The sawmill machinery installed to accomplish such a production comprised 30 mills of 20,000 feet per day capacity, 56 mills of 10,000 feet per day capacity, and 92 smaller mills capable of producing ties and rough timber.
In the base and intermediate sections a large amount of work was necessary in the maintenance of the existing roads and highways, and in the construction of new roads in the vicinity of the various new projects. Experienced road engineers, drawn from civil life and commissioned as officers of the Army, were put in charge of this work, and specialist engineer troops and labor battalions were assigned to them. Quarrying the rock, grading the road, surfacing it, and maintaining it in good condition thereafter—all these duties fell within the province of the engineers.
LIGHT RAILWAYS AND ROADS.
The light railway and road regiments of engineers attached to the armies at the front, while their duties did not carry them so far or so much into the zone of enemy fire, may be considered as combatant units, since they operated with and in support of combatant troops in the field. To the light railway regiments were assigned the construction, operation, and maintenance of the light railroads of 60-centimeter gauge (about 24-inch gauge). A great quantity of such trackage was used during the war. These narrow-gauge railroads, capable of being operated under extreme conditions of grade and curvature, and powered with light steam and gasoline locomotives, were essential to the proper supply of a stabilized sector. They were the lines of communication between the railheads of the broad-gauge system and the dumps and depots within the front sectors. At the very front, sometimes within a few hundred meters of the German lines, these light railroads were operated by hand or animal traction, while further back the gasoline locomotive, less conspicuous than the steam engine, came well within range of the enemy's light field pieces. In periods of activity and during an advance these railroads did a tremendous service, not only in transporting troops, munitions, materials, and subsistence stores, but in affording a means of bringing up rapidly a certain class of railway artillery adapted for use upon 60-centimeter gauge trucks. Built of light rail and steel ties assembled in portable sections, this track was easily destroyed by shell fire, and such was often its fate, yet it was but short work for the engineers to replace broken sections with new material, a work frequently done under heavy fire. Engineer troops suffered many casualties in this service.
In cooperation with the Engineer Department in the United States, a practical, efficient, and standard type of narrow-gauge motive power and rolling stock was developed by American manufacturers. This material was shipped to France knocked down, and was assembled and set upon the rails at Gondrecourt, where a plant for this purpose had been established. Up to November 30, 1918, there had been built and placed in operation 538 miles of 60-centimeter track, with 347 steam and gasoline locomotives furnishing motive power for the operation of 3,281 cars of different types.
TYPE-PRINTING, BASE PRINTING PLANT, 29TH ENGINEERS, A. E. F.
LITHOGRAPHIC PRESSROOM, BASE PRINTING PLANT, 29TH ENGINEERS, A. E. F.