342 THE AMERICAN FOREST ENGINEERS IN FRANCE 



The Headquarters Staff — Equipping the Sawmills. — These fourteen 

 district managers were directed from the central headquarters of the 

 Forestry Section, which had a staff, or departmental organization, 

 patterned on industrial Unes. One lieutenant-colonel with the regi- 

 mental adjutant had charge of mihtary administration and personnel, 

 with their innumerable records. A second group of officers, headed by one 

 of the most experienced lumbermen from the Northwest, handled the 

 supply and upkeep of technical equipment — sawmills, logging tools, 

 horses, motor trucks, steel and rolling stock for logging railroads, etc. 

 This department supervised the going logging and manufacturing 

 operations and directed the installation of sawmills and railroads at new 

 locations. In less than 15 months it equipped and put through ninety- 

 five sawmill installations, many of which required logging railroads as 

 well as sidings to connect with existing French lines. 



Strategy in Military Lumbering. — High strategy was called for in the 

 location of the forestry operations. It was not only necessary to scout 

 for suitable timber and mill sets over practically all France; we had to 

 keep posted, literally, from one day to the next, on the kind of products 

 needed by the Army and at what points in its vast field of operations. 

 Changes in the materials which were needed most critically and in the 

 points whose requirements were most urgent were innumerable and 

 necessitated not only an incessant revision of cutting and shipping orders 

 but also frequent modifications of the plans for locating operations. 



Sales and Traffic Department. — A third department at the headquart- 

 ers of the Forestry Section, under another seasoned lumberman, had 

 charge of the products manufactured and their shipment. In its hands 

 rested the important duty of receiA^ng and correlating requisitions for tim- 

 ber from every branch of the Army, and of determining, under general 

 instructions from the Chief Engineer or the General Staff, the order in 

 which they should be supplied. This was a task of no small difficulty and 

 responsibility during the summer of 1918 when orders were flying in for 

 three times what the Forestry Section was able to produce. This de- 

 partment also worked over and standardized the specifications for the 

 innumerable forms of timber demanded and fitted them to what our mills 

 and loggers could cut from French timber under pressure for the utmost 

 speed in production. It issued the cutting and shipping orders to the 

 district commanders and put all its energy and resourcefulness into pro- 

 viding cars or boats and getting the shipments through in time. 



Let it be said in passing, that transportation was the neck — a very 

 small neck — of the bottle. Lack of transport equipment was by all odds 

 the greatest difficulty which the entire Services of Supply had to over- 

 come. Every conceivable scheme was employed to keep lumber and 

 railroad ties moving steadily to the front and other points of use, including 



