Jed's Boy: A Story of Adventures in the Great World War — John Shaqi
Jed's Boy: A Story of Adventures in the Great World WarGoss, Warren Lee
General
Jed's Boy: A Story of Adventures in the Great World War
Goss, Warren Lee
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile fiction
The American front in France at this time, so far as there was any
front, was in Lorraine. In reality there was no American front,
because our army had not had the training to hold one. While we had
received the drill of ordinary soldiering, we lacked experience in the
prevailing war methods then in use.
While my regiment is marching forward to take up trench duties in front
of the enemy’s lines, let us take a look at what constitutes that part
of a modern army known as an infantry regiment; for infantry is the
body and mainstay of an army.
The old Civil War regiments were made up of ten companies of 152
officers and men; more often less. The modern company has 256 officers
and men; and the regiments made up by these twelve companies, has
103 officers and 3,652 men. The officers of the modern company,
while on a war footing are: One captain, three first lieutenants, two
second lieutenants, one first sergeant, one mess sergeant, one supply
sergeant, twelve sergeants, thirty-three corporals, four mechanics,
four cooks, two buglers, and 192 privates. One of the first lieutenants
is the captain’s assistant; the others each command one of its four
platoons of men.
The transportation equipment of a regiment is more elaborate than is
generally known. It consists of twenty-two combat wagons, sixteen
rolling kitchens for cooking food, twenty-two baggage and ration
wagons, sixteen ration carts, fifteen water carts, three medical carts,
twenty-four machine-gun carts, fifty-nine riding horses, eight riding
mules, three hundred and thirty-two draft mules, two motorcycles with
side cars, one motor car and forty-two bicycles.
Arrived at the trenches we were taught, among other things, to
“camouflage” as the French call it, which means to disguise, or
conceal. This has become an art in modern warfare, because cavalry is
no longer the eyes of an army as in former times, and airplanes reveal
what is not carefully hidden.
For illustration: an artilleryman of heavy guns now seldom sees the
object he is to fire upon. The directions for firing are given by
signals from air-craft. These locate the enemy’s line of battle,
trenches, machine gun and artillery emplacements, magazines or the
“dugout” of some general to be fired upon.
Hence, to disguise or _camouflage_ them is important. Heavy artillery
firing is not by sighting, but by directions given them by mathematical
calculation. The guns, even, are streaked with paint to resemble the
surrounding country, so that they may be more effectually concealed.
The concealment of artillery magazine stations, or other important
stations, has been brought to great perfection. Sometimes a road
leading to them is roofed by canvas and painted to resemble the
surrounding scenery of rocks or foliage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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