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SUPPLY AND TRANSPORT, MILITARY
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See also:SUPPLY AND TRANSPORT, MILITARY . In all ages the operations of armies have been influenced, and in many cases absolutely controlled, by the See also:necessity of providing and distributing See also:food, See also:forage and stores for men and horses. In See also:modern See also:history these supplies have become more and more varied as weapons See also:developed in complexity, See also:power and accuracy of workmanship. In proportion, the branches of an See also:army which are charged with the duties of " supply and transport " have become specialized as regards recruiting, training and organization. The predatory armies of the See also:middle ages not only lived upon the See also:country they traversed, but enriched themselves with the See also:plunder they obtained from it, and this method of subsisting and paying an army reached its utmost limits in the See also:Thirty Years' See also:War. During the last stages of this war See also:Germany had been so thoroughly devastated that the armies marched hither and thither like packs of hungry wolves, every soldier accompanied by two or three non-combatants—See also:camp followers of all sorts, mistresses, ragged See also:children and miserable peasants who had lost all and now sought to live by robbing others under the See also:protection of the army. An See also:English traveller, as See also:early as 1636, twelve years before the See also:peace of See also:Westphalia, reported that at See also:Bacharach-on-See also:Rhine he had found " the poor See also:people dead with grass in their mouths," and that a See also:village at which he stayed "hath been pillaged eight-and-twenty times in two years, and twice in one See also:day." From these horrors there followed a revulsion to the other extreme. Unless ordered by higher authority for See also:political reasons to See also:sack a particular See also:town or to pillage a particular See also:district, the soldiers were rigidly kept in See also:hand, rationed by their own supply See also:officers and hanged or flogged if at any moment an outbreak of the old vices made the example necessary. After 1648 there were very few districts in Middle See also:Europe that could support an army for even a few days, and the See also:burden of their sustenance had to be distributed over a larger See also:area. Thus, at the See also:mere rumour of an army's approach, the peasantry fled with all their belongings into the fortified places, armies soon came to be supplied from " magazines," which were filled either by See also:contract from the See also:home country or by inducing the peasantry—by means of See also:good conduct and See also:cash payments—to bring their produce to,See also:market. , These magazines were placed in a strong See also:place, and if one was not available, a See also:siege had to he undertaken to meet the demand. Moreover, soldiers in See also:Marlborough's See also:time were not as easily obtained as in the Thirty Years' War, and they had to be housed and fed comfortably enough to make it See also:worth their while to stay with the See also:colours instead of deserting. From these and similar conditions there See also:grew up a See also:system of supply .and transport usually called the "- See also:magazine system," under which an army was See also:bound, under See also:penalty of See also:dissolution, to go no farther than seven See also:marches from the nearest fortress, two days from the nearest See also: If all the disorders which are the natural consequence of See also:ill-regulated requisitioning-that is, marauding—cost the army 50,000 men, he had foreseen the loss and taken 5e,000 men more than he needed for the See also:battle. But the second stage, which as a See also:rule involved three or four days' occupation, without considerable movement, of a restricted area, required other See also:measures of supply. In this the army lived upon magazines, which were filled from the captured supply trains from the available supplies in the area, and from the resources accumulated in requisitioned vehicles close to the See also:head of the routes followed in the, first See also:period. These resources were collected in the towns within this concentration area, and placed " out of reach of an insult " (that is, made safe against raiders) with a See also:garrison and field See also:works to supplement the town walls and See also:gates. From this centre of operations Napoleon never allowed himself to be severed, whereas to the preservation of the route between See also:France and that centre of operations he gave very little thought and assigned few or no troops, and most of the confusion of strategical thought since his time has been due to the See also:general failure to perceive the essential distinction, in See also:Napoleonic practice, between a centre of operations and a " See also:base." In the loth century, however, there came the inevitable reaction. Purely political wars, and the consequent indifference of the inhabitants to the operations of war, produced as before a return to the system of cash payments and See also:convoy supply, especially in the See also:Austrian army. As regards Europe the introduction of See also:railways enormously facilitated the supply and trans-See also:port service, and See also:campaigns were neither as barren nor as See also:pro-longed as they had been under the old conditions. The French and See also:British armies did