. What America did; a record of achievement in the prosecution of the war . operating of hun-dreds of miles of track, lumber for the building ofbarracks for the thousands of workmen, dredges,cranes, steam shovels, tools and materials of everysort—almost all had to be shipped from the UnitedStates and unloaded at the small, congested Frenchports, which were being enlarged and developed allthe time that this work of unloading was going on inthe cramped and crowded space. In all, more than a dozen French ports were usedby the American Government and in each one moreor less expansion and developme
. What America did; a record of achievement in the prosecution of the war . operating of hun-dreds of miles of track, lumber for the building ofbarracks for the thousands of workmen, dredges,cranes, steam shovels, tools and materials of everysort—almost all had to be shipped from the UnitedStates and unloaded at the small, congested Frenchports, which were being enlarged and developed allthe time that this work of unloading was going on inthe cramped and crowded space. In all, more than a dozen French ports were usedby the American Government and in each one moreor less expansion and development had to be done tomake it serviceable, and in all the more importantones a very great amount of development work wasinstituted and carried through at breakneck much was done that through the last months ofthe war it would have been of little strategic value tothe Germans if they could have gained possessionof the Channel ports of France, for which they hadstriven mightily in order to cut off communicationsbetween England and the British armies in the field,. MAINTAINING THE ARMY IN FRANCE 73 for by that time there was room for them also at themore southerly ports. St. Nazaire was opened firstand was followed by Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, LaRochelle, Rochefort, Rouen, Marans, Tonnay-Cha-rente, Marseilles and others. St. Nazaire, through which poured immense num-bers of American troops and vast quantities of sup-plies, in the early summer of 1917 was a sleepy littlefishing village with a good natural harbor which wasused only by occasional tramp steamers and coast-wise shipping. The berthing and unloading facili-ties were meager, small, old and dilapidated. Theharbor basin was dredged and enlarged, piers werebuilt affording three times the former berthing ca-pacity, the unloading facilities were mutiplied byten. At Bordeaux, in June, 1917, there were berthsfor seven ships and no more than two ships perweek could be unloaded. Dredging and constructionmade it possible
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
