THE WAR MACHINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16408, 9 December 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE WAR MACHINE.

SUPPLY AND TRANSPORT.

PERFECT PLANNING.

The whole of. the effort of the armies in France, from the Commander-in-Chief down to the humblest railway transport officer, is directed towards getting the men into the front, well well protected by artillery fire, well fed, well looked after, and full of confidence. Singularly enough, this is a rock upon which many army organisations split.

The difficulty of describing the perfect war machine which Sir Douglas Haig and his officers have created is enhanced, of course, by the fact that "we arc still at war and that the enemy would give anything to know how we have overcome certain difficulties which they have experienced and for which they have not yet found a remedy. But there can be 110 harm in describing some of the difficulties which had to be contended with in the case of a battle like that of the Somme, even though one is precluded from telling how they have been surmounted. Our Somme front at the beginning of the attack extended to some ten to fifteen miles, a line that lias been held in this war in quiet times by a division and a-hajf.

Take alone the question of water supply. The countryside occupied by our troops probably did not boast of more than 6000 or 7000 inhabitants, with' perhaps a similar number of animals. If you multiply this number enormously and add even a greater proportional increase for the number of animals, some idea of the difficulty of providing water can be obtained. There is no water on those rolling downs over which we have- been fighting, and in the villages the v.el's have been filled up by shell fire. Bear in mind that each man wants two gallons of water a day and each animal wants six gallons, and it. will be seen that one division "alone would consume as much water as the countryside could supply.

The Transport. Take, again, another miracle which is performed every day with apparent ease. The number of guns that 'we have nested on the Somme is something • prodigious, and more than we ever dreamt of even a year ago. The number of rounds which they have fired will one day be known to the world. When it is considered'that batteries have to be fed not in terms of so many rounds, but in terms of so many tons ; that from the railhead or the motorlorry head most of the stuff has to go up to the front in horse waggons; and when it is borne in mind that never for one single day has a battery been short of ammunition, some faint conception of the marvellous organisation which has achieved this end can be formed.

Armchair critics who sit with a map and dividers, who talk lightly of the moving of divisions and corps hither and thither, can have but very little idea of the difficulties of the dailv moves that are made by our armies on the Somme and other fronts. One division cannot come back to its billet along the road where another division is coming up to the front You have straight back and forward moves and moves across the line, and all the time miles and miles of heavy lorries. It is all performed by the soldier, who is so modest t-ha the does not perceive that he is performing a daily miracle. Indeed, the smoothness with which the -whole thing works is inclined to deceive until you go to G.H.Q. and see the map of moves of the last few weeks. They are pictured in red ink on a map, and the innumerable red lines that cross each other are like the pattern in a Scotch plaid. Then you begin dimly to understand the magnitude of the work accomplished.

Communications. Tn a front of the extent that we hold in France the question of rapid communication is one of intenso importance. You walk into an office of G.H.Q. and you find a general ensconced in a. little dirty i room, and as often as not he is talking on his telephone to the War Office in London. He calls up Paris with much greater ease and more enviable facility than we can call up our neighbour in the next street. The work done by the telephone clerks is in itself a marvel of wonderful organisation, for it must be borne in mind that nothing is permanent. You can go into a stable and see a switchboard which connects every command along the line in addition to those which go to London or Paris. You can call up the Ypres salient or the base in less time than it takes to get central. An army commander who is contemplating an attack rings a bell and produces in a- few minutes his weather expert, who receives twice or three times every day reports from all over th?e Atlantic, and, indeed, from all over the world not occupied by the Germans. He consults with him as to the probability of fine or bad weather according to the move he wishes to make, and the information at his disposal is the best that the Meteorological Office in London can supply. If he goes on with his move be gets maps printed at his office 'with all the enemy trenches laid down, so that every divisional commander can see clearly what is bis objective. If at the last moment our observers in the air report a new trench a new map is produced within a few hours' notice. Everything bears the mark of thorough, long-thought-out. organisation. Nothing seems to be forgotten. It is now superfluous to praise the work of the supply and transport. From the beginning of the war, as soon as the two departments were amalgamated, the provision" of good, ample food to our soldiers has been a marvel of perfect planning. The whole department runs with great smootliness. and never have our troops been so admirably fed.