At the War

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 28, 29 December 1916, Page 3

At the War

VI. FRENCH ROADS. (By C’.S.K.) Tlu> other day I helped to (ill up a tale with a quotation from a hook I .had read: to-day I am indebted to another book for a phrase. The book was about French Revolution days and the writer spoke of chemins de traverse. This I believe to be the name of a class of roads for which 1 previously bad no name.—One way and another I have absorbed a good deal, of knowledge in regard to French roads—some through the soles of the boots. Practically the first road I iyas on was that from Steenwerck to Armentieres, which I .believe is cobbled all the way. I also believe that this kind of a road is called a payee.' It is very, hard to walk on and the great waggons of the country make a great row in going over it. I cannot say how far this particular road .is cobbled, but I have walked over about seven miles and know otherwise,. of two ihiles. The road runs through an agricultural stretch (where our trenches were) to the considerable village which was held by the Germans. For several nights while I was on sentry I was puzzled by a queer sound coming from the direction of Fritz. It sounded like a metal stake being driven In with a metal hammer. Of course that seemed an odd thing to do and we were entirely in the dark until a bright sentry hit the real mark—-Fritz was but in No-Man’s Band,, taking; up witlF'iKiek’ the tcobi hies in the Torfcl tween the trCri^ks. J> mthFf4'lffSkb f ,f road I s’truck';’was'' c’fiited National, thoftglr tlVeiT ’ waS-ttmothing about it to suggest why it was--so called, except that it was pei haps broader and better kept than the usual run. The roads are all fully described on frequent sign-posts, which give directions to about half a dozen points in the locality. The roads seem all to be numbered—we entered on “R.N. No.' ‘1 Somme.” It is possible that the “R.X.’ is kept up by the* general Government, as against other classes kept up by local bodies. Another class is the Chemin de. .Grande Communication, why so called I know not. The only otbei, class I noticed, was the Chemin do 0.V., but what the letters stand for I do' noli knowi the road I saw^so described was a by-road, with fobrn for only one vehicle. One must not forget the chemin de I tak( this to refer tq (jhe net wj>r| wide enough 'oulv.Tor " lae ■ “ RTOfQjso'in r,,.piw; .wn Which wind among f is all that my unaided naked e>d (lAf IS an mmi. rjVrfjo’iq odt an apum, been able to gather reganfmg system of French roads. No doubt a small dip into an encyclopaedia would put one full of knowledge, but, as Thomas Ingoldsby says:

I’d tell yon at once where it is after one look in the Gazeteei, But I’m away from home and nobody lias it here.

'(Or words to that effect)—As to grading, I never struck a hill noiti worrying about, and 1 say that despite the fact that all my travelling was done in full- dress-equipment, rifle, bayonet, trenching tool, KU rounds of • ammunition, two gas helmets,' writer-bottle, haversack and valise. The grades were always extremely gentle. As a result tin va> was longer than it might have been, but my .personal opinion is, that-u mp mads are fitted into the’.contour pl the country they are, more satisfactory in a variety of ways, there had been a desire to run the roads straight from point, to point there would have been ample opportunities for big cuttings and filings,with stretches of road as perilously near to the perpendicular as the most enthusiastic engineer could desire, think I am speaking more of the. (inside G C. I imagine that in the case of the R.N. directness is made a point of.) Drainage was a strong point on all the macadamised roads 1was on. This consisted merely of a short drain run out fra; about 10 ice from the side of the road to take « 1 aljv water liable to gather 1 stepped the distance between these on one road and found it to lie about tweuty-fiyc yards. That was on -one side, of the. road. On the otlu-rs.de the drains yvere the. same distance apart, hut the one on the lelt placed Midway between- the two on the right, so that really there wa. a drain to every twelve yards of h-fiA >• of road. When the road ran along the' flat : the drains were kept going.. In the Case of gradients the drams were more elaborate, being run m o the hill, a well ' being provided to I patch the water. My own opinion .8 that these drains are liable to., sue thousands of pounds in upkeep, especially on the Stratford Comity roads, where the gradients are long land frequent. , Of course, the drams are every bit as useful on the flat, jy taking off any water liable to lie on. t-iie ■ road surface, saturate it , thereby cause it the mort' cead.ty -W break up. The flatness of idie N ,su):i;a< e

of all roads was particularly noticeable, no crown being perceptible. I was very much impressed with the roads I saw, but perhaps i did not see the best. I heard recently that troops were confined to the secondclass loads, the. first-class roads (cobbled or asphalted) were reserved for wheeled traffic. No doubt also the roads I saw would not have looked so well had they had to bear the immense motor traffic which passes (jack and forwards to the firing line. After a time even macadam becomes very hard on the feet, and at some points troops march in the fields beside the roads, soon chewing out a well-defined track with their hobnails. In a certain town the majority of the streets were cobbled, and it was just as well, for the wheeled vehicles are a weird and wonderful lot. There is room for argument, whether the vehicles were made to stand the heavy jolts of the road or whether the roads were made to stand the 'heavy jolts ..of the vehicles. At all events both are solid in construction. A waggon that is any waggon at all is, as- big._as a threshing machine, built of massive timber, with a particularly imposing and solidlybuilt ' "under-structure. Even the hand-barrows, which are built on a principle which t cannot describe, are fashioned from heavy timbers, so that frequently one would see a man wheeling a barrow three or four times the weight of the load carried. A really novel vehicle 'was the hall-bred haml-and-dog cart. These carts were of lightish build (by comparison). The main motive power was supplied by a man, but auxiliary power was supplied by a dog which fab under thq cart, being harnessed to; the 'f&ffk' ■ | never envied the soldiers ivlUi rn{i <f, '' n n the I 'cobbled streets on bfcy*les7 #lui cobbled roads are, no doubt, justbthc very thing 'for *tho big motor lorries in which a great deal of the army transport is. dope; ■ 1 am fairly sure that macadam' would not long survive this lorry traffic. That is, to the degree which it is used heie. Over a inaqadgmisod. road I have seen trains of twenty-five or so lorries moving along at about five miles an hour, One 'filter the other. I have seen these trams' day after day, hut I have not, to,iny knowledge, marched over the same road—from one height I, would pee them climbing another hpigiit five miles away. 1 suppose after the war we will hear all about the loading lessons the war has taught.