bases (Havre, Rouen, Boulogne, and Calais) there is an Assistant Director of Supplies. It is his duty to watch the supply situation and to coordinate the supply services of the base with the requirements of the Base Commandant and the French. The Base Commandant is in executive command of the base and has also to supervise all the various administrative services. He is the ‘ ‘ go-between ’ ’ of the French authorities and ourselves, so that any necessary development in construction, railway facilities which are being refused, difficulties of any kind, sort, or description are all dealt with by him in conjunction with the Directorate of the ad- ministrative branch concerned. Re the Base Supply Depots: There is a large depot at each of the above-mentioned ports. These depots used to be each one com- plete in itself with every class of supplies, but it was found as the number of troops increased in France that the available area at the base depots was not sufficient, and it thus became necessary to establish advanced bases. The supplies are now sent up in bulk from the ships to the advance bases, with the exception of forage, bread and meat, petrol, and 7 oils. These are loaded at the base in detail according to requires ments of formations. All other supplies are sent up in bulk train- to the advance bases. At the advance bases the number of days’ reserve for the whole of the troops based thereon used to be, and no doubt is yet, 21 days of supplies and 12 days’ forage. A record is maintained in the L. of C. office concerned, which is made up every night from the wires which come in from the bases, showing the number of days’ supplies on hand. This is bulked and repeated to the Director of Supplies at General Headquarters. The bases arrive at their holding by tak- ing stock every night. There is no necessity, of course, to take stock of stacks that are not being touched, but only of all stacks in course of issue and receipt. There is at each depot an outside superin- tendent and an officer in charge of the office work. The latter is called the Officer in Charge of Supplies. The outside Superintendent gets his demands from the office; the supplies are loaded on the supply railway trains and tallied on a most exhaustive system to avoid any possibility of mistakes in load- ing to go up country. Similarly with regard to supplies received ex ship. The result of this is totaled up, deducted from the actual “remain ” of the previous night, and stock taken; the new “remain” is then reported at nightfall to the supply office. The supply office has in turn made up the paper remain from the manifests received in the course of the day from the several ships and the issues to the front. The paper remain and the ground stock, or actual remain, should of course agree. If they do not, you arrive at the error each night, and it can be readily adjusted at once. These trains that we said were loaded in bulk at the bases are sent up to the advanced bases. Certain supplies in these loads will be sent forward to the troops as being required in complete truck loads and therefore will not require re-sorting. Others which it won’t be necessary to send a whole truck load of to any one division, like salt, pepper, or small items, will be taken into stock and the balance of the space will be filled up with other supplies and the truck load completed, sealed, labeled, and sent off to the regulating station where the trains are marshaled and made up for the various forma- tions concerned. To each formation or “section” train (the forma- tion for the purposes of supply is a division, but when they become very strong corps troops may also be allotted a section train all to themselves) is allotted a number. Wherever that division goes throughout France that section train goes to it. The contents of the train may not be entirely for that division; some portion may be 8 too much or perhaps too little, and how these are adjusted we will arrive at directly. The trucks are all sealed, and waybills showing the pack go with the train. Two section trains as a rule are pulled by one engine. The section train is from 14 to 16 trucks, and a loco- motive will easily take 35 or 36. The regulating station is a place usually in close proximity to the advance base. It is a big collection of railway lines where this great array of trucks is collected from the advance base and other points, and where they are sorted out according to their labels into the several sections and the trains completed and despatched to the front. The local resources of the country as a whole — that is, more par- ticularly from the point of view of the line of communications — are handled directly under the Director of Supplies at General Headquar- ters by means of certain purchase boards and representatives that we have throughout the country. Practically the whole resources of the country are required by the French Army. Of coal we get the whole of our requirements, but we have to return it to the French from England by ship. We now come to the armies . The head of the Army Service Corps in an army is entitled the ‘ ‘ Deputy Director of Supplies and Transport.’ ’ He has under him a Deputy Assistant Director of Supplies and a similar appointment for Transport. We have no representatives either of the Supply or Transport Directorates with corps or with divisions. An army might have six corps and a corps six divisions. However, we have with each division an organization entitled “the divisional train”; it comprises the supply section and baggage section of your regimental transport. It is entirely an Army Service Corps unit com- manded by a lieutenant colonel and some 26 officers under him. The O . C . train is the Senior Horse Transport Officer of the division . There is in the train the Senior Supply Officer. As his name implies, this officer is in charge of all supply services in the division and repre- sents the Supply Directorate with the division. The Supply Direc- torate is represented at each supply railhead by the Railhead Supply Officer. He is usually quite a junior officer, a subaltern, sometimes a captain, but his duties are very responsible and he should be very carefully selected. All supplies pass through him en route to the troops and he has to decide on the many daily conundrums and take the responsibility in the absence of or pending covering authority from army headquarters. I had better touch on the “ Q ” staff of the army; that is to say, the direct representatives of the Quartermaster General on the staff. You must know that these directorates of supplies, transport, ord- 9 nance, remounts, etc., are not staff officers; they