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Show mm gauge n GREflTHELP IN WAR Light Railway With Fussy Little Engine Is Extensively Exten-sively Used. AID TO ARTILLERISTS Is Easily and Rapidly Constructed Con-structed and Can Penetrate Pene-trate Anywhere. T FKEXCH ARMY HEADQUARTERS, Feb. 24. Of all the machines that have been pressed into war service, none ap pears to have more individuality and more consciousness of its own importance., impor-tance., than the narrow-gaugo railway, the "light railway," as it is known in military phraseology. With its fussy little engines, it is to be found every-where every-where behind the front. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that without the narrow-gauge railway the artillery preparation, which is the essential preliminary of any attack on a trench position, would bo impossible. Much has been written concerning the splendid services rendered by the motor lorries at Verdun and they certainly cer-tainly did much to save the situation. But on that occasion they were acting in their proper capacity as an emergency emer-gency service. They enabled the French troops to resist the first German Ger-man onrush, and so gave time to the military engineers to build the narrow-gauge narrow-gauge lines, which could alone be regarded re-garded as a satisfactory and permanent means of supply. Rapidly Constructed. The narrow-gauge railway, with tracks sixty centimeters (two feet) apart, is easily and rapidly laid down. Its rails are riveted two by two to metal ties, and can be put together with a minimum of delay. With a thin ltyer of ballast the rails can be laid almost anywhere. Thanks to the narrowness nar-rowness of the gauge they can follow the most tortuous course, and hills have no terror for them. They can negotiate afely curves of a radius of thirtv yards, r&nd can climb a 3 per cent grade. The military light railway needs rel- atively little in the way of embank-i. embank-i. ments and engineering, and the work of laying down the track can be carried Twt with great speedy A gang of 300 men under the direction of a few experts ex-perts can lay a half mile a day ready for immediate use. The engines used are capable of hauling a load of twenty-five tons up a 3 per cent grade. The cars consist of simple platform mounted on four wheels, ' built for a load of eight tons. The French staff has a carefully prepared map of the German railways before Verdun at the moment of the great offensive. It provides eloquent evidence of the extent to which the Germans avail themselves of the narrow-gauge railway for the purpose of attacks. Behind "the German trenches the country is covered with a network of lines that for their complexity and number can only be compared to the filaments of a spider's web. Wherever the ground affords cover for artillery artil-lery the lines are most complicated and close. At certain points on the most advanced sections of the narrow-gauge narrow-gauge line a series of sidings betray the position of the heavy guns, which fire from trucks on the rails. Takes Little Space. v The great advantage of the light railways rail-ways is that it takes up practically no" road space. When weather permits per-mits the roads are left entirely tree for motor and horse-drawn vehicles, which thus become a supplement of the light railway. German shells do not interrupt traffic traf-fic on these lines, since even when by a lucky chance the line is damaged it is a matter of no great difficulty or time to restore communication. Before this war the importance of the narrow-gauge railway was not realized. real-ized. Everything for the army is, of course, brought up as close as possible to the firing line by the broad-gauge lines, but owing to the great range of dem heavy artillery trains cannot hop t" come up along the ordinary linesywith safety and regularity. As a rulo the normal railhead for the broad-g&P8e lines is from six to ten miles frouS the front. In times of attack at-tack each foroad-gauge railhead may be called upon 'tip. deal with as much as 2000 tons daily cf ammunition and material. ma-terial. Upon the return of -peace France expects ex-pects to utilize the whole magnificent system of light railways built up during dur-ing the past two years for agricultural purposes. |