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A DAY AT DUN 109
crack of the whip, and the procession moves forward with
creaking wheels on its way to Romagne. I noticed that
—
in addition to finger-posts—pickets have been posted to guide
the traffic and prevent dangerous congestion at cross-roads.
This is quite necessary, as column after column is constantly
passing along the main road. Here was one, for instance,
the wagons of which were marked " Fs. A. . ., III. Btl. (Mrs.)
I. MK "—that is, Foot Artillery Regiment, 3rd (Mortar)
Battalion, ist ammunition column, and then the number of
the wagon in the column. The stores at Dun supplied amongst
others the army corps whose guest I had been the day before.
In a field quite close to the station was a base slaughter-
house and cattle depot. Here all the cattle collected from
the neighbourhood were assembled in a space enclosed with
posts and barbed wire. A fenced-off portion was drenched
with blood from the slaughter, and here lay immense piles of
ox-hides. One felt certain that these would be turned to
good account. An enclosure for pigs was equally well filled.
There was thus beef and pork in plenty ; the troops would
not go hungry. The day’s requirements for 1000 men amount
to 2 oxen or 6 pigs or 19 sheep, of an average weight respectively
of 500, 90 and 40 kilogrammes. The depot is replenished by
degrees. In most cases the troops do their own slaughtering ;
the animals being taken to the front by the provision columns.^
At Dun there was also a field-bakery detachment with its
attendant wagons, ovens and tents, and surrounded by a
fragrant odour of new-baked bread. Each of these detach-
ments is capable of supplying 23,000 rations of bread in twenty-
four hours, working uninterruptedly.
We also visited the courtyard of a private house, where
food was served out to a thousand French prisoners three
times a day in separate batches. A kitchen on a grand scale
with gigantic caldrons has been installed in a shed in the
yard. When the hour strikes, the prisoners, drawn up in
single file, have to step up and hold out their bowls to a cook,
who fills each bowl with a single dip of his ladle. He is in-
credibly expert and rapid in his movements, and never spills
a drop. Probably the condition of the French prisoners will
one day disclose the fact that they have not been subjected
to a starvation diet.
^ During more mobile operations the troops requisition their own cattle, so far as
the local resources allow.
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