are administra- tive staff officers. The “ Q ” staff is headed in an army by the D. A. and Q. M. G., that is, the Deputy Adjutant and Deputy Quarter- master Generai. He brigades both the “A” and the “Q” duties in * that instance. Similarly in a corps, the chief “Q” officer is entitled the “Deputy Adjutant and Deputy Quartermaster General.” In the case of the army he is a major general and in the case of the corps a brigadier. When you come to the division you have an A. A. and Q. M. G., Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General. He is a lieutenant colonel. Under him is a D. A. A., Q. M. G., and a D. A. Q. M. G. This last appears to correspond to your division quarter- master. These “Q” officers are concerned with all administrative services, and so if units are not able to obtain that which they re- quire direct from these administrative branches the questions are referred to higher authority through the “Q” staff of the formation concerned. Not only the Supply Directorate but all other administrative branches look to the “Q” staff to be the mouthpiece of the General Staff. The General Staff rarely deal direct with the administrative services. ‘ £ Q ” should invariably take steps to insure that all tactical or even strategical moves that may be imminent are notified to the p administrative branches concerned in good time. I wish to strongly impress upon you all how urgent we have found this need of being duly informed in good and sufficient time of impending moves. The unnecessary strain thrown on the administrative services through * failure to give such intimation is perhaps not realized in many instances by the general staff. Rations and forage, etc., how they get to the troops: There is a system called the standard pack of a section train, which presupposes that a division is normally 20,000 men and 5,800 horses strong. This pack comprises the rations according to scale, together with all the extras, such as coke and charcoal for trenches, bran, disin- fectants, petrol and oils, etc. In the absence of any accurate knowledge of the strength of the division, and it being supposed that they are approximately at full strength, the Deputy Assistant Director of Supplies of the army concerned — that is the appointment that I held while with the first army — would demand on the base for a standard pack to be sent for such and such a section number and to arrive railhead first time on such a date. Normally it takes three days, inclusive, from the date of demand to date of arrival at f railhead. We arrive at the requirements of two days ahead or three days ahead, as the case may be, by means of the railhead 103372 — 17 — 2 10 supply officer. We are, of course, aware of what arrived at railhead yesterday. Overnight there will arrive from the several railhead supply officers (possibly there are 12 railheads in an army area) “remains” wires showing what supplies they have on hand on their railhead dumps and also showing any changes in strength which \ are imminent. The R. S. 0. has perhaps heard that a brigade is going away, two batteries are going to change position, and so on and so forth, and he informs me of these changes and we demand on the base accordingly. The wire goes out, say, for section so and so to be reduced by so much or increased by so much, or send such and such to railhead so many loadings. Let us take a Monday. On Monday the supplies that arrive at a railhead will be consumed by the troops on Wednesday. That is, the divisional supply column (M. T.) will draw them from the rail- head on Monday and on Tuesday morning proceed to the refilling point where they meet the divisional train which comprises all the horsed transport for baggage and supplies that you have with your regiments. There the divisional train takes on the supplies and pro- ceeds at once to the divisional area and hands over to the cookers or to the battalion quartermaster’s stores; there it stays for the night and is consumed by the troops on Wednesday. The divisional train is organized in four parts. It comprises four Army Service Corps horse transport companies. There is one for divisional troops and one for each brigade. In the case of cavalry there is no divisional train, but the supply column is double the size, works in two echelons, and delivers direct to the units. It consists ? of 30 hundredweight lorries instead of 3 ton as is the case in a divisional supply column. Each railhead has a small dump of anything up to 10,000 rations. This small amount fluctuates each day. There is also a small amount of forage, petrol, and oils. Occasionally sufficient supplies do not arrive from the base, from one cause or another. There, however, exist in each army area field supply depots, usually two to each army. In such a case the railhead supply officer will give the troops a de- mand note on the nearest of these depots. These field depots hold three days’ supplies; that is, two days’ of ordinary rations and one day of iron rations (an iron ration consists of bully beef, biscuit, tea, and sugar, in a compact form easily carried) ; also two days’ forage and some five or six days’ petrol and a corre- sponding amount of oils required by mechanical transport and guns; also hospital comforts. In advance of these field supply depots, ihere are what are called advanced posts, keeps, and general purpose dumps. Each corps may hold a total of 50,000 iron rations for these dumps. They need not have these but should they desire they may draw them. The distance of the railhead from the fighting line varies from 3 miles to 10 miles at the most, aud the one or two so far back as 10 miles would be used only by army headquarters and by divisions in rest. When active operations are contemplated, it is usual to form special war dumps. These are also temporary field supply depots under A. S. C. administration but established yet farther to the front. The field supply depots in my army were each 5 miles behind the line. That was considered far forward. In other armies there are field depots as much as 15 miles back, and you can readily see that a field supply depot 8 or 9 miles behind railhead is of very little value. Each division has a salvage system — a salvage company — and they, in addition to collecting supplies from the field of battle and from evacuated billets, also collect machine guns, rifles, and all nature of equipment referred to by Col. Heron in his lecture last night. Those supplies that are bad -are condemned and destroyed; those that are good are issued to the nearest unit and that amount is under- drawn from railhead in due course. I should mention the actual system by