1104 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



LOADING MARITIME PINE LOGS ON NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY CARS FOR TRANSPORTATION .TO AMERICAN 20-M MILLS IN- 

 SOUTHWESTERN FRANCE. THE PINE FOREST IS HERE CUT CLEAN. BIG WHEELS USED TO SKID LOGS TO THE RAILWAY 

 SHOWN AT THE RIGHT 



ting out 9,399 "long and straight'* ones faster than the 

 docks could use them. Nor was it a simple trick to get 

 90 and 100-foot sticks out 

 of the little gullies and 

 down the long, winding 

 roads of the Vosges. The 

 5th Battalion, meanwhile, 

 was running an express 

 train service with tractors 

 and steel-tired trailers 

 taking out 80-foot spruce 

 piles over ten miles of 

 French highways. This 

 Battalion furnished over 

 5,000 piles for the Ameri- 

 can docks. 



New demands upon the 

 forestry troops followed 

 the formation of the Amer- 

 ican First Army. A flying 

 squadron of lumberjacks 

 was organized by the 2nd 

 Battalion, to work in small 

 units with portable mills 

 at the advance Engineer 

 dumps and cut from day to 

 day bridge timbers, mine 

 sets, bomb proofing the 

 material most urgently re- 

 quired and which could not 

 be forwarded quickly 

 enough from the rear. All 

 told, the 20th Engineers 

 operated thirteen of these 

 advance camps. Their lum- 

 berjack soldiers had a real 

 taste of work close to the 

 front, with frequent occa- 



AN OFFICER OF THE 20th ENGINEERS AT A BATTALION HEAD 

 QUARTERS IN FRANCfc. 



sion to take shelter from bombardments and night bomb- 

 ing raids. And it was while scouting for a new camp in 



the Argonne that Capt. 

 Harry H. McPherson and 

 Lieut. Wilford A. Fair, of 

 the 20th Engineers, were 

 shot down by German ma- 

 chine-gunners. 



Last December Colonel 

 James A. Woodruff, com- 

 manding the 20th Engi- 

 neers, summed up the work 

 of the twelve thousand odd 

 lumberjacks comprising the 

 regiment in a general order 

 which was a cordial com- 

 mendation. (See page 

 1092.) 



Not all of us were per- 

 mitted to share in this 

 achievement. With sor- 

 row but with pride the 20th 

 Engineers recall the ninety- 

 one men of the 6th Bat- 

 talion who won their golden 

 stars on the transport Tus- 

 cania. The story is best 

 recorded in the words of 

 an officer of that battalion : 



"On the morning of the 

 eighth day out from Hali- 

 fax, the convoy was met 

 by seven British destroy- 

 ers, which romped along 

 like porpoises in the heavy 

 seas. With this protec- 

 tion everybody on board 

 felt pretty safe, especially 



