6 
echelons and the unloading station it will be well to consider an average case of 
the circumstances affecting them, thus :— 
(1.) The battle takes place on the Ist inst. at a place two ares distant 
from the railway base. 
(2.) After midday on that date the empty sections of the ammunition 
columns commence their movement to the reav, half day’s march. 
On the 2nd they make 13 marches and at midday reach the station. 
From this time the echelons of empty waggons arrive in a continual 
stream. 
(3.) A train (lst echelon railway magazine) brings up a supply, the 
unloading of which into the waggons takes six hours. 
(4.) The loading of a train from the magazine (at the base) will also take - 
six hours. Supposing there is no delay in despatch of trains, this 
train should reach the unloading station at midday on the 2nd. 
We suppose also that all the train echelons are warned by telegraph on the 
night of the Ist that the 2nd train echelon leaves almost immediately, say at 
3 a.m. on the 2nd, and the other trains leave one after the other at intervals of 
six hours and travel at an average of 10 kilometres an hour, we get the following 
result :— 
Ti Bylo ion Possible distance 
No. of train | Date and hour of | Date and hour of sea: a ss or) from base station 
magazine. starting. arrival. Mca a to unloading 
UEUOME station. 
RCL 90 soo || BAM Wing coo || WA seg Bal — goo @) INOW 409 000 90 kilometres. 
8rd . 9 1 " on 6 p-m iT see 9 I vee 90 I 
4th eee oo 9 WW VW eee eee 12 W I eee 16 W see or 150 W 
In 1870 the distances of the German bases from unloading stations were :— 
Army. Unloading. | Base station. Distance. 
Ist ... | Amiens ... ... | Soissons... ... | 170 kilometres. 
2nd... | Beauvais are om soo. || UB n 
SiR, con || OOS cca 200 |] WMH? =o cn, || LUG n 
AMT — oo9 |] ILAGWEY 000200 n c00 000. || LES} n 
We have sometimes heard the opinion advanced that there need be no hurry in 
establishing these base stations on mobilization, as the troops have at their points 
of concentration supplies of provisions for several weeks; but the case is very 
different as regards ammunition. 
The troops have with them only the amount of ammunition they can carry in 
their vehicles. Unless the grand park is organized at once on mobilization, it 
may happen, from the proximity of the points of concentration of two hostile 
armies, that a great battle may take place before these base stations can be or- 
ganized. The principal unloading station represents a centre of concentration 
for supplies and for the regulation of despatch from it—it requires to be established 
at some large town and, consequently, it cannot move daily in rear of the army. 
But often nearer the army are to be found stations, not so large, but quite suited 