which the troops obtain rations. The demand is on an army form presented at the refilling point by the quartermaster or other representative of the unit to the B. S. O., who consolidates and demands on the S. S. O.; these sup- plies are for two days in advance. The units’ demand and the B. S. O.’s demand are both in duplicate, and the brigade supply officers, of which there is one to each section of the divisional train, each hand over one copy of these demands to the Senior Supply Officer, who consolidates and takes it to the railhead. The accounting for supplies is a somewhat intricate affair with us. At the base we have a tremendous organization which traces every ration and which was begotten of much trouble that we went through after the South African War through lack of due records. When an advance takes place, a considerable amount of this accounting is eliminated for the time. Although the account I have given is extraordinarily superficial, it will yet serve to show you something of the magnitude of the task which falls to the A. S. C as regards supplies. Decentralization is imperative, both on account of the size of the forces engaged and the area covered. With the exception of the item of the divisional train, in which we appear to centralize more than you do, the Supply Directorate finds it necessary as a whole to decentralize, and particularly to give 12 the armies a free hand. They are so large — the first army when I left it was over 400,000 strong and over 100,000 horses — that the small directorate of three who administrate the supply and transport services must be given a free hand by General Headquarters. As re- gards inspection, the Director himself can for the most part do but little more than pay visits on the line of communications on account of the size of the country; yet it is highly desirable for the directing heads to be in close touch with conditions at the front, lest consid- erations of economy be given precedence over those of expediency. Another thing we have found in the handling of this large national army — most of whom were civilians yesterday — was that the per- sonal equation has to be studied much more closely by the small nucleus of regular officers who form the staff than is customary in times of peace and when working with regular troops. I have also had to impress this on temporary officers who in the course of the war have risen to comparatively responsible posts. I have had to point out to them that though it is a fact that the officer with what is known as a bad manner is too often the one that flourishes like a green bay tree in times of peace, yet, with the present conditions and ma- terial, that sort of thing will never obtain the best results. A judi- cious appreciation of merit will work wonders with a man who has given up his all to serve his country and who is really doing his best, although possibly making trifling mistakes through ignorance. In the lecture by the Quartermaster General given on the 3d of April, which I have just had the pleasure of reading, he at the conclusion quotes a motto by Lord Bacon which reminds me of a similar charge once given by Sir William Robertson, our chief of staff, when he was commandant of our Staff College, and which is especially applicable to those officers not yet commissioned who will later be required to augment the strength of the Quartermaster Corps and who will often be serving far from the superior officer who sends them orders. I have had to instill the same principle so often that it is possible you may also find the same need later with your new armies. Gen. Robertson took as his text the word 1 1 Loyalty. ’ ’ He empha- sized the essential quality in a junior officer as being loyalty to his chief, both in the letter and in the spirit, even though his personal opinion might run counter to the orders received. He said that the junior should always remember that his superior was in posses- sion of facts of which he could have no knowledge, had greater experience, and was in the last resort responsible for the orders issued. No comprehensive scheme can be successfully carried out without this implicit obedience and loyal service on the part 13 of the junior officers charged with the execution of the many parts * of the whole plan of operations. I thank you, gentlemen, for your patient hearing. GEN. SHARPE: ■* Gentlemen, I am sure that we are very much indebted to Col. Puckle for his most instructive address, and, as far as the reserve officers are concerned, I hope you followed the appeal that I made to you on the occasion of our first meeting down here when I urged upon you to study carefully your Field Service Regulations and Tables of Organization. By doing that I imagine you have been able to handle such a problem as the colonel has presented the out- line and solution to us. In 1888 I happened to be in London, and endeavored to get in touch with the War Office at that time in order to find out some new information in regard to a new organization just started the preceding year in the British Army, known as the Army Service Corps. I was not able at that time to get this information, although I obtained several books on the subject and endeavored to study the matter. My attention was directed to the workings of that corps in the reports of the Boer War and the various campaigns preceding the Boer War, and in 1907 I was able to make a study of the organization of the Department of the Quartermaster General and also to visit Paris and Berlin, making a comparative study of the three different meth- ods of supply in vogue in those armies. After returning to London at the conclusion of those visits, it was * my good fortune to be asked to dine with Sir Charles Dilke, and the question of the organization of the French and German Armies was discussed with several of the most eminent military critics in London, and I recall with a great deal of pleasure how, after discussing the French and the German organizations, I turned to Sir Charles and said: “You have a magnificent organization here in your own army.” He looked ’with a little surprise, and I said: “We some- times loose sight of near-by objects in looking out into the distance. You have a number of competent and able officers who will meet any emergency which is presented to them in a most efficient man- ner.” He said he was gratified to know that, and I am sure if he were alive he would agree with me in what I told him. Gentlemen, I know you all unite with me in most hearty thanks to Col. Puckle for his most entertaining description of the methods of handling the problem of supply in the great army abroad to-day. Thank you, gentlemen. