From the divisional headquarters
the next step is to the brigades, and brigade transports collect the food
and take it another few miles nearer to the boys.
Battalion transport wagons then bring the food and other supplies down to
battalion headquarters. At these headquarters are the quartermaster
sergeants of each company, and they, with their staff, during the daytime
pack up and get ready for distribution supplies for each separate platoon.
At night the company wagons, already packed, are drawn up as close to the
trenches as conditions will permit. If the country is too torn with shells
to permit the use of horses, men will drag them.
I have seen these wagons sometimes within five hundred yards of the front
line trenches, and again ration parties may have to crawl back a mile
before meeting them. It all depends on a number of circumstances. On a
moonlight night it is not possible to come so close as on a dark night. In
rain the wagons may sink into mud-holes, or in badly shelled areas there is
danger of their turning over into a hole. Everything depends on conditions
and the good judgment of the man in charge.
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