i) 
PRoposeD SYSTEM. 
CARRIAGES. RovunpDs. 
fs ih 
Six ammunition Cre is BID SL ee MAES OO 
ammunition waggons 
Ist echelon corps park \ 
ammunition waggons } “ 
2nd echelon military ; 
waggons in 
B® 560 ona fy aol 
2 
Oe Meet Mery) 454000 
AOU Go Wael | de6 JIBS Tako Se TNO) 
Pemeurnt c= eee te! MO. Pees 121 
or 90 rounds more per battery. 
Moreover, the 58 ammunition waggons of the 1st echelon corps park 
are quite enough to mount the men when moving at a trot. 
(6.) There is less danger of jamming the roads as the empty carriages can 
be sent further to the rear than at present. 
(c.) The number of carriages of the ammunition columns is diminished 
33 per cent. 
(d.) We avoid reloading—the ammunition is carried up to the light columns 
in boxes. 
(¢.) In the replenishment from the grand park at the railway, the reloading 
from the railway waggons into the military waggons can be done 
much quicker than into ammunition waggons. 
(f{) The section of the corps park which has military waggons can be used 
DoD 
for transport to the front of other supplies besides ammunition if 
necessary. 
The regulations of 1884 lay down that the lst or mobile echelon of the grand 
park is within a long day’s march or, at most, two days march of the sections of 
the corps park. Supposing that this Ist echelon marches in the evening of the 
day of battle, we may expect that the ammunition will reach the batteries on the 
evening of the following day if the marches are doubled and the repacking is 
carried out during the halts. The 10 rounds a gun thus brought up are all the 
batteries can rely on at the end of the 2nd day’s fighting. Including case shot, 
265 rounds a gun is the total amount available for two days fighting, For a 3rd 
day’s fighting the waggons would be empty, as supplies from the base could only 
be got up in the very exceptional case of the railway running up into the very 
centre of operations. We see then how very important it is to make the mobile 
portions of army parks as large as possible. ‘The use of traction engines for this 
purpose is often suggested, but a little reflection on the wear and tear of roads in 
war time will show how unreliable a means of transport they would furnish, 
As regards the number of rounds to be carried by the grand park to meet the 
above-indicated requirements of a possible four-days’ battle, i.e. 500 rounds a 
gun, the grand park should carry about 250 rounds and of these, half should 
reach the troops in two days and the other half in three days. This is not an 
exorbitant demand. 
To avoid delay in supply, it must be arranged that echelons of empty waggons 
do not have to await the arrival of trains when they reach the railway. 
In this connection in laying down the distances between the different train 
Rear service 
of supply. 
Railway 
echelons, 