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TRANSPORT AND TRANSPORTATION AT THE FRONT IN FRANCE. MAY 9, 1917. Gen. Sharpe. It is a great pleasure, gentlemen, to be able to have had Col. Puckle address us the other evening on supplies, and, as he promised, he will tonight continue his description of the organization and administration of the transport and transportation at the front in France. I have the pleasure, gentlemen, of introducing Col. Puckle. Col. Puckle. Good evening, gentlemen. I think it will be better to refer to the question of transportation first and to transport thereafter. TRANSPORTATION. Transportation with us in France concerns the docks, maintenance of permanent ways, rolling stock, and the construction and main- tenance of roads, and light railway beyond railheads. The necessity for this organization entitled “Transportation” came about through the fact that the French railways were getting in a very bad state toward the end of 191'6. The French had not anticipated the war lasting the length of time that it has, and added to that was the fact that they had lost some 50,000 railway trucks during the retreat; also their locomotives were breaking down through the tremendous strain thrown upon them, and the permanent ways were getting into bad condition for the same reason. In that connection, the construction of the railway system, and the layout of the same, from the strategical point of view previous to war, was based on the supposition that they would be fighting at least on their own frontier and that they would not be compelled to take a position well in rear of the frontier as is the case. Consequently the layout of the railways with a main line running parallel to the frontier is to-day in the hands of the Germans, and we are compelled, and the French also, to rely on a system of railways in rear of this organization which was not intended , and was not constructed , to stand this very heavy strain. ( 15 ) 16 Well, these facts were perfectly well known to the administration which handled the railways in conjunction with the French railway authorities during the first two years of the war (i. e. the Royal Engineers), and the increasing deterioration of lines and rolling stock was repeatedly brought to notice by the Director of Railway Transport, with no result. In December, 1916, Sir Erie Geddes, who was manager of one of our railway systems and who had been the right hand of Mr. Lloyd George when the latter was minister of munitions, was appointed Director of Transportation in France, with absolute powers except that he must consult with the C. in C. and with the Q. M. G. It would have been interesting to observe whether the R. E. would not have done equally well had they had the same backing and financial support that Transportation has. I said that Transportation handles the docks. That means not the docks from the naval point of view, but the supplies, both ammu- nition and subsistence, as they arrive from England. Transporta- tion unloads them and hands them over on the beach to the Ordnance for ammunition and to the A. S. C. for supplies. From there the stores go into transit sheds and so to the railway and to the advanced bases. THE RAILWAYS WE TOUCHED ON. Light railways. — We are very behindhand in the construction of light railways. The Germans use them almost entirely for trans- port instead of making use of roads, and that fact is borne out by the excellent condition in which the roads are in the areas we have taken (when past the shell area). I don’t say they do not possess transport organizations, mechanical and horse, such as we do, but they use them as little as may be and rely upon light railways. The French are nearly in as good a position in that respect. We are far behind both, but are starting to catch up, and no doubt will get into line, as we usually do. The relation between the Transport Directorate and the Transportation Directorate. — The Transport Directorate is organized in the same manner as is the Supply Directorate referred to in my previous lecture ; that is, it is brigaded with supply at the War Office, but in France there is a Director of Transport as there is a Director of Sup- plies: he has a Deputy Director in his office at G. H. Q. and on each of the lines of communication; also there is the Deputy Director of Supplies and Transport with each army. The Transportation Di- rectorate is organized like any other directorate. Its functions are distinct from those of Transport. < 17 There is a close relation between the Director of Supplies and the Director of Transportation . Transportation administers the railways . When moves are imminent it is therefore necessary that the general staff should inform the “Q” staff, and the “Q” staff the admin- istrative branches concerned, of date, army to which transferred, and divisional number of the formations concerned. The Supply Directorate in the army, having been duly informed that such and such divisions will be moved from his army to another, will notify the D. of S. at G. H. Q., who confers with the chiefs of the Trans- portation Directorate, and the section trains are arranged to the various railheads. Also the necessary arrangements are gone into to transfer the feeding of this division or divisions from one base to another and possibly from one line of communications to another, according to the extent of the move. It is imperative, or at least highly desirable, that sufficient notice should be given to the administrative branches concerned, par- ticularly the Supply Directorate, who are responsible of course for the feeding of these troops. Sufficient notice of these impending moves is required so that the bases concerned can be informed and the supply trains loaded and arrive at the new railheads in time. In the event of sufficient notice not being given there are two alter- natives by which the troops can be fed. The new army to which the division is going can issue from one of the field supply depots in the interim and vice versa with the relieving division, or each division can and occasionally has to draw from the other’s section train for a day or two till the base can be changed. When one division goes to another army, normally spealdng, a corresponding division comes back. That is to say, they are sending down a fresh division which has been rested to relieve a tired division which has had a hard time in the trenches. However, the movement of troops is now so well understood that you will no doubt find when you get over that there is no hitch at all and that you will arrive at a new railhead you never heard of before