101 SOME SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS '1'0 CAMP STRUCTURES AND A FEW PRACTICAL POINTS ABOUT CAMPS ON A MARCH. By MAJOR E. W. WADE, D.S.O., R01Jal Army Medical Corps. I HAVE written this article in the hope that it will be of assistance to medical officers going to camp for the first time, as it illustrates certain practical points which I have found out for myself and which if attended to at once save an enormous amonnt of trouble in the end.. We will consider that a battalion is going to do a ten days' march.to a final camp where it is going to remain for a period of weeks or months, and that Lieutenant '~A," R.A.M.C., has been detailed three days before the commencement of the march to act as medical officer to the battalion. (A) DUTIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE BATTALION. (1) He should immediately get in touch, personally, with the O.C., and ascertain the route, camp sites and final destination. If possible he should visit these beforehand with the O.C. and layout the sites in conjunction with him. (2) He should consult the adjntant as to numbers of personnel trained in water duties and sanitary duties and obtain their Army numbers, names and companies. If his water and sanitary personnel are untrained he should at once commence intensive training. He should also ascertain from the adjutant what receptacles are being provided for water sterilization, e.g. water carts, pakhals, metal tanks, etc. He should arrange with him (the adjutant) (a) To publish orders (which the M.O. should draft) on the duties of the water and sanitary personnel; and (b) to issue instructions for all water duty personnel and half the sanitary personnel to proceed with the advance party each day and for the remainder of the sanitary personnel to march with the rear party. This ensures that purified water will be ready in each camp before the battalion arrives, and that the previous camp site will be left clea.n, e.g. all latrines, refuse pits, etc., filled in, and the whole area cleaned up. If a midday halt is being made two sanitary men should march with the main body to provide shallow trench latrines. (3) He should also consult the quartermaster as to the numbers of R.E. structures, latrine buckets, night urine buckets, cooks' tables, refuse receptacles, meat safes, general and hospital tentage, tables, forms, etc., being provided in the final camp. (4) He should see the M.I. room corporal and ascertain from him
102 Some Suggested Improvements to Camp Structures whether he has a 2nd Class Certificate of Education (K.R., 1928, para. 1345), and how long he has been employed on this kind of work. He should check the medical equipment he is taking to camp, not forgetting stretchers, Thomas's splints, blankets, sterilizer, stove, methylated spirit, lamps and any extra equipment required for his hospital, such as urine bottles, beds, blankets, hospital latrine, etc. He should also take all the medical history sheets with him and his two water sterilization cases and see that he has a supply of freshly prepared starch cadmium iodide indicator and plenty of clarifying and water sterilizing powders. (B) DUTIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE MARCH. He should ensure that his medical equipment is easily accessible during the march in case of necessity and make sure that an ambulance is accompanying the unit on the march and for the period at the final camp and that emergency equipment has been included. He should catch up each day with the advance party after the midday halt in order to supervise water. purificatioi\, and to see that the camp sites are laid out as previously decided upon. For this purpose it is essential that be should. take bis car or be provided with a horse. The M.I. corporal should ride in the ambulance and follow behind the main hody. No man should he allowed to fall out without a written permission from his Platoon Commander. The man should then wait on the left-hand side of the road and be picked up by the ambulance when it comes along. Most, if not all, units are very strict about permitting smoking whilst marching, and drinking from the water bottle is not allowed except when the O.C. gives the order. Sick parade should be arranged at such an hour in the morning as will enable all the sick to have been disposed of before the march begins. (C) R.E. STRUCTURES TO BE PROVIDED IN THE FINAL CAMP. The scale of issue and type of appliance is shown in "Engineer Services for Territorial Camps, Types and Scales of Camp Structures for Temporary Camps, Appendix' A,' 1930." It has been found in practice that many of these can be improved upon as follows :- (a) Meat Safes.-These should be of the dimensions shown in the sketch (fig. 1). They should be divided into two halves, one being provided with hooks for hanging joints up to the size of a hind- or fore-quarter of beef, and be provided with a removable metal drip tray on the floor. The other half should be provided with two or three shelves for putting small articles on, such as butter, suet, open tins of jam, marmalade, etc. The walls should be made of perforated zinc instead of hessian canvas as they are far more easily cleaned when they become soiled and the perforations greatly improve the ventilation. As many of these meat
E. W. Wade 103 safes stand in the open, the roof and top half of the walls should be covered on the inside with aluminium foil on asbestos felt with half an inch air space between this and the walls-of the safe. This foil costs lid. per square yard and may reduce the temperature inside 'by some 21 0 F. MEAT HOOKS REMOVABLE METAL D~IP TRA" MEAT 'e FIG.!. -' co J (b) The washing-up benches at the cookhouses and the ablution benches should be of the pattern shown in the sketches (fig. 2.) The advantages of this type are that the ground around and underneath 'the bench is always dry, the water does not shoot over the trough at the lower end, the fronts of the men's trousers do not get wet, one type of WASHING-UP. BENCH r; ABLUTION BENCH. laps IN LINE DOWN CENIRE WHEN USED A5 ABLUTION BENCH. FIG. 2. bench serves two purposes, and the top of the bench being of metal is more easily cleaned..,(c) Bhower Baths.--:The side walls of these baths should be eight feet from the centre in order to keep the clothes hanging on the hooks dry.. They need only be made of hessian canvas instead of corrugated iron as
104 Some Suggested Improvement$ to Oamp Structures only a screen is reqnired. Below the duckboards the floor should be made of corrugated, iron, overlapping by one corrugation and sloping to a corrugated iron channel leading to a grease trap arid soakage pit (see fig. 3). DUCK BOARDS SHOWER BATHS. 16-0" C 1. CHANNEL. FIG. 3. CORRUGATED IRON SHEETS 5l0PINC TO Cl CHANNE.l Some method of providing tepid showers is a great asset 10 most climates. (d) The grease traps are' the greatest source of worry in all camps. The pattern shown (fig. 4), the Coke Trap, is considered the most effective 5 CREASE TRAP. FIG. 4. of all, if constructed according to the dimensions given.. If coke is not available stones or shingle may be used. It must however be 'UJater-tight, and if lined with zinc would be far more easily cleaned than at present. The bottom of the first and third baffles should b~ 1. inch above the
E. W. Wade 105 bottom of the box, no more and no less. There should be a I-inch block of wood fixed at the bottom of the grooves in which these baffles slide. The top of the second baffle should be 1 inch below the surface of the water, no more and no less. All baffles should have a bar of iron along the upper edge to prevent them floating out of position. The second baffle must always touch the bottom of the box. The space between the second and last baffles should be filled with coke to a level with the top of the second baffle. This coke should be changed daily when the baffles are removed for cleaning. The coke which has been removed can be used as fuel in the cookhouse or bath-house. (e) The most suitable type of incinerator is that shown in The Army Manual of Sanitation, 1926, fig. 30, yet how often one finds an open square brick incinerator provided.. 8