4008 LORRIES AT VERDUN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11948, 6 March 1917, Page 4

4008 LORRIES AT VERDUN.

HOW THEY ARE SUPERSEDED BY THE LIGHT RAILWAY. (From 11. WARNER ALLEN.) WITT! THE FRENCH ARMY, January 7. Tho development of the light railways behind tho lines, has now reached such a stage that it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that no artillery preparation for nn attack would bo possible without them. Mneh, of course, has been written oou-eming the splendid service rendered bv the motor lorries at Verdun. Buu on that occasion they were acting in their proper ennacity as an emergency ! service At Verdun, as is well known, there was a continual procession _in either direction of 4000 motor lorries. Thanks to magnificent organisation, •he road stood the strain, and an average of 2000 tons to the twenty-four hours was carried along it. This wonderful tour de force, however, did not nrovido r> normal means of transport, which could only be the result of the development of the railway resources of the district. In the earlier days of tho war it was soon found that road traffic would not .•ope with the ordinary needs of a trench sector. Horse and motor vehicles were always liable to be blocked thWh the intensity of the traffic, and the road metal begun to go to pieces. The only solution of the Problem was to be found m the light railways with a gauge of sixty centiSuch a line is easily and rapidly laid down Its rails are riveted two by two to metal sleepers,, and can be put together with a minimum of delay. Witli a thin layer of ballast thcs 0 rails can be laid almost anywhere. thanks to the narrowness of their gauge they can follow the most tortuous course, and hills have no terrors for them. The rolling stock consists of steam engines and motor tractors capable of drawin* a useful load of twenty-five tons uo an inclined plain of three in ]OO In close proximity to the enemy's line's the enpmes betray their position bv the dense volume of white smoke and steam that they pour out of their funnel Often near the second or third lino trenches I have taken their smoice for a shell burst. To-day there exists behind every army on the French front a regular svstem of light railways. From the railheads of the standard gauge systems sixty-centimetre lines run out in the direction of the front to the depots,"