and your section train will be there for you just as usual. I think that is sufficient concerning transportation, although I have not dealt with their constructional functions as regards roads and railways. TRANSPORT. I described the line of communications to you the other night, also the meaning of what we infer by the word “ transport ’’—that is to say, mechanical transport, horse transport, and pack. 18 The organization of transport, and the system whereby the de- mands of the troops are met by the war office in the first instance, are on the principle of the “ nightly letter,” which I referred to in lecture on supplies. The raison d’etre of transport is sometimes misunderstood. The Transport Branch is occasionally under the delusion that all the world is their servant, whereas the actual fact is that they are the servant of all the world and they exist for the carriage of supplies, ammunition, and maintenance of all kinds, and have no other pur- pose. It is on their personal devotion and the exact and conscien- tious performance of their duties, in the spirit as well as the letter, that the general success of operations depend. A good transport officer can rarely hope to be a popular individual. He has un- fortunately very often to say “no,” as the troops will always be ex- travagant in the use of the transport unless checked. However, with the exercise of tact and study of the personal equation, it is yet possible for a transport officer to be popular, not- withstanding the perfect performance of his duty. Of the several kinds of transport, mechanical transport is a spe- cialty in the A. S. C. In peace time the whole of the officers in the A. S. 0. are interchangeable between supply and transport (horse) duties. With regard to mechanical transport, only say 60 per cent of our peace strength in officers were qualified. However, no difficulty has been experienced in obtaining reinforcements. In addition, we have a branch entitled the Inspection Branch (M. T.) who are perpetually traveling up and down the country and in- specting units, workshops, etc. We rely upon their reports to en- able us to keep this mechanical transport force in a state of efficiency. Now mechanical transport in a little more detail: The obtaining of our requirements on mobilization was done by a system of regis- tration of private vehicles throughout the country. The mainte- nance of the supply forms a branch of munitions. The training of personnel, officers, is carried out in England at a school at Grove Park in London and in France at another school at St. Omer; but all officers and men are recruited with a certain basic knowledge of mechanical transport. Some are recruited for work- shop duties — those more particularly expert — others for road duties; that is for administration, discipline, road control, and details of that sort. There is one base depot for the mechanical transport, at Rouen, and in this are controlled the immense number of spare parts for the 20 or 25 different makes of lorry, and for the caterpil- lars, tractors, cars, and bicycles. 19 On each L. of C. there is also an advanced M. T. depot, one on the 4 southern line and one on the northern; these are at Abbeville and Calais, respectively. On these two advance depots all demands are made by the front for necessary spare parts, and these come up * on the section trains as they are available. The indent shows the nature of the spare part required, the class of vehicle, and the make concerned, also the unit and formation and the railhead; thus it finds its way in the shortest possible time to the unit- concerned. There is a heavy M. T. repair shop at Paris and another at St. Omer, and to these are sent all lorries, etc., requiring such repairs as can not be carried out by the workshops in the field. There is a central pool of lorries, cars, and motor bicycles, which is kept on the line of communications and the control over which is absolutely maintained in the hands of the Director of Transport at General Headquarters. A vehicle of whatever class can only be drawn from this pool on the authority of the Director of Transport, and there are only two possibilities whereby such authority can be ob- tained. The one is to form a replacement — that is, to replace a vehicle sent to the base for heavy repairs — and the other in the case of an increase in establishment authorized by the Quartermaster General. The Quartermaster General will authorize such an increase in estab- lishment only under the greatest pressure; it sometimes requires the personal representation of an army commander to obtain the same. The percentage of spares required both in spare parts and in this pool of lorries, cars, and motor bicycles, you will be well aware of by your 4 experience gained in your various expeditions and wars; but it is probable that you would have to increase your estimate by reason of the fact that although you are accustomed to travel very much greater distances than you will have to cover in France, yet the number of hours a day, the weight of stores of all kinds carried, and the some- times villanous condition of the roads must be, I imagine, much worse than any in your experience. - The strain on the mechanical transport is very severe and replace- ments are hard to obtain for a variety of reasons. It must be remem- bered that much of this transport has been running for nearly three years. The mechanical transport must naturally deteriorate, so that this transport pool on the line of communications is an item of the utmost importance. As establishments are increased, if ever, and as new units and formations arrive, this pool must be correspondingly increased, bearing in mind that the casualties are ever on the in- crease and the total wear and tear will eventually necessitate replace- ment of the whole original establishment. 