NOTES ON THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17862, 7 August 1918, Page 6

NOTES ON THE WAR.

The statement published in to-day’s news that America now has 1,500,000 soldiers in Europe can convey only a small idea of the immense amount of work that has been dono to mako it possiblo tp move tho citizens of San Francisco to the battlefields of France. Thoro is a tendency to measure the task by tho numerical strength of the army at tho front, and the reports of the shipping production in tho United States, but among tho greatest achievements tho American nation can point to is tho construction of their great bases and port facilities in France. Tho Americans entered tho war with the advantage of the experience gained by the French and British in three years of warfare, and thoy took advantage of everything that could aid them in their work fitting their construction into tho system already in force. Tho British and French assisted them with advice and material, but the American achievement, apart from these aids, must be regarded as ono of tho wonder feats of tho wav. The task of building tho base in France was tackled as soon as America was definitely committed to tho dispatch of a big expeditionary force, and in June it was anticipated that practically the whole scheme will bo in full operation this month. It says much for the American engineers and the transport control that at no stage has tho completed part of tho system failed to equal all the demands made upon it. Observers of the working of tho base in Franco declare that it has never been choked, and that the transport of supplies and troops has not been retarded through any congestion in the French ports.

To secure these results the Americans took over an old French port. Out of tho waste lands adjacent they have constructed a line of modern docks. It supplements the old French system, which is in full operation, and in addition a huge new warehouse system has been installed. In the old part of this coast town the Americans have installed motor operation and cold-storage plants, a motor reception park, and quarters for storing supplies for ordnance and aviation forces. These are more or less temporary quarters, and will be merged in tho near future in tho general scheme which is now being completed in tho outskirts of the town. Another important foature by tho American scheme is tho introduction of a railway workshops, describing which in Juno a writer in “ The Times ” said: “In addition to the new docks, warehouses and extensive railway yards (these latter have a trackage of nearly 200 miles), work is well advanced on tho now car assembly shop, where already, when I saw it in it 3 incomploted state, twenty odd freight cars a day, of three different designs, were being turned out and put into immediate service. Another assembly plant has been constructed —at a different point—to handle all-steel oars, which are transported here from America 1 knocked down ’—that is, in sections, in order to economist) shipping space. At this plant these Steel cars are now being assembled at the rate of a complete train a day, and plans are rapidly culminating for a largo extension of tho work.”

A huge camp haa been built for negro stevedores, a big remount base, and a rest camp into which tho arriving troops march -before proceeding to the training camps inland. “ Not far from here,” wrote “Tlio Times” correspondent, “work on a new 20,000bed hospital is forging ahead, arid thirty days from now it will be virtually completed. This is the largest hospital centro yet constructed. It is composed entirely of small; one-storey, light, airy and attractive structures, divided into small squares, laid out on a great open strotch of sand, surrounded by pine trees, and altogether promises to be an ideal institution of its kind.” Tho port schemes have been worked out so as to be capable of unlimited expansion. This has been .done with a view to tho future. It is possible, now that the Allied system of pooling supplies is in operation, that tho American base ports in France may resolve into main reserve centres, from which their channels of distribution will radiate directly to railheads on all parts of the front instead of mainly through tho intermediate and advance area centres now being built. If that is done these centres will probably be used as training centres for America’s ever-increasing army.

The American public has been disappointed by tho slow progress made with the air programme, but early last month it was announced that tho manufacturers were commencing to turn out aeroplanes In large numbers. In Franco, too. there were delays, and for some time tlie young American airmen had to go to British and French schools to finish their training. In June, however, “Tlie Times” correspondent was ablo to seo sixty pupils in tho air at once at one of the American flying oentres. This centre has eight fields through which tho pupil passes in his cours*, . “ Fields 1,1:2, 3 and 4 are grouped together, with living quarters adjacent for all the pupils who are being drilled in tho first four stages of flying,” ho said in a description of tho centre. “Theso four stages aro definitely subdivided, from the beginner with tho stationary engine to tho stage when the pupil has mastered' the art o.f ordinary straightahead flying with no ‘frills.’ Then come fields 5 and 6, also grouped together (and with special living quarters alongside), where ‘ acrobatic flying’ is taught, there being two distinct stages in this intricate and dangerous work. When tho pupil has mastered the various flying ‘ stunts ’— spirals, loops, side-slips, etc.—he goes to field 7 for ten days’ hard training in bombardment and night-flying drill. Then to field 8, the ‘ Combat Field,’ for serious combat work, which means learning all the air manoeuvres that are used by tlie skilled airmen at tlie front.”

In conjunction with the air service is tho “ Air Service Production Department.” The correspondent visited one centre, which is to cover a tract of land six miles by one mile and a half, where the construction, assembling, testing and repair of American aeroplanes is to bo proceeded with on a

large scale. “ Great stretches of woodland are being cleared,” 1 ho said; “ many linos of track are being laid, great workshops l , (storehouses and camps are being built by huge forces of busy men, wells are being sunk, drainage systems are being installed, the camp ‘ farm ’ is being seeded (including 30 acres of potatoes), a pig and poultry farm has been started, and while I was there the new camp band was rehearsing for its first performance in the official parado tho following morning.” Other features which were seen at an intermediate area centre, a huge field of operations, included an enormous locomotive assembling and repair works, built under French supervision by a Spanish firm • steel-strue-turo warehouses to hold supplies sufficient for a million men for thirty days ; an irnmenso refrigerating plant; “tank” factories, and a poison gas works. At all the centres, “camp farms ” have been started to provide fresh vegetables, and throughout the American methods of factory hustle are in full operation.