not, at least to the same extent, wage political wars, but their ceaseless colonial warfare imposed upon them the magazine and convoy system, and habituated them to it, The French, in 187o, stood still in the midst of the See also:rich See also:fields of See also:Lorraine, and as a prolonged See also:halt is fatal to the system of living on the country, it would have failed, even had it been tried. The Germans, on the other hand, levied requisitions, civilian transport, and contributions in See also:money in accordance with Napoleonic tradition, though (owing to the existence of railways) with much less than Napoleonic severity. Their system has been accepted as the best for See also:European warfare by all the See also:great See also:powers, whose organizations and methods of transporting and issuing supplies are the same in principle. This principle is based on the Napoleonic distinction between supplies required during an advance and those required during a concentrated halt. The British Field Service Regulations (1909), pt. See also:lay it down that " the system of subsistence should be elastic and readily adaptable to every situation as it arises," but that it must always be based on the- rule - that " all See also:mobile supplies are to be regarded as a reserve" for use when neither See also:local nor See also:line-of-communication resources - are available. As a general rule local resources should be used before the line of communication is called upon, and last of all the See also:call is made on the mobile supplies in the hands of the fighting See also:units. During a strategical concentration or a See also:long halt " the resources of the immediate neighbourhood cannot be expected to support the troops. At such times they may be supplied from field depots established at convenient centres, and filled with supplies that are obtained by See also:purchase or requisition and collected by requisitioned or hired (civilian) transport." During an advance, on the other hand, " by far the most advantageous method is for the troops to be rationed by the inhabitants on whom they are billeted . This method should be employed whenever possible." The extent to which it can be employed varies considerably with the place and the See also:season, but the British and all See also:continental armies have their own " rules of thumb " or rough generalizations based on experience. General Lewal (Strategic de See also:marche, p. 47) says that in a country of See also:ordinary fertility, with 70 inhabitants to the square kilometre, or 18o to the square mile, 1o,000 men can be subsisted for one day on an area of 22 square kilometres or 82 square See also:miles, of r 20o per square mile. General Bonnal in his See also:Sadowa gives 36 square miles as sufficient for the maintenanee of an army See also:corps (30,000—35,000) or about moo men to the square mile during the See also:assembly period, but only on See also:condition of helping out local resources by See also:special sup-plies from the base. The British Field Service Regulations See also:state that ordinary agricultural districts of Western Europe, not previously traversed by troops, will support a force of twice the strength of the See also:population for a See also:week at a maximum. This would mean exacting fourteen rations from each inhabitant, but the incidence of the burden is spread over several days. A See also:practical rule therefore would seem to be, in a district of 200 inhabitants to the square mile, to allot 1400 men per square mile for a flying passage of one day and 400 for a stay of one week, the resources of the country being more thoroughly and systematically exploited in the latter See also:case. A British See also:division (combatant See also:column only) closing up to See also:half its marching See also:depth at the end of the day would require 12 square miles, and as its depth would be about 51 miles, its front or width would perhaps extend for only a mile on either See also:side of the route. It is quite possible to move two divisions for several consecutive days on the same road, living on the country exclusively, subject to the condition that the second should halt on the areas which the first has passed through without stopping. In continental armies the rule is, in fact, " one army corps (= 2 British divisions) on one road."
During the period of concentration, however, even if in movement, a modern army will necessarily be supplied in somewhat the same way as Napoleon's. The billets will be allotted " without subsistence," and the regimental reserve supplies will be called upon to ration their men, while all around the occupied towns and villages the supply officers and their mounted escorts will requisition food and vehicles to bring the food into the concentration area. In view of this, " supply officers will be sent on with See also:cavalry or mounted brigades to investigate the resources of the country ahead of the See also:main See also:body, and if possible to collect supplies at suitable points." Only commissioned officers and, as a rule, only those officers to whom the power is expressly delegated are entitled to carry out requisitions, though in an emergency a See also:commander of any See also:rank may obtain from the inhabitants articles or services by requisition and on his own responsibility, which responsibility may mean answering to a See also:charge of " plundering " before a See also:court-See also:martial. On purely requisitioning See also:work See also:direct contact between the troops and the inhabitants is to be avoided.
