The problem of storing Army supplies became great only after hostilities had ceased. Before that time supplies were going through the warehouses and to the ships at the deep-water ports so rapidly that there was no backing up of the tide of them in the vast warehouse facilities that had been provided as a war measure. But as soon as the armistice was signed and the Army no longer grew in size but rapidly diminished as men were discharged, the manufacturing operations under way, necessarily continued for a time on a scale which had been developed in preparation for an Army nearly double the size of the one that existed on November 11, 1918, soon began filling up the warehouses.

The total storage capacity which the Army had on hand at the time of the fighting, exclusive of that at ports and that for the Department of Military Aeronautics, was as follows:

Zone.Depot.Warehouse.Open.Total.
Square feet.Square feet.
1Boston1,295,4601,295,460
2New York2,900,1412,900,141
3Philadelphia2,333,1242,333,124
4Baltimore1,468,5721,468,572
5Atlanta1,499,84814,3001,514,148
6Jeffersonville2,000,0002,000,000
7Chicago3,825,2861,742,4005,567,686
8St. Louis1,216,7761,216,776
9New Orleans405,172100,000505,172
10San Antonio991,582991,582
11Omaha130,472130,472
12El Paso232,80380,212313,015
13San Francisco1,170,5331,170,533
14Newport News234,879234,879
15Washington, D. C.815,606342,1001,157,706
Grand total20,520,2542,279,01222,799,266
Camps5,326,5905,104,90110,431,491

The operation of one of the Quartermaster depot warehouses might be described at this point, and the general supply depot at Jeffersonville, Ind., is typical. During the war this depot procured for the Quartermaster Corps of the entire Army all horse-drawn vehicles and harness, and such items as barrack ranges, field ranges, and ovens, pack-train equipment, and other supplies.

The war deliveries began at Jeffersonville in the late summer of 1917. Receipts soon outgrew storage space. Adjoining lands were leased, and supplies, covered by paulins, were stored in the open. This early period of the war, prior to the spring of 1918, was a back-up period at all the warehouses, as supplies were produced faster than men were trained and transported to France. In the late spring of 1918 Jeffersonville began making heavy shipments of supplies overseas and from then on shipments exceeded receipts. For three months before the armistice was signed the Jeffersonville depot's shipments averaged 60 carloads a day and its receipts about 25 carloads.

After the armistice was signed, Jeffersonville was designated as the depot for the storage of all surplus horse-drawn vehicles and black harnesses therefor. Extensive temporary storage sheds were erected. Inbound shipments increased to about 80 cars a day. The depot has stored 4,000 rolling kitchens of the trailmobile type, these kitchens being packed in boxes, each package weighing about 4,300 pounds. The work of storing these kitchens is still in progress, and the pile of boxes will ultimately be 45 feet wide, 30 feet high, and 1,000 feet long. As the pile is made, corrugated-iron roofing is placed on the sides and top, thus forming a waterproof building.

Crated automobile trailers, weighing about 9,000 pounds per crate, are being handled in the same manner. Wagons are stored in galvanized-iron warehouses, each one capable of receiving 2,500 wagons, without wheels. Wagon wheels are stored in specially adapted sheds. About 2,000 automobile trucks have already been received for storage in specially constructed sheds. These trucks are mainly Nash Quads, four-wheel-drive trucks, and G. M. C. ambulance chassis. These chassis are stored on end, resting on the bumpers. The engines of all trucks are well oiled and the magnetos are covered with waterproof material.

STORAGE OF AUTOMOBILE CHASSIS, JEFFERSONVILLE, IND.