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From Railhead to Rendezvous.

20th August 1914, Page 32
20th August 1914
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 32, 20th August 1914 — From Railhead to Rendezvous.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Although many people realize by now that the first Expeditionary Force of the British Army has a great array of motor transport with it on the Continent, few, we imagine, understand the actual duties of such units on active service. The following article is intended to enlighten them.

Not the least interesting of the many varied duties that have fallen to the lot of representatives of this journal from time to time have been those associated with the manceuvres of the British Army in past years. These annual fixtures have, of course, been punctuated with pleasant circumstances, and whilst characterized by the keenness of all those with whom we were brought into association, there was a genial, pleasant, openair atmosphere which rendered them particularly attractive.

We, of course, were always attached to the Transport and Supply Columns of what were as a rule the Blue, the Red, the Brown, or the White Armies, respectively, and now those columns of motor vehicles, those miles and miles of miscellaneous horsed transport, are engaged in real business at last. Their work, this time,is being extended to the frequent conveyance of troops.

The Wherewithal to Keep Troops Fit and Well.

We speak with real knowledge when we renrd our impression that the Army Service Corps' officers and men will not put up the least of the favourable records on active service. We have watched their organization in the field, in all its hundred and one details, for quite a number of years past, and the keenness of the executive officers

and men to profit by the newer methods which the commercial motor has rendered possible has been a remarkable feature of the training in recent years.

The man in the street, thousands of him now enlisting or enlisted and fated to know more of the machinery of a great army in motion than ever he did before, as a rule has but the faintest conception of what it means to keep hundreds of thousands of troops fit and well, supplied with the wherewithal to march, to think and to shoot. He has not seen the miles and miles of stationary transport, wagons and carts, loaded, almost to over balancing one would think, with equipment as to detail of which it would be impossible for the mere civilian to make a list, And these strings of horsed wagons and carts held up perhaps for hours, well to the rear of firing lines, miles behind the cavalry screens, waiting very often from early dawn to have the word back front the front where the next rendezvous shall be and where the troops will be most likely, so far as it is possible to anticipate, to require their next supplies.

The Housemaids of the Army.

The housemaids of the British Army, as they are often called, with but scant courtesy, by their comrades, are remarkably efficient, and have astonished us mostly by the fact that their methods are so flexible, that they can cheerily put UP with alterations to their plans sent to them at the last moment time after time, necessarily, of course, because it is impossible from hour to hour to tell how the tide of warfare will set, and where it will be possible for the troops to rest, even temporarily, next, The public must know, of course, that tens of thousands of men require quite a lot of feeding, that their camp equipment wants a lot of carrying, and that the ammuni. tion itself must be constantly replenished, but it is probable that it cannot conceive how such services are maintained.

Fed by the Transport.

Until a few years ago food and fodder, and all the munitions of war, were carried towards the front solely by endless strings of horsed wagons from the depots in the rear. _Naturally such transport was strictly limited in its area of operations, and this reacted, of course, very seriously upon the combatant forces themselves. Those in charge of offensive or defensir3 movements have to consider the allimportant question of how such movements will react upon the lines of communication, or, in other words, the guarded routes over which are pouring the supplies wiCi which to keep the troops themselves fed and armed. Although slow and limited as to length of journey, as well as to loadcarrying capacity of each unit, this service did its work well for years. With the coining of the self-propelled vehicle, however, it was soon realized that the whole of this transport might be revolutionized to the unending benefit of military .operations as a whole. So, after several years of trial and error, and experiments of all kinds, it has now been proved definitely that the big „army transport wagon or its equivas lent impressed civilian brother can and does effectively bring up sup plies from railhead which may be even as far as 60 miles to the rear

of the line of defence. In a cosuptry

where roads are good and frequent, it can accommodate itself to change of front, to quick advance or rapid retirement with the maximum of ease, a consideration of vital im portance.

Think for a moment of the relief which this has brought to the corn. batant officers. It is true that the lines of communication to be guarded may have to be longer ones, but there is not now the same anxiety as to miles of slow, lumbering horsed transport aloeen-bloc over endless stretches of road 10 or 15 miles to the rear, slow to get marshalled and slow to move, and, in the event of mishandling, prone to the most dispiriting of muddles.

Steam Tractors in 1910.

Special tests were first made by the W.D. with steam-driven tractors with one or two wagons behind them. Special couplings were devised to enable such units to haul the ordinary military pattern of transport wagon. We well remem.. her, in the autumn of 1910; in the Long Valley at Aldershot, ranks of steam tractors, sizzling in the glaring sun, hired from contractors all over the country, all of them of the 5-ton type, being detailed to maintain the first regular mechanical service between railhead and Transport and Supply columns proper. Tractors were not thereafter used in the same manner.

It was not long before the responsible officers came to the conclusion that the petrol-propelled, self-contained lorry of considerable carrying capacity offered advantages for work of this class that could not be obtained with any other known type of mechanical unit. A special column of steam wagons was experimented with in the manoeuvres in the East of England two years ago, and, of course, they hauled their loads admirably, but there were difficulties inherent to military operations in respect of water and coal.

