Our Despatches from the Front (No. 105).
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A Description of the Organization and Duties a an A.S.C., M.T., Base Depot.
(Continued from page 27.) Destruction of the Base Would Mean Little Dislocation.
The question may pass through the mind as to the result of the destruction of this base upon our transport. A certain amount of dislocation would be caused, but surplus stocks are held elsewhere, and would tide over during reorganization. It . would not be an irremediable matter, except from the monetary point of view. The care taken to avoid fire. is everywhere evident, almost painfully so.
The "Unserviceable Stores."
I have dealt with the outward stream of parts for replacements and repairs. What of the injured parts that have been replaced One may picture them lying about in heaps round the workshops of the various units ; but the actual factds that they are gathered together scrupulously and forwarded to huge department of this depot with as much eare as if they were injured humanity. This inward stream of damaged machinery and parts has been flowing steadily since the first consignment of worn-out bearings from an ola Tasker traeter were eceived earty in N-6.gust 1914 stt
ing what is now called the "Unserviceable Stores" (colloquially known as "The tins"), and is there handled in a specialized manner as if we were an industrial concern in which each department had to be run at a profit.
Gearbox Casing as Radiator Casting.
In these unserviceable stores, specialization is seen in its most modern form. Here is a lorry load of all sorts and conditions of apparent debris just arrived. There a huge load of carefully-packed cases of the more delicate parts. A group of fatigue men pick out what is obviously too much worn, or too badly damaged, ever to be again of use for' the purpose for which it was made ; these are again sorted according to material. Cast metal is utilized for conversion into other .castings, wrought iron and steel sent to the base machine shops for use there. It is not impossible for a gearbox casing to give renewed service as a, radiator top tank. The rest is sorted, so far as possible, before each specialist is called upon to handle his particular type. Seme-times, grease or rust may make in
spection difficult. The part is then put into a large vat of chemicals and boiled.
Shops for Component Parts.
One passes through a shop where engines are assembled ready for another journey of usefulness. Through others, where back axles and front axles are being reerected, and so on through the whole catalogue of assembled and dissembled parts. For the larger assemblies, parts taken from others of similar make replace the broken. ones. One builds up a perfect whole from perfect parts of the broken units.
A Million Demands for Small Parts Over Six Months The number of these larger units, as I remarked before, is happily small. It is the thousand and one others, ranging from •crankshafts to split pins, that one sees around. Remember the 3000 lorries before mentioned demand 1,000,000 small parts per six months, and that the greater number of the parts replaced flow back again through these stores, is then sorted out, tested, repaired, or sent to other depots for use as material, and one understands what a great undertaking is this conservation. Add to this fact that these 3000 vehicles are only a tithe of those used in this vast transport undertaking, and one can realize better what this section is saving the country. The more so when this million items on one particular make of vehicle does not include tires, lamps, horns' and the other acceisories not part of the actual running mechanism.
Parsons' Chains Torn to Pieces in a Day.
The indescaibable roads at Loos tore to pieces the Parsons chains on the wheels of the vehicle I was driving in the first day's run. In. a few days, several tires on each car were cut in such a manner as to render them unserviceable—at least to us. Both tires, tubes and chains found their way here, and reference would enable one to trace both their arrival and their ultimate fate.
Immense Number of Tire Casualties.
• In view of the immense number of tire casualties there must be with all these vehicles, one imagines naturally, but incorrectly, that there must be a vast accumulation. Each tire and tube is quickly inspected by a staff of experts and a report sent back to the unit from which it came. When the tires are repairable, they are sorted out into two lots—one lot repairable by ourselves is at once passed to our own shops handling these repairs, and the lot representing the almost unrepairable is sent to an English firm who had their expert staff and specialized plant over here for this purpose before the war. Our experts are drawn from our own corps. The A.S.C. M.T., covers all branches of the iechnical side of motoring, incidentally also all other branches of knowledge and culture.
Useless Rubber Sold by W.O. Contract.
The useless tires are dealt with immediately, the rubber torn from them and sold by War Office contract ; but not before the valves of the inner tubes are taken out, to be handled and, in their turn, repaired and re issued. Some of these tires have been in use in situations so close to the actual scene of operations that they have been rendered useless by shrapnel.
The Care for Small Things is Noticeable.
There is nothing too small to he conserved, and ta one like myself, who has grown accustomed to former waste at the Front—in directions other than our own transport—the care for small things iermed at first ludicrous, especially when the receipt of half-a-dozen split pins is duly recorded and a receipt given. Really this shows the thoroughness of the system.
A Single Day's Scrapping.
Looking at a large heap of lamps of all sorts—the day's arrival—one gains a vivid grasp of the immensity of our transport. One realizes what a single day's indiscriminate scrapping would mean.
Unit Workshops Keep Debit and Credit Account.
The casualties recovered represent a sum of millions of pounds, and, in common with most other things in this war, are on such a scale that an item unimportant to a man who keeps one vehicle, becomes here a stupendous factor. All unit workshops keep a debit account of parts received from the
depot, and have to balance it by showing a credit of the unserviceable part being forwarded here.
Each Repaired Part is Finally Approved.
The repair shop for vehicles, which is away from the main depot, requires certain replacements for worn parts. They apply first to us —that is, to the " lins." The resuit of all this care and replacement where possible is soon seen. Instead of heaps of debris, one finds orderly reproductions in miniature of the departments in the issuing stores of the main depot ; and, like these latter, bearing the signs of the various makes. As each part is finally approved, it is issued to the main stores.