20 At the front the types of mechanical transport units comprise a corps supply column, a corps ammunition park (each contain so many divisional supply columns and divisional ammunition parks, called subparks), a General Headquarters ammunition park, motor ambulance convoys, auxiliary motor transport company, heavy mobile repair units, and others. The supply column carries sup- plies from the railhead to the refilling points where it hands over to the divisional supply train. The subparks perform a similar duty for ammunition and hand over to the divisional ammunition column ; but the exigencies of war very often demand that we should use this transport for engineer services, etc. The G. H. Q. park is an ammu- nition park of some 140 lorries. It is an old-time organization of this war and is now really of little use. It is kept away back by Army Headquarters and can not be touched without the authority of the Quartermaster General. It was originally intended, in the days when we had a daily allowance of some 10 rounds per field gun, to reinforce any particular point. The siege park is an interesting organization, the establishment of which concerns only the headquarters, some 26 lorries; but it is the nucleus of all the heavy artillery of a corps. When I left the first army the Canadian corps siege park had over a thousand lorries. Now, I must tell you how this occurs. Heavy batteries of what- ever caliber, from 6-inch howitzer, 4.7 inches, and 60-pounders upward, have certain mechanical transport attached to them which forms an ammunition column. These batteries come in from all points of the compass to prepare for a general attack on some part of the line, e. g., Arras, and as they come these lorries are all flung into this rapidly expanding unit entitled the siege park; so when you get many batteries you will have as many as a thousand lorries, as was the case the other day. The heavier batteries have no horse transport attached to them, and when the situation is such that ammunition can not be got by mechanical transport to the guns, the divisional ammunition columns and the gun teams themselves of field artillery and 60-pounder heavy artillery horse-drawn guns are called upon to take the ammunition from where the mechanical transport is halted to the guns themselves. If that be not possible, the remaining distance to the guns must be done by hand. Motor ambulance convoys you know about— you have sent many to France. Auxiliary M. T. companies, they are in reserve at the disposal of the I). A. D. T. — Deputy Assistant Director of Transport — ■ of the army concerned. The heavy mobile repair unit carries out, as its name implies, some of the repairs which can not be done by 21 the ordinary workshops on the establishment of the transport units * referred to above. There are also many other units of less impor- tance which are hardly worth mentioning in a general lecture. The officers commanding all these mechanical transport units, as also \ the horse transport units, have always access by telephone or car to the D. A. D. T. of the army. He is their special head. The D. D. S. and T. is, of course, the head of the Army Service Corps in any army, but he is concerned more with questions of policy, attending conferences, and carrying out the necessary inspections throughout the army, so that the details of administration are of necessity left to the Deputy Assistant Director of Supply or Transport, as the case may be. There is very urgent need for constant inspection and overhauling of cars and lorries; we have found it pay very well to insist on a time-table of inspection, that is to say, that cars, and when possible lorries, too, should be laid up for, say , one day a fortnight for inspec- tion, regardless of the fact of whether they appear to need it. This is, of course, very often not possible; at the same time it is highly desirable. HORSE TRANSPORT. The same directorate as for mechanical transport. The base horse $ transport depot consists of personnel only. The advanced horse transport depot is at Abbeville and consists of so many horses, vehi- cles, and harness sufficient to answer demands for complete “turns- ^ out ” by units at the front. It has a Royal artillery and a Royal engi- neer section in it. At the front the most important unit is the divisional train which we referred to before and which is made up of all the horse transport allotted to a division for baggage and sup- plies. It consists of four A. S. C. horse transport companies — one for divisional troops and one for each brigade — the whole commanded by a lieutenant colonel. There are auxiliary horse transport com- panies similarly as there are auxiliary M . T. companies. Then there is the divisional ammunition column (which is even stronger in numbers than the train), reserve park, and a number of lesser H. T. units. A reserve park is rather analagous to a G. H . Q. ammunition park, but more useful. It carries one day’s iron rations and oats for the corps of three divisions to which it belongs, which is the normal strength of a corps. The functions of these units you are already sufficiently acquainted with, but I will be glad to answer any questions later. i The strain on the horse transport in the case of an advance is yet greater than that on M. T. That is the case because it falls to the horse transport to carry most of the material required to make the roads which have been destroyed by bombardment or by demoli- tion, and this in addition to carrying out the ordinary duties of horse transport on supply and ammunition services. Of Pack Transport you have in point of fact very much more experience than we have or ever are likely to have. When the line advances, there is a shell swept area of some three or four miles in which the roads have been utterly destroyed and behind that again is a considerable stretch which has been demolished by the enemy in the course of his retirement; until these roads can be reconstructed or until light railways are put through or other facili- ties for transportation can be rebuilt, pack transport has to be sub- stituted and we have found it necessary to improvise various different forms of pack saddle — details of which could be explained to you by Col. Heron. The Remount Branch is under the Quartermaster General with us as with you, and has its base depots and advanced depots similarly. The Pay Branch of the Quartermaster General’s Office with you is with us a separate organization; the headquarters and the main functions are performed at the base. In this instance, the word “base” signifies the third echelon of General Headquarters. We have field cashiers, one with each corps, who draw cash from the local French banks and at suitable times and places issue money to the several officers at the front who are entitled to hold imprest accounts for payment of troops, local purchase, etc. Gen. Sharpe has asked me to again refer to the divisional train. It was necessary to establish direct A. S. C. control over all the transport in the division other than first-line transport. This insures the transport being maintained in an efficient state, it is centralized and therefore more mobile, and it can be administered as a whole so very much better than it could if it were split up among the units. Virtually the S. and T. directorate deal direct with the 0. C. and S. S. O. of the divisional trains on all matters pertaining to supply and transport services. It