(A) Selection of Sites. During the war it was laid down by the General Staff that no sites for important training centres in Great
- Britain should be situated within 50 m. of the E. coast. As the
whole of E. Anglia comes within this limit, this excluded a useful part of England which otherwise might have been utilized. The
- same objection applied to certain parts of Yorks. and Lincolnshire.
i It was also desirable not to choose sites near the main lines of rail- way leading to the principal ports, which had already important and increasing traffic, dealing with supplies and munitions. Conse- quently, the more westerly parts of England were mainly examined
- for suitable _sites, the most important being in VV. Yorks., Staffs.
- and Shropshire. There were also one or two large camps in Wales.
From the training point of view it was imperative that there
should be open ground available at all times of year, for manoeuvring
and field works, and suitable positions for rifle ranges, for bombing
i practice, entrenchments and other similar instruction. From the
'. medical point of view it was desirable that the soil should be gravel or chalk (though clay was not an insuperable objection), that there should be good drainage, and generally healthy surroundings, that the water supply should be ample and either pure or capable of being purified. Prom the supply point of view, besides the obvious importance of being able to issue supplies easily, it was essential that there should be ample means of communication by rail or water or both ; that while the site should not be on a main line of railway so as to impede other movements, it should not be far away from existing railways. From the engineer's point of view, besides traffic facilities, it was desirable that materials should be
- easily procured, water abundant, labour not unreasonably difficult
to obtain and supervise, and, if possible, some already established local system of waterworks, drainage works, or electrical power in
'which, by agreement, the camp might be a partaker.
These requisites are given in the order of importance, but in making the actual selection, perhaps less attention than was wise
. svas paid to the third section, in some instances. Thus Salisbury Plain is an excellent training ground, but it was in the autumn of 1914 already congested with troops, and to initiate the construc- tion of an additional large cantonment there was courting trouble.
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PARADE GROUND
-. J
14
F=r =20
Dl9 =20
17
300 350 *00 430 SOOFT.
F I G. I
The Wylye Valley near Salisbury had a number of good sites for nail tented camps, and it was situated close to good training round, besides being healthy and easily drained, but not one of lese camping grounds could take more than a brigade, and conse- uently the two divisions which were quartered there had to be i scattered groups along a line some eight miles in extent, with reat subsequent trouble in providing supplies and in administra-
757
tion generally. The above experience indicated that (a) divisional camps were the most satisfactory, if the requisite space could be found for them; (6) camps of two divisions were possible and good, but a larger number made the problem of administration unwieldy; (c) it was best not to construct the huts upon the actual train- ing ground (as the area of such a cantonment absorbed too much of the useful training space available), but that they should be as
22
J
PARADE GROUND
100 SO O
100 150 100 25O 30O 330 4OO ADO SCO FT.
F I G. 2
I. Officers' Mess. 2. Officers' Quarters. 3. Officers' Latrines. 4. Barrack Block. 5. Ablution, Latrines and Urinals. 6. Cook-house. 7. Wash-up. 8. Dining-room. 9. Bath House. 10. Drying-room, it. Guard House and Offices. 12. Stores. 13. Spare. 14. Coal Yard. 15. Horse Shelter. 16. Harness and Saddle Rooms and Forage Stores. 17. Vehicle Shed. 18. Mobilization Equipment Stores. 19. Dung Pit. 20. Water Trough. 21. Sergeants' Mess. 22. Regimental Institute.
near to the edge of the training land as possible, so as to minimize the time lost in marching from barracks to training ground and home. As regards engineering materials, there was little actual difficulty in obtaining what was requisite, but the presence or absence of an adjacent market made a very notable difference in the cost of the work, an important factor.
(B) System of Grouping. The grouping together of huts to form a hutted camp for an infantry battalion at war strength is shown on fig. I. To provide for such a unit, sixteen different designs of huts are needed, but the same designs grouped otherwise can be arranged for most of the similar units of other arms. It will be seen from the plan that the area occupied, 1,100 ft. by 500 ft., has on its centre line the principal buildings, viz. officers' and sergeants' messes, the shower baths, dining-rooms and cook-house, drying-room for wet clothing, and the canteens and recreation rooms ; while on either side are the living huts, for officers on either side of the officers' mess and for men, two rows of huts on each side with four groups of ablution-rooms, latrines and urinals. This plan was originally designed with the view of providing at first only the huts other than living accommodation, which it was thought might be given in tents. The very short time available in 1914 between the declaration of war and the approach of winter (only three months at most) would only suffice for the messes, and dining-rooms, etc., to be built, giving a reasonable amount of
