The transference of heavy artillery from one army to another, according to local needs, has many disadvantages. Such a practice prevents the High Command from deceiving the adversary as to the real point of attack. If the artillery preparation could be maintained with equal intensity for equal periods of time on the Fronts of several armies, the enemy could not possibly foresee which of the armies would strike the principal blow, and would be much embarrassed as to the disposition of their reserves. It will never be possible on a 600 kilometre front to accumulate a sufficient number of guns literally to accomplish this, but by constantly turning out new guns, by increasing the number of batteries and of large artillery concentrations on many points distant from one other, the enemy will be kept guessing. CHAPTER V MUNITION SUPPLY 1. Sketch of the railroad organization. 2. Organization of the munition parks. 3. Divisional parks. Their organization. Their management. 4. Importance of the munition supply. 5. Replacement and repair of guns. 6. Different issues of ammunition. In the present war the supply of munitions of all kinds is of such great importance that we have thought proper to devote a special chapter to this subject. =1. Sketch of the railroad organization.= According to instructions from General Headquarters the services at the rear forward the required ammunition to the “distributing stations” of the different armies. There is one of these for each army, provided with the necessary sidings and yards where all the men and materials coming from the rear are sorted, and distributed further ahead throughout the “terminal zone” (_zone d’étapes_) or “war zone.” This zone extends from the distributing station to the front of the army it supplies. The stations within the zone at the rail-heads, just behind the front, are the “war terminals” (_stations têtes d’étapes de guerre_). From this brief sketch of the railroad organization that feeds the front, we pass to a consideration of the war-freight which it carries. =2. Organization of the munition parks.= At the rear of every army there is a “Main Artillery Park,” located at a point of easy communication with the distributing station and the front beyond. Military railways connect it with the “Army-Park Depots” farther on, which in turn are similarly connected with the “Army-Corps Parks,” and the latter with “Divisional Parks.” The military railways thus spread out fan-wise from the various bases to the front, through distributing-point after distributing-point. During the transportation of the munitions from the interior of the country to the front, the different kinds of projectiles are never mixed together. There are munition trains for heavy guns, others for field guns.