appears, however, that the divisional quartermaster in your organization corresponds almost in toto to the officer commanding the divisional train in a British division as far as S. and T. duties are concerned; such being the case he will be able to concentrate the transport and so exercise the same control. Gen. Sharpe. In our Army, Colonel, we have what is known as the commander of the train. He is not necessarily a quartermaster officer; he may be a line officer. He has charge of our regimental train. Col. Puckle. The 'main thing, gentlemen, is that it would be quite out of the question in warfare such as we now experience to have transport of any dimensions near the front line; if you have it far back from the line, far back from the troops to whom it belongs, such troops would naturally lose control of it, and therefore we take from the unit all transport allotted for baggage and supplies. If you will look up the war establishment of the British Army, you will find that the transport allowed for these services is shown in each case as being with the train. In the case of divisional units who do not belong to any particular brigade, you will find their transport in the headquarter company or “divisional troops” com- pany of the train. Gen. Sharpe. Is not that very similar to the establishment of the French train? Col. Puckle. Oh, yes; we took it from them. Gen. Sharpe. Gentlemen, I am sure that we are very much indebted to Col. Puckle for his interesting and very instructive account of the method of operating that great problem, and solving it too; that is the best of it. It is the solution which is more inter- esting than the problem itself — the knowing how the problem is and can be solved. And I am sure that we are going to be able to draw some very useful points from his very lucid presentation of this subject. Thank you very much, gentlemen. ORGANIZATION OF S. AND T. BRANCH OF Q. M. G. SERVICES IN FRANCE, MAY, 1917. 25 > o ■a® io > .02 <1 P P P o — 02 P5 >.0313 -||8 P _o g. cop B. S. O’s. & Requisition Oflicers. 26 REMARKS. D. of S. and T. — Director of supplies and transport. D. D. S. and T.— Deputy director of supplies and transport. It follows that A= assistant and D. A.=deputy assistant. The present deputy .Q. M. G. is an army service corps officer. S. M. T. O.— Senior mechanical transport officer. He is the officer at corps head- quarters who coordinates M. T. H. T.— Horse transport. The O. C. train is the senior horse transport officer of a division. S. S. O.— Senior supply officer of a division. B. S. O. — Brigade supply officer. Adv. — Advanced. W. O. — War office. L. of C. — Line of communications. N. — Northern L. of C. S.— Southern L. of C. It. S. O. — Railhead supply officer. COURSE OF RATIONS, FORAGE, FUEL AND LIGHT, HOSPI- TAL COMFORTS, PETROL | ; AND OILS, DISINFECTANTS. ALSO ANY COLLATERAL ITEMS, E. G., MAILS, CLOTHING, MECHANICAL TRANSPORT, SPARE PARTS, ETC.,* FROM THE BASE TO THE TROOPS. N. B. — The word ‘‘truck” signifies a railway freight car— usually closed and carrying 10 tons. Date: Starting, say, on the 1st of the month. 1. Demand arrives by wire at the base supply depot in the afternoon from the directorate with the Army 2. Requirements of bread, frozen meat, forage, petrol, oils, and disinfectants are loaded according to demand and dispatched to the advanced base; also the usual bulk train of preserved meat, biscuit, all classes of groceries, hospital comforts, etc., necessary to maintain the authorized reserve at the advanced base 3. The necessary adjustment of the loadings of the trucks in the bulk train referred to above is made at the advanced base so as to obtain the exact requirements of the divisions and at the same time always to completely fill the trucks. The trucks are then labeled with the various section numbers and handed over to transporta- tion, who sort them out into complete section trains at the regulating station and add any of the extraneous trucks referred to above * 1st inst. 2d inst. 2d inst. 27 4. Section train arrives at railhead. Waybills accompany the train showing how it is packed, and the railhead supply officer is able to immediately translate the demands which he has received from troops (which are % in numbers of rations) into their actual requirements in poundage of supplies. The supply column (M. T.) having returned empty that morning from refilling point clears the section train, which returns to the base forthwith. Only “empties” are returned to the base by section trains, e. g., evacuated vehicles, salvaged ordnance stores and equipment, petrol tins and sacks. The supply column proceeds to its billet area and halts, loaded, for the night 3d inst. 5. Early morning, supply column proceeds to refilling point and hands over supplies to the divisional train (H. T.), who take it on same day and hand over to bat- talion quartermaster’s stores and cookers 4th inst. 6. Rations are consumed 5th inst. % NOTES ON THE METHODS OF SUPPLY OF TROOPS OF THE BRITISH ZONE IN FRANCE. With reference to any prospective American expedition to be sent to the British zone in France, no difficulty would be experienced by the British supply directorate in handling any forces, as long as they have due notice with reference to the subsistence situation, with which we are dealing and with which the British supply direc- torate is alone concerned. Of course, the arrangements for rationing the troops while en route on the transports and say, to prevent any suffering, for three days after landing, should be taken care of by the authorities on this side. The adjustment of charges due to the supply of the American expeditionary force in France by the British would be a matter for adjustment between the respective govern- ments after the war. The procedure in the field is very simple, and merely consists of ration indents, corresponding to the American ration return or forage requisition, being submitted daily when rations are drawn and being indorsed “American” or “French” or “Belgian,” as the case may be, in red ink at the head of the indent. These indents are col- lected and sent to the base and filed for future accounting and adjustment. 