FRENCH DUG-OUT CORPS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 6, 2 October 1917, Page 9

FRENCH DUG-OUT CORPS

V ■ to miles op ,shell.i>roof SHELTERS. A twelvemonth, ago a special French corps was formed to make dug-outs. It has dug within a year 70 miles of subterranean galleries, all so deep as to lie beyond the reach of all but the heaviest guns. It has provided unedrground living accommodation for a liiigo force, and shelter in case of need for double as many. For in this ■ matter the number of men that can bo sheltered is of- cardinal importance. At ordinary times the underground' gallery shelters merely the men./holding.the line. .When an' attack' is in. preparation twice the number can be assembled within it, safe against the enemy's bombardment until the moment for the assault.. I lately visited two of shelters which' were approaching' completion. One, 'which., is long, is intended to provide liv- i ing and sleeping, accomodation. Each half-section . .(one : eighth ,of a company) has a dormitory, with bunks after the ! ffls'hion of ship's cabins to itself, and a special, exit to itself. : The other, which is three times the' length of the one, has accommodation for a correspondingly larger number, of men; Every domitory Is ventilated by a pipe to the open air, and every shelter las its own first-aid station, with beds, and ull accommodation necessary for aconsiderable number of wounded. The first-aid stations have their own exits and are in eyeiy way independent of the men living in the other, parts of the shelter. All this digging is dono by 24 > companies of elderly Territorials' wiV the assistance of excavating machines. Working in ordinary earth, four men with, two. wieclbarrows and a machine driven by a dynamo'can shift from 25 to 35 tons a day. In li month, a shelter with sleeping accommodation for 500 men can be dug by a single company. The elderly diggers often lead a very dangerous life. Last year' some of them had to dig at Verdun linder a rain of German shells; this year others are digging at avrious parts of t^e'active front.. It is work which ages a man perceptibly in a few months.—neuter's Special.