BARRACKS A. R. C AMERICAN RED CROSS 



459 



ficed many of their wonderful road-side lombardy pop- 

 tars to make barrack lumber, but they have largely 

 stopped that now. The lombardy poplar is a strange 

 looking tree it has also a strange and wonderful wood. 

 A barrack built of it in a few months assumes an appear- 

 ence of being an acute sufferer from shell shock. It 

 provides an abundance of unofficial points of ventilation. 

 We say this feelingly, for, as Kipling says in one of 

 his poems, "we can testify for we were there." 



After erection, these barracks are roofed with tar 

 paper, and sometimes the sides are also covered with it. 

 Occasionally they are painted and near the Front they 

 are sometimes camouflaged with all sorts of designs. 

 The size varies from 3 x 4 to 8 x 40 Metres, but 6 x 30 

 (20 x 100 feet) is more or less of a standard for military 

 barracks. Most of the different types have names, often 

 those of the firm which designed or manufactured them. 

 Thus we have HAMMON FRERES barracks, BES- 

 SANOU barracks, ADRIAN barracks, SWISS barracks 

 because they 

 are made in 

 Switzerland 

 and many 

 others. 



Not only are 

 these barracks 

 used in the war 

 zone for hous- 

 i n g troops ; 

 they serve in- 

 dividually or 

 in groups for 

 storeh ouses, 

 field h o s p i- 

 tals, canteens, 

 barns, work- 

 shops every- 

 thing. Outside 

 the war zone 

 they are also 

 used for hous- 

 ing soldiers, 

 laborers, pris- 

 oners, refu- 

 gees, and what not. Often they crop up in the most 

 unexpected places. Once I crossed the drawbridge of 

 a mediaeval castle whose keep is used as a confinement 

 place for boche prisoners who have tried to escape and 

 found an Adrian barrack in the middle of the old court- 

 yard it housed the guard. 



In addition to these standard types of barracks, the 

 . French are constructing large numbers of small por- 

 . table wooden houses to replace the destroyed dwellings 

 in the invaded districts. 



When the American army came to France it quickly 

 realized the impossibility of carrying on its activities 

 entirely under canvas and in existing buildings and 

 speedily began to purchase barracks and then more bar- 

 racks. It was planned at first to bring over most of the 



lumber for their construction from the United States, 

 but it was soon evident that they could obtain them in 

 sufficient and that means in very large number ip 

 France and Switzerland. So now at several points in 

 France the United States army has barracks depots, out 

 of which they can ship enough barracks to house an 

 army corps as fast as they can get the railroad cars. 



Not only the army itself, but that great auxiliary 

 military service, the American Red Cross, which works 

 with all the allied armies, but especially the French 

 and American, found a need of portable barracks in 

 large quantities. The Red Cross needed them in Bel- 

 gium for civilian relief works, it needed them at French 

 and American hospitals for recreation centers, it needed 

 them in the American war zone for warehouses for 

 special supplies furnished by the surgical service, it 

 needed them for special hospitals not directly under the 

 control of the army medical corps, it needed them for 

 canteens along the lines of communications of the armies. 



To handle 



problem 

 also the 



VudtTwottd and Underwood British Official Photograph 



THE BRITISH PUTTING THEIR CAPTIVES TO GOOD USE 



Wood being the essential war material, the Britishers are using their German prisoners in transferring 

 cut wood to small railway trolleys to be sent to construction units. 



this 

 and 



numerous 

 other prob- 

 lems of con- 

 struction, such 

 as turning 

 hotels into 

 hospitals and 

 restaurants in- 

 to offices, that 

 the Red Cross 

 is constantly 

 called upon to 

 perform, a 

 special service 

 called "Bureau 

 of Construc- 

 tion" was or- 

 ganized. Like 

 the Engineer 

 corps of all 

 armies, its 

 function is to 



do all the real work and for its reward to get all the 

 kicks. It numbers in its forces some of the best known 

 American architects. 



Last summer (1917) when the plans of the A. R. C. 

 took shape and the need of large numbers of temporary 

 structures was recognized, the Construction Bureau let 

 a few small contracts for existing types of barracks. 

 This started the work. But the types of barracks 

 already designed did not seem quite to meet the needs 

 of the Red Cross. Most of its barracks once in place 

 would remain so for the duration of the war easy 

 demontability was not therefore essential. It could 

 easily, in fact, be a disadvantage as a strictly demontable 

 building is often less tight and comfortable than a more 

 permanent one. Generally the standard types of bar- 