28 The English and the American ration is practically identical in all essentials. The components of these rations vary slightly — with the balance in favor of the English ration. For example, the regular issue ration to the English soldier includes 2 ounces of tobacco per man per week, and the amount of condensed milk issued as part of the ration is greater in the English than in the American ration. The different ration tables are shown herewith for comparative pur- poses. It will be noted that the British iron ration is similar to the American reserve ration, except that tin meat (canned beef) of some sort is used instead of our bacon. The British ration has a com- ponent of tea instead of coffee, but there would be no difficulty in issuing coffee if due notice were given, as coffee is issued in lieu of tea as part of the ordinary ration in the case of French forces attached for supply purposes to the British Army. However, the tea com- ponent of the “iron” or “reserve” ration could not be changed. LOCAL RESOURCES IN FRANCE. These comprise coal, coke, straw, bran, fresh vegetables, milk (condensed and fresh), fresh fruit, and ice. The whole of the coal and the bulk of the straw requirements can be relied upon, but only a limited supply of the other items enumerated is available and most of this is allotted to the hospitals. Coal . — Worked by the French and distributed by road and rail under the direction of “the officer in charge coal supply” (a British officer of the Army Service Corps). The acute congestion on rail lines this winter often necessitated other armies sending for their coal supply by road, and at one time the congestion was so acute that even Paris had to send out by road to the coal districts, a distance of perhaps 150 miles. Straw is used both for forage, to make up the difference between that which comes from the base and that to which troops are en- titled, and for use in billets. The allowance of straw for billeting is 4 pounds per man per week in the winter months. The allow- ance is abolished during the summer except in exceptional circum- stances. This straw, together with certain substitutes, e. g., linseed cake, mealia meal cake, beetroot, are all purchased and handled by an organization in each army called the purchase board. This board administers a number of baling and threshing machines and, with the assistance of labor and transport allotted as necessary, will accumulate a reserve of, say, 3,000 tons of baled straw in each army area if local resources permit. This in addition to current activity in purchasing the above-mentioned substitutes. 29 Fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, particularly the former, are ' obtained by a purchase board in Paris and sent in bulk to armies and to bases for distributuon to troops and hospitals. French- speaking officers comprise the board, and they also have French in- > terpreters at their disposal. Small local contracts exist for condensed and fresh milk. No ice can be supplied to troops in France, except, of course, for the hospitals and sick. However, this will hardly be necessary, as the climate is such the year around that ice is not necessary. It has never been issued to the French or British troops in France, and the absence of ice has caused no suffering whatever. Bread . — Large bakeries exist at each base. The bread is packed in sacks, 80 rations to each sack, and sent up by the supply railway trains (called “section” trains) daily. The ration is 1 pound. The proportion of bread in loaves is 75 per cent, the remaining 25 per cent biscuits, which correspond to the American cracker or hard bread. The organization of these bakeries is in units of 100 men, called bakery sections. The ovens used are of the traveling steam-heated variety, coal being used. The old patent field ovens which could be carried about in sections and with which wood was used were found to be extravagant in room and not efficient when feeding armies on a large scale. The old bakery equipment of the field ovens * (similar, possibly, to the American “knockdown trough,” etc.) is still used. Twelve of these ovens turn out sufficient bread daily to meet the requirements of some 30,000 men. When the expeditionary * force is sent to France, it might well be of advantage to include, say, a bakery company as organized in this country with each division, together with their equipment. FIELD KITCHENS, COMPANY STRENGTH. When we met yesterday the question of field kitchens was dis- cussed, and Col. Puckle observed that the best size of kitchen was one that would supply a company of 250 men. The particular brand of field kitchen is not of importance and would, no doubt, be decided by a process of elimination as the various types are tested prior to the sailing of the expeditionary force. It should however have the following qualifications: (а) Capacity 250 men. (б) Cooking on the move as well as at the halt. (c) Not more than two horses required to draw. The capacity of the field kitchen was rated as 250 men, as that is a the approximate strength of the company as organized in both the 30 French and British armies, it having been found that the old com- pany strength of roughly 120 men was quite unsuitable to carry on war as now experienced in Europe. The chief reason for the doubling of the original strength of a com- pany in the British and French armies was that the supports and reserves necessary in modern war would so weaken the strength actually in the firing line as to render the unit (company) of little value. This point should be discussed with the general staff officers attached to the British commission to obtain their opinion in cor- roboration. HOSPITAL SUPPLIES. It seems that the system of supply of hospital comforts and extras is similar in the British and American Armies. In the British Army the hospital has an imprest account from which it purchases any requirements or necessities, such as eggs, fowls, etc., which are not obtainable from the field supply depots and railheads. The bulk of the requirements of hospitals, such as wines, spirits, and the 101 extras necessary are obtained from field supply depots estab- lished at the front and which are in turn supplied from the base. SALES ARTICLES. There exists in the British Army an organization called the “expeditionary force canteens.” This organization has depots at the bases, is allotted the necessary transportation both by rail and road, and so supplies all the many branches throughout the country. Many of these branches are within a mile or two of the front line trenches. These sales articles are purchased by the troops for cash and are entirely additional to and separate from the field ration. The whole organization is semiofficial, in that the accounts are audited by the war office and any profits allotted to various military charities. The list of articles stored in these depots is very similar to those of the American Army carried as sales articles in the subsistence branch, with the addition of liquor, this can only be obtained on the signature of an officer. o A l K UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 062103418