TRAVELLING WORKSHOPS.
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By "The Inspector." .
FOR SOME REASON or another I have been told once or twice during the past few weeks that a certain number of fully equipped workshop lorries released from Army Service are obtainable. So far, I have been unable to trace the authenticity of this report, and from myksome-what far-reaching knowledge of •the requirements of the mechanicaltransport organizatiowof the Services, I should be surprised if it did not prove that these rumours were untrue. The Government has been a large buyer of these special travelling repair units from the earliest days of the war. Long before mechanical transport was considered very seriously by the powers that be, I remember that Major Donohue, as 'he then was, and Captain Bagnall-Wild, now, of course, BrigadierGeneral, were both mighty proud of the earlylefforts that had been made to provide travelling.repair shops as a necessary adjunct for such mechanical transport as the Army possessed in those days when manceuvres were the nearest one had got to war. Those early equipments were a cumbersome edition of the neat and compactaequipment that is employed in these days as partiof every considerable column of mechanical transport.
A great many of my readers have no doubt not had the opportunity of inspecting one of these very interesting equipments, although I remember that there was one included in the last Lord Mayor's Show, that excellentItabloid representation of the Empire's military might. It should,.be possible to secure some remarkable tales of repairs effected under very great difficulties from the officers in charge of these mechanical transport workshops, of whom I have already met a number returned from the Front. The Army has never had any too many of the right sort of men in charge of these shops, and if the multitude and variety of the calls upon their ingenuity be properly realized, it is easy to understand why the military authorities were always glad up to the last moment to get hold of new 0.i.c. Workshops of any reasonable capacity, and why they have parted with any they had only with the greatest reluctance.
It may be interesting to recall the general arrangement of these self-contained workshop units. Originally they were designed,exclusively to be carried on the Army's heaviest motor chassis. A body of bulky erection, high enough to enable work to be conveniently carried out under the roof, and with the sides and ends hinged to daop outwards and form allround platform standing places by way of extension to the floor of the shop. It was soon discovered that these equipments mounted on expensive chassis, from the nature of the duties they were called upon to perform, were necessarily at a standstill for a very large proportion of their working hours. The authorities, therefore, after. a while came to the conclusion that it was better to mount them instead on substantial trailers which could be dumped at some convenient place behind the lines, and picked up at a later date by the lorry, which could in the meantime be employed on its own.
The standard equipment broadly consists of a 6-in, lathe, a Luke and Spencer grinder, a petrol driven lighting and power set, generally of the well known Austin pattern, a portable forge, bench, vice and a fine array of portable ,plant, ranging from plumber's lathes to portable drills. The lathe and grinder are driven electrically from the Austin set. Very fine service indeed have these combined plants yielded in all theatres of operation.
When I was told that a few of these shops were purchasable as they were released by the Government service, I also learned that there wore certain people who thought they aould turn such plantS to account as they stood, for civilian purposes. And I imagine thatithere may be not a few special circumstances in which plant of this description might prove to be valuable, particularly in all cases where, owing to the nature of the repair, it was not found convenient or prompt tolundertake anything but repair on the spot. Be that asiit may, I cannot conceive that the Government-is likely to be releasing any of thes ) equipments for a long while ahead. Mechanical transport is now streaming East to the Allies' new frontiers, and wherefthe mechanical transport goes there also must follow the workshop equipment. No doubt bases, on thelines of these great depots established for several years past in centres like Rouen and Amiens will soon be set up at comparable distances behind the new lines, but with the increased travelling now necessary over ithe recovered territories, I should imagine that repairs will be at least as big a task for the workshop officer as they have been in the past.
While I am on this subject, I cannot refrain, now that there is no harm in repeating it, from telling a tale that I heard some while ago, of the despatch of the first travelling. workshop equipment destined to go out with the first batches of Tanks. I believe it happened at Lincoln or thereabouts, and there had been considerable delay and enormous difficulty, not only in getting a decision as to what should constitute the workshop equipment for these new machines but also in obtaining the plant, once something of a decision had been reached. The tale will no doubt be told at length some day, but for the moment I can only repeat that'it caused me great amusement to hear of this workshop unit being finished by a gang of workmen as it was carried on the railway to the port of embarkation for France. The whole thing was a gigantic hustle in order that they should be there in time for the offensive in which the Tanks were to take so great a part in the element of surprise. In the end, as the plant ordered had not matured, one very prominent figure of those early Tank days, with his characteristic initiative, at any rate partially overcoming difficulties of supply, fitted a lathe in the shop that was a lot too long for the floor by building an extension out to support the lengthy bed. He, however, was nearly beaten when, instead of the ordinary portable forge which he had expected, one of the smith's shop variety arrived with a chimney of towering height. The chimney was sacrificed ruthlessly, and the great forge was tucked in somehow and somewhere. A great hustle round the local ironmonger's sufficed to fill up most of the bins with screws and bolts and nails of great variety, if not of the greatest utility.
At any rate, that first workshop went out with the Tanks. I believe, and I expect, although I do not know, that it took its share in that first heroic endeavour during which these new engines of war, untried in real action, created such consternation in the ranks of the Huns and redeemed a hundredfold the .obstinate confidence of those who all along had insisted upon their ultimate practicability. The present great position is in no small sense due to the men who not only got those first Tanks out there in time, but for those same pioneers who took care that they did not go out without their more or less appropriate workshop equinment, contrived in haste as it evidently was.