They should, moreover, be entrusted with the erection of hospital and ambulance buildings, and their removal and reconstruction whenever new ground is wrested from the enemy.
Transportation by Road. Except in the immediate vicinity of the lines, where horses are still used by the regiments for transportation between the camps and cantonments and the bases of supply, all the conveyance of men and material, which is not made by rail, is done by motor-cars, in daily increasing numbers.
Not only have the railways from the rear to the front been increased in number, but also the communication lines running parallel with the front. Their capacity, however, being inadequate for moving large units quickly from one part of the Front to another, motor-cars should be on hand in number sufficient for the rapid transportation of an entire army corps.
There should be a permanent service of motor-cars between the front lines and the rear, to assume the task of taking fresh troops to the line and exhausted troops to the camping-grounds. They can be used also, and with great efficiency, when circumstances at the Front require the prompt advance of reserves from the various bases.
We shall see later how motor-cars are used for the supply of food or ammunition. Many more cars are needed for the hospitals, ambulances, and the carrying of the wounded.
The consumption of gasoline, notwithstanding the suppression of the abuses which were for a long time prevalent on the Anglo-French Front, remains considerable. France is supplied with it exclusively by the United States and Mexico.
5. General remarks on transportation. The question of supplies of all sorts will be one of the difficulties connected with the organization of the American Armies on French soil. The United States will not merely have to convey troops from one continent to the other, but also to ship all that is necessary for the subsistence of her armies, their upkeep, their armament, their artillery, etc., just as if they were expected to land in a desert country where the barest necessaries of life would be lacking.
The American Government and the General-in-Chief have from the start been aware of the difficulties awaiting them, and, immediately after the landing of the first troops, very important works were begun for the improvement of the French ports of landing and for the duplication of French railroads, wherever needed. This work is being actively carried out under the direction of American engineers.
6. Camouflage. Everything pertaining to the equipment and employment of troops must be hidden, so far as possible, from the sight of enemy aviators, and the various devices resorted to for this purpose are termed “Camouflage” (disguise).
Artillery, transportation parks, ammunition dumps, camps, roads of communication, etc., are masked in many ways, on the general principle of causing the object to be concealed to blend with the tint of the soil or the foliage, or to melt into the landscape and avoid the eye. Coverings of brushwood or straw represent the simpler, and framework supporting artificial greenery or painted canvas, the more ambitious forms of camouflage. Objects irregularly blotched with paint of different colours are practically invisible at a certain distance—a device borrowed from the “protective colouring” of the animal kingdom.