ORGANISING THE OFFENSIVE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2976, 13 January 1917, Page 10

ORGANISING THE OFFENSIVE

—4 jt — POWER BEHIND THE GUNS THE "PARC D'EQUIPAGE" "In the".trenches," said ona of the taost brilliant of modern French generals to me, writes Mr. H. Warner 'Allen, in the London "Daily Chronicle," "you will see only the fist of my army. It is ill the organisation in the rear that you will'find the brains whioll control that fist and the body on which it depends." As ;during the, past two years modern methods of warfare have developed under the stimulus of necessity, they have .become more and more dependent on the organisation of tlio services- behind' the lines. The time required io'r tlie. preparation of a serious offensive is continually increasing, /and already, at the moment of the Champagne offensive of September, 1915, it was a ; coraponplace to say. that three months were needed to com-plete-the organisation requisite' for a grand assault on the German trench line. v Since that time tho weight of artillery employed in such an offensive has increased many times, and this increase has necessitated a corresponding development "in tlio complexity of the organisation behind. the lines both as concerns the supply, repairs, and replacing of the "guns on which the sucicess of the infantry must depend, and tho provision of.ammunition. I visited one of the establishments which are the direct consequence of the tremendous artillery power that.our Allies are employing against the Germans nn the Somme.. It is called a Pare d'Equipage, and its purpose is the maintenance - of the heavy batteries in.action,on ,the front at their' full strength by the prompt execution of. repairs. Orders promptly Executed. The first requirement of, the Pare d'Equipage i's that it should be ill close . proximity to a : . normal gauge railway fine,. since ; its business is concerned! . : .with articles weighing many tons that cannot be conveniently dealt with without such a means of communication. Its duties are strictly defined. Field artillery is outside its province, and all its efforts are concentrated on ensuring the efficiency of tronch artillery and of heavy guns in the technical senso of the words. Heavy guns may he said! to begin with 4-inch calibre and to end with the 11-inch, howitzer. - The customers of the Pare d'Equip- : ago arc the batteries within range of tlie enemy, and it takes up its position as near tc> them as the railway and considerations of safety will allow it... A most>ingenious scheme, based. 011 • commercial principles, keeps customers and provider in continual relations.' Orders, both by post andl telephone, aro executed: with the greatest promptitude. ■'When, the complexity of the modem cannon and the large number of spare parts that it requires is considered, and the merciless test to : which it has- been subjected during the Somme battle—a test that, as we know from captured orders, has proved too hard for the German, guns—is understood, the achievement of keeping batteries that aro being submitted to an intense strain at their full strength . and providing them with everything .'they need at short notice must be regarded as a brilliant justification, of - the system adopted by our Allies^ ; : Millions of Shells. Some time hack, in a series of articles on the organisation of the Champagne army, I described a motor repair depot which was run 011 exactly tlie 1 same lines as . a big automobilo firm .with a turnover of £500,000 a year, •.the" ;ca'rd iiidei system playing, a very important part in its economy. -Tho Pare d'Equipage works on the same principle, and it is run as if it. were -a big shop.' . For-tlie utilisation of heavy guns another organism over and above tlie Pare du'Equipage is obviously required, since guns aro useless without, ammunition. Nowadays, when tho rounds fired by the- guns of an array must bo counted in millions, victory or defeat may depend on the perfection of the system by >which the batteries arc supplied with shells. After tlie Pare d'Equipage we inspect, ed an ammunition depot. Tho first '.essential of such a depot is tbo;maximum of security. The most danger- ' ous. munitions from the storage point of view are those that already, have !their fuses fixed for. the sake of-rapid firing, and grenades, which always require' delicate handling; Such ammunition, it is obvious, should be stored in .small dumps, spread over as large a space of ground as possible. .Even " -with the mastery of the air that. tho Allies possess, it is always possible that a hostile aeroplane may succeed in making'its way across the lines, and with this systom, even if it does, there is the maximum chance of its bombs producing the minimum effect. Advantages over the Enemy. tlie fuse the explosives in ; them aro inert, and there is little fear of explosion, so -that ilicy can bo stored closer together. ono thing, however, is important with the large as with the small shells; they must be spotlessly clean and clear of all grit and mud wJiou tliey arc placcd in the breech of the gun. Any noglcct of this general principle leads inevitably to tho 'premature wearing out of the rifling, and may even result in tlie bursting of the barrel. The Germans, owing to our superiority in artillery, arc compelled to submit their pieces to an excessivo Strain, and, owing to tlie pressure applied to them and to the ' large amount of night firing required of them, have little opportunity of attending to their shells and guns "with the care they need. The consequence is that they have, had a large number of explosions. ' As soon as a- call for ammunition comes from tlie front a corresponding ..'call is sent back to tho rear, and every shell sent forward is instantly replaced by another shell from tho factories, so . that each army, no matter what the emergency, can in 110 circumstances be handicapped by' a shortage of ammunition.