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142 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
animals intended for food, which may happen to be stationed
in, or pass through their district of the Hnes of communication,
while the " Inspectorate of the Lines of Communication,"
through organisations and establishments directly subordinated
to it, requisitions what is needed for the fighting troops from
within the whole of its district of the lines of communication,
or from the home bases. In order that the organisation of the
lines of communication may work quickly in the event of
urgent requirements—more especially in case of a battle—it
establishes, as we have seen, store depots of materiel and
requisites. Books are kept as to all that is stored within the
respective district. The " Inspectorate " always enters into
close relations with the civil administration, and in a hostile
country may often—if the safety of the army requires this
—
take over this administration into its own hands. Both the
" Inspectorate of the Lines of Communication " and the
" Intermediate Depot Commandant’s Office " frequently requi-
sition, for instance, from the Maire, labour for certain purposes.
Some ten labourers or other civilians may for instance be
required to bury dead horses or to clear a road. The soldiers
of the invading army do not do this themselves.
Frequently, the working of hospital departments attracts,
more especially, the attention of the layman ; at least such
was the case with me. One marvels at the enormous sphere of
duties that fall solely to the share of the intermediate base
surgeons, subordinated to the " Inspectorate." The Chief
Surgeon-General at the " Inspectorate of the Lines of Communi-
cation zone of the 4th Army " had under him hospitals at
twenty-eight different intermediate depots, apart from the
transports of sick and wounded passing through this zone of
the lines of communication.
The reader will form some idea of the amount of work
which devolves on the officers in charge on the lines of com-
munication, when I mention that the Lines of Communication
Depot Commandant’s Office in Vouziers alone, usually received
every day six hundred requisitions and enquiries which all
had to be attended to immediately. This needed men of
ready and well-trained skill and energy, who could accomplish
the task of ensuring that the fighting troops always had what
they needed at the right time and in the right place. Dawdling
routine work will never do in war !
If we had before us a large-scale map, faithfully represent-
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