Generally, then, a British See also:regiment operating in Europe would be fed, during an advance, (a) by the inhabitants who provide the billets, without the necessity of a supply officer's intervention, (b) by the regimental reserves, which would be filled up as they were emptied from the field depots, of food=stuffs requisitioned by the supply officers, or (c) on emergency by direct requisitioning. During a concentration it would be fed (a) in the first instance by " billets with subsistence," as in an advance, (b) in so far as this was insufficient, by regimental, See also:brigade and divisional reserves, which would refill partly from the lines of communication and partly from the field depots created by the requisitioning supply officers. Thus, as regards food and forage, the British Regulations—though it was not until 1909 that they appeared—are based on the fundamental principles of Napoleon that strategy must be the See also:master, not the servant of supply, and that this mastery is most complete when—by means of " billets with subsistence " or by means of field depots of requisitioned food-stuffs—an army makes itself practically See also:independent, as regards food, of its lines of communication.
The general organization of the supply service in Great See also:Britain, calculated for a See also:campaign under European conditions, is as follows: There are depots of various kinds and " mobile supplies." The former are classified as (a) base See also:depot, which is the great reserve magazine that collects all resources that come from outside the theatre of war; (b) intermediate depots (filled from the base or by local requisitioning) at intervals along the line of communication, which serve principally tofeed the troops posted on the line of communication and those passing along it to the front, but can also be used as an " over-flow " magazine if the base depot is full, and as a means of bringing reserves nearer to the front: (c) advanced. depots at the head of the line of communication, which serve as the expense-magazine, issuing to the " mobile supplies " what these need to enable them to supplement local resources; (d) field depots, frequently alluded to above, which are small temporary depots (filled by requisitioning) in the immediate neighbourhood of the front, and from which, in preference to their own mobile reserves, the troops draw supplies if the inhabitants do not furnish them directly in the billets; field depots may also be utilized for storing local supplies surplus to the immediate wants of the army. The "mobile supplies " are classified as follows: (a) Regimental, which are carried partly by See also:man and See also:horse in the ranks and partly in " regimental transport " vehicles, and consist of the current day's ration and the " emergency ration " of compressed food (which is never to be used except in an extremity) on man or horse, and a complete ration for every man and horse on the ration strength of the unit, with an extra " grocery ration " and some compressed forage in the vehicles. (b) Column, which are carried-' hi= the Army Service Corps "supply columns" of the division and carry one day's complete ration 1 and one emergency ration per head of men and animals—these are in a sense mobile field depots and depend either on requisitioning or on the advanced depot of the line of communication. (c) See also:Park, which are carried in " divisional parks " that move a day's See also: But, in general, such warfare always necessitates an almost complete dependence on magazine supply. There are few or no " billets with subsistence " or " field depots " which are the backbone of the supply system in European warfare, and the regimental and column supply vehicles have generally such difficulty in keeping See also:touch with the advanced depot of the line of communication that the striking See also:radius of the army is strictly limited to the position and output of the line of communications. Moreover, the difficulty—even the See also:principal difficulty—is the transport of the supplies obtained from the line of communication. The alternative, which has often to be adopted by " punitive " expeditions, is to carry all supplies for the calculated duration of the movements with the troops, but the penalty for this freedom to move is either slowness of movement—the fighting troops regulating their See also:pace by that of the supply vehicles or See also:pack animals—or a disproportionate number of " useless mouths " or non-combatants who must be fed. Altogether, the supply difficulty in expeditions in the See also:Sudan, or See also:West See also:Africa, or on the See also:Indian frontier infinitely outweighs all difficulties of country or enemy. Moreovet, paradoxical as it may be, the triumphant surmounting of these difficulties has its disadvantages as regards European warfare, Generals and supply officers who have always• dealt with. the maximum of difficulty find it almost impossible to bring them-selves to See also:deal with easier conditions. In 18o5 Mack vainly sought to See also:teach the Austrian soldier how to live on the country in the Napoleonic See also:fashion. In 18o6 the Prussians starved in the midst of riches, in 1870 the French moved as slowly and kept themselves as closely concentrated as See also:desert columns in See also:Algeria, and so deprived themselves of the resources of their own country. Military