A Tale of Cody.

The wagons were given some of the worst railway coal to burn, and we can recall an incident that may

be well worth the retelling on the present occasion. A fine column of perhaps 16 Foden steam wagons, all of them burning very dirty coal, had been rendezvoused in a carefully-selected and remote lane in a well-wooded district. The transference of their loads to horsed transport was taking place when the late Colonel Cody, on one of his " cathedral " aeroplanes, acting for the opposing army, flew calmly

and serenely over us, having, as we learned afterwards, detected our presence by the rising of 16 vertical columns of thick black smoke into the atmosphere, thus revealing our presence in spite of the carefully hidden, thicklywooded roadway that had been chosen. That was for all practical purposes the end of steam transport in connection with the actual maintenance of supplies from railhead to rendezvous. Steam still does mach useful work, however, in connection with travelling work_ shops and the A.S.C. headquarters stores.

The Great 1915 Test.

Last year the British manoeuvres, which, by the way, were then expressly called "An Army Exercise," had amongst their principal objects that of testing the Transport and Supply columns with the latest schemes. In some quarters the whole exercise was amusingly dubbed "the Petrol Manoeuvres." Petrol was in evidence everywhere. Staff officers, umpires, general staff, distinguished visitors, transport and supply. columns, and the flying corps, all were using petrol, and spirit was indeed on its test.

Railhead 60 Miles Away.

So far as the motor transport was concerned, it acquitted itself admirably. It was found possible to act with complete efficiency from a railhead even so far back as 60 miles from the rendezvous. The Army's own lorries, together with columns of hired transport, which latter were, as a matter of fact, not noticeable for their standardization, nor indeed in some eases for the efficiency of their maintenance in the pa.st, were loaded up over night with the stores which had been requisitioned from the front the same day as being required for the morrow. With daybreak they were all on their way in perfect order, with waybills carefully filled, and their loads ear-marked for specific units of the troops, to a rendezvous the position of which had been brought back by despatch riders from the Transport and Supply officers at the front. There perhaps they might have to wait for a few minutes, but again this delay might extend to a matter of hours, until the officers at the front could say with approximation where they should proceed a few further miles to meet the empty returning horsed transport. Then, with perfect order, arrived at this rendezvous, they would extend to the front along one side of the chosen road, until the awaited horsed wagons from the troons themselves arrived in the opposite direction, and pulled in next to the wagons which had their stores on board. These were rehearsals.

Transference of loads and careful checking were carried out in all the instances which we have in mind with remarkable promptitude and system, all this being done, of course, in some protected spot well behind the active lines. The cavalry transport always has to go much further ahead than that for other divisions of troops. It has usually to cover many Inure miles from railhead than do those for the other troops.

Trials on the Road.

"Rendezvous" completed and loads transferred, the wagons are promptly swung round, either over a, loop road or at a cross-road, to proceed in column of convoy back to railhead ; there they pick up overnight further supplies from the goods yard. The food and supplies taken out on one day are for use on the next, so that it will be seen there is always a day's food on the way to the troops, in addition to the supply their own horsed transport had with them. This method, in its simplicity, worked admirably. All sorts of experiments were tried, such as changing the rendezvous suddenly, when the motor wagons were well on their way, the passing of these columns of motor wagons along roads already much occupied by thousands of marching troops, the passing of two columns of motor transport on the same roads, a cavalry transport train, for instance, being made to overtake an infantry division train. All of these, and many other operations of which we cannot write, were carried out with commendable precision under our eyes.

It will be seen, therefore, that the motor wagon is used to link the troops with nearest available and convenient concentration stations,, where supplies can be brought either by rail or by sea, and thence distributed flexibly to any rendezvous selected at an hour or so's notice by those in command at the front, subsequent supplying and distributing into the actual fields and off the roads if necessary being carried out easily by the horsed-transport trains at the front.

Lines of Communication.

The actual camp impedimenta are carried with the Army, of course, on its own horsed wagons. The motor transport serves as a wonderfully efficient connecting link between the fighting army and its nearest base.

We hear much, and always have heard much, of the difficulty of protecting lines of communication. It is the motor wagon in modern warfare which almost solely uses these lines all day and every day. Indeed, reinforcements of troops will nowadays be conveyed in that manner very often as well as the daily supplies of food for the trooper and ammunition for his gun.

A Concluding Word About Fuel.

It may be well to reassure certain doubting readers as to the possibility of these petrol wagons being kept at work on account of fuel-supply difficulties. On that we are able to give a definite assurance, and that must suffice. We must not indicate the adequate means which have been taken to assure the continuance of operation of our Army's motor transport. Each separate wagon carries a large supply—more than enough for a day and a half's hard travelling. The means of replenishing its stocks—of course, at the other end of the journey from the front— are, it is assured, entirely satisfactory. There is petrol in plenty.


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