FEEDING THE ARMY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2452, 4 May 1915, Page 10

FEEDING THE ARMY

THE SOLDIERS' MEALS

A CAMPAIGN WITHOUT GRUMBLERS

The following article has been communicated by an "Kye-Witness" present with General Headquarters of tho British Force: It is universally admitted that no British Army yet placed in the field has been so well fed as is ours to-day, and since it is the largest force we have ever maintained in any one theatre of operations, and the problem of its supply has at times presented peculiar difficulties, it may bo of some interest to give a short sketch of the system employed and to show how it has worked since the commencement'of the war.

The system by which the immense volume of food required for man and horse is conveyed to tho troops is in principle simple enough. The difficulties lie in its application to tho supply of an army which is equivalent in. numbers to the population of a great city, way be constantly moving from place to placo with its goods aud chattels, horses, carts, and motors, and is frequently liable to interference from tho enemy.

During peace the reservo supplies for the whole of our Army are maintained in the Supply Reserve Depot. When mobilisation becamo imminent all these stores wore at once transferred to the Home Base Port, that is to say, the port wliere supplies are accumulated for shipment overseas. Contracts were made to provide and maintain tiie necessary articles forming the soldier's ration, and ships were loaded and sent to tho Overseas Bases. At these Supply Depots and Field Bakeries were established. Owing to tho course taken by the operations in August theso great d'ccumulations of stores nad to be movedbut in spite of tho tremendous task involved'in their shipment to one port after another, the whole machinery of supply continued to work smoothly tlrtouffliout all the early vicissitudes of the campaign.

From the stores thus collected at a base food is sent up by rail to a "Regulating Station." ' From this place of assembly and distribution trains, each made up of trucks carrying the right proportion of each kind of article required, are dispatched to the "Railheads," which are the stations nearest to the troops to which it is possible to work the railway. There is usually a separate railhead station for each corps. At these points the supplies are loaded on convoys of motor lorries,' called 'Supply Columns," each trainload being so divided up among two or more columns as to serve the different formations, divisions, etc., of which a. corps is composed. Petrol instead of Jam. The supply columns convey the food to a suitable rendezvous previously selected, which, of course, varies daily when troops are moving. There' they are met by representatives of the division, or other formation, which its to be fed, and conducted to "Refilling Points" selected daily in the samo way as the rendezvous. For tho cavalry there are no refilling points, and the' supplies are carried by the supply columns direct to units. At each refilling point tile supply column is met by the horsed wagons of the "Supply Sections of the Train" of the division, and its contents are again subdivided according to the 6cale authorised for each unit and are reloaded. Tho horso wagons convey the food to the units, battalions of infantry, (brigades of artillery, etc. It is easy -to see that supplies may go astray, and be late in reaching the troops unless the greatest care and vigilance are exercised, or that the units may receive wrong quantities, for example, too much oats and too little meat, or petrol instead of jam. Moreover, while active operations are in progress there is often considerable uncertainty as to the exact position of the units when the food comes up; and even if their position on the map is known, the troops may be hard to find in the dark.

A factory wliicli has at times increased the difficulty of the work-of feeding the Army has been the transference or great masses of men from one part of the line to the other. Both our own troops and those of our Allies have at different times, and notably in the transference of our. Army from the Aisne to Flanders, teen moved up across the communications of other forces engaged with the enemy. The continuous extension of the front at that time and other movements which have taken place have necessitated repeated changes in the railheads. These changes hare often had to be made*at short notice, and a railhead may have had to be adapted within a few hours for the_ accommodation of a vast amount of rolling stock, and for loading and unloading lorries in the shortest possible _ time. What this entails may bo imagined when it is remembered that the only railhead available may consist of a small wayside station where there is perhaps only room for one row of lorries at a time, and the entrances and exits to the station have to he widened and other preparations mado to, handle the large number of vehicles required to cater for one or more army corps. In this part of France the railways are never carried over or under tho roads by means of bridges, and the numerous level crossings contribute to the delay and congestion of the road traffic. The -'efects of the roads themselves have been so often mentioned that they need no recapitulation.

Tribute to French Railways. It has been only with the hearty cooperation. of the French railway officials with our officers of the Army Service Corps that all these difficulties have been overcome. Tho efficiency of the French railway management and the results achieved by it are indeed little short of marvellous!. The excellence of the performance of the supply columns during the present campaign is shown by the fact that, except during the retirement, not a single day has passed upon which food has not reached our men. Even during the retirement, when it was not actually conveyed up to the troops bv 6upplv column, it was taken close to them and left on the ground to be picked up. During this period the work. of the columns, particularly of that of the cavalry, was of a most onerous and dangerous nature, for as often as not the .lorries camo under fire before they could get rid of their loads and go back. _ During heavy fighting the most exciting part of the work of distribution falls to the horsed supply section wagons, which on their way to the troops frequently have to pass along roads un-der-artillery fire. On several occasions shells have burst among them and destroyed wagons, whilo casualties from rifle fire have also been incurred.

Officers commanding supply columns have naturally to take all necessary measures for safeguarding thorn. In addition to the importation of food, resort lias been made to requisitioning on the country, and. largo purchases have been made of cattle, hay, wheat, vegetables, oats, and straw, all of which tho inhabitants have readily placed at our disposal. Fruit was plentiful during tho season, and the country people were very gonerous in giving it. to our soldiers while it lasted. Our own bread, baked at tho base by our own bakers in the open, has reached the troops regularly. H keeps well, which in important, for it cannot well be less than four days old by the time that it in saton. Considflrflbln help also has been given by the French In-

tendance in regard to tie supply of French ration broad. This has remarkable keeping qualities aud is considered perfectly fit to eat when twelve to fourteen days old. The French authorities nave also offered to provide cattlo. Sometimes biscuit has been issued in lieu of bread, the small oblong or round biscuits being preferred to the old large square pattern, which require exceptionally good teeth to tacklo.

Additions to the Menu. The soldier has bacon for breakfast, bread and cheese for luncheon, a hot meal of meat, vegetables, and bread for dinner, and bread and jam with his tea. In-case of omergency ho carries with him nil "Iron Ration" composed of preserved meat, biscuit, tea, sugar, and two concentrated meat cubes. Since the commencement of tho campaign several additions have been made to the scale of food ordinarily allowed. Pea soup is provided twice a week for tho troops in ,the trenches, as well as extra tea and sugar. Cigarettes are served out in lieu at pgrt of thp weekly tobacco allowance,, matches are provided twice a week, and butter is substituted twice a week for jam. In these circumstances it is not surprising that this is the first campaign in the history of the Army in which there has been no grumbling as to the quantity tr quality of the food. Indeed tho most serious complaint that has ever been made is that plum jam has been issued too frequently. There may not he much pleasure in the life led by the driver of the motor lorry; but those who imagine that he leads an uneventful, humdrum existence, or that the Army Service Corps a non-combanant branch of tho Army should hear the experience of some of these men. They included early in tho war many narrow escapes from hostile cavalry patrols, long night journeys 41. ? over r °ads between tho hostile lines, daily drives over the 9pen. stretch cf a plateau swept by howitzer shell, and generally exhausting days and sleepless nights spent in taking up food and carrying back wounded. Even under present conditions the work arduous and not always free from danger. It will, then, be realised that there is as much romance and excitement and as much opportunitv for heroism in driving a lorry as there is in, seemingly more adventurous duties.