transport—other than See also:water and See also:rail—may be classed in respect of the means employed as See also:draught and pack, and in respect of ' its organization and functions as transport on the line of communications and transport in the field, the latter being subdivided into first line and second line. The British army, on See also:account of its frequent expeditions into undeveloped countries, makes a 'large —in the view of many, far too large—use of pack transport, for which mules, camels and human See also:carriers are employed. But in 1 One day's supply of See also:meat is usually taken with the column " on the hoof." European, and to a large extent in other warfare, horsed transport is by far the most generally used. See also:Mechanical transport (generally either See also:traction engines with trucks or motor lorries) is, however, superseding horse draught to a considerable extent in second-line transport. The vehicle usually employed for military transport is the " General Service See also:Wagon," a heavily-built springless four-wheeled vehicle See also:drawn by six or four horses according to circumstances, which weighs empty about 18 cwt., and allows of a maximum load of 3o cwt. There are also four-horse " limbered wagons " consisting of body and See also:limber, weighing 13 cwt. empty and 43 cwt. fully loaded, and lighter two-wheeled carts which can take 13—15 cwt. load. As regards organization and functions, road transport is used on the line of communications to supplement the railway, and consists of locally hired or requisitioned vehicles worked by the Army Service Corps, or by civilian personnel under A.S.C. See also:control. Transport with the field units is, as has been said, divided into first line, which accompanies the fighting troops, and second line, which follows them at a distance. Both lines are, as a rule, manned exclusively by the A.S.C. (or regimental details in the case of regimental transport) and composed of regulation-See also:pattern carts and wagons. The first-line vehicles include ammunition wagons and carts, See also:tool carts, engineer vehicles and medical vehicles. All baggage and See also:store and supply wagons, as well as a proportion of medical, ammunition and engineer vehicles, See also:form the second line. (C. F. A.) SUPRA-RENAL See also:EXTRACT. The extract of the supra-renal gland is one of the most valuable remedies recently introduced in See also:medicine. Feeding with the fresh gland of See also:sheep was at first practised, but the sterilized See also:glycerin preparation known as supra-renal extract is now used, the dose being 5 to 15 minims. The active principle of the gland, best known as adrenaline or epinephrine, occurs only in the medulla of the gland. It forms See also:minute See also: In See also:Addison's disease the use of supra-renal extract has been beneficial in some cases, but its See also:chief use is in the control of See also:haemorrhage. For this purpose it is given in See also:conjunction with local anaesthetics such as See also:cocaine in See also:order to produce bloodless operations on the See also:eye, See also:nose and elsewhere. It is also useful in haemorrhage from small vessels, where it can be applied at the bleeding spot, as in epistaxis. In menorrhagia and metrorrhagia it is also of service. In surgical See also:shock and in See also:chloroform See also:syncope an injection of adrenaline often saves See also:life through the rise of See also:blood pressure produced. An attack of bronchial See also:asthma may be cut See also:short by a hypodermic injection of adrenaline See also:solution. It should never be used in the treatment of haemoptysis. Similar commercial pro-ducts on the market are hemisine, renaglandine, suprarenine, adnephrine, paranephrine and renostyptine. Supra-renal See also:snuff containing the dry extract with menthol and boric acid is of use in See also:hay See also:fever. Rhinodyne is of this type. Suppositories containing supra-renal extract are used to check bleeding piles. The See also:chemistry of adrenaline has been mainly elucidated by the investigations of Pauly, See also:Jowett and See also:Bertrand; Jowett proposing a constitution (see annexed for- HO mulct) now accepted as correct. HO/ \CH(OH).See also:CH2•NHMe Many substances having related constitutions have been synthe- Adrenaline. sized, and it has been found that they resemble adrenaline in increasing the blood pressure. For example, the corresponding ketone, adrenalone (obtained in 1904 by Stolz) is active, and the methyl See also:group can be replaced by See also:hydrogen or another See also:radical without destroying the activity. It seems that the See also:para-hydroxyl group is essential. For instance, para-hydroxyphenylethylainine, HO•C6H4CH2•CH2NH2, which is one of the active bases of See also:ergot, closely resembles adrenaline (G. Barger, Journ. Chem. See also:Soc., 1909, 95, pp. 1123, 1720; K. W. Rosenmund, Ber., 1909, 42, p. 4778); as does also its dimethyl derivative hordenine, an See also:alkaloid found in See also:barley (G. Barger, ibid., p. 2193). Adrenaline is optically active, the naturally occurring isomer being the laevo form; it is interesting to See also:note that, like See also:nicotine, the laevo base has a much greater physiological activity than the dextro. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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