3. Food and clothing (Quartermaster Service).
The different services in the rear of the position maintain the supplies of the sector depot. The amount of ammunition to be carried is fixed by orders from the general and this amount must be strictly maintained.
(b) Requests for Supplies: Each morning the chiefs of areas send in a request for material required for the next night’s work. All these requests in a sector are grouped by a staff officer under the heads of the three different services. Along with each request must go the information showing necessity for same. Emergency requests are made by telephone. The officer making request for material must be on hand to receive and check the same upon delivery.
(c) Supply Parties: The supply of the depot is usually made with special detachments taken from the support or reserve companies. If it is necessary to take men from the front trenches for this purpose, no more than 10% can be taken away from these trenches at the same time. Complete units will be used as supply parties with their leader if possible. Upon each battalion in a C. of R. and upon each regimental reserve falls part of the responsibility of distributing supplies in the rear of the sector. The unloading or rendezvous points are disposed along what is called the supply line, usually on a road, path, ravine, behind a hill, etc. Supply parties sent out at night to these points make as little noise as possible. They return along a well-picketed path, usually running along one of the central boyaux. Transportation is thus carried in the open ground as far as possible, usually to the support line.
When proper protection is possible, pack trains are used to carry supplies right through the distributing point and up to the depots of the sector.
(d) Cooking: The battalion kitchens are located behind the sector in a protected emplacement. Steps must be taken to ensure as little smoke as possible being seen from them. At night each platoon sends a ration party to the kitchen.
When the regiment has rolling kitchens, these are brought up part of the way towards the sector where they meet the ration party. Arrangements should be made to always have, if possible, some hot soup or drink available for the men between midnight and 4 a. m.
(a) Activities of the Troops: Sector duties include a considerable amount of work, and are not only useful from a tactical point of view, but are also indispensable for the moral and physical welfare of the troops. Men without occupation in the trenches stagnate, grow slack, and think only of the time when their relief will arrive. Such troops lose their aggressiveness, so that when the time for the offensive arrives they have no confidence and cannot deliver the proper blow.
Good practice to obtain fruitful results is the employment of time as follows: In each company the captain prepares a daily schedule of duties in which he allots the different services of the strong point: hours of “standing to” and inspection, of sending ration and supply parties, time of rest, of cleaning arms, equipment, and clothing, time of trench work, etc. This schedule is communicated daily to each platoon at a regular hour.