A Three-ton Load of Shell.
Page 15
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—And the Tale of How it was Unloaded.
These messages have been submitted to and censored by the Press Bureau, which does not object to their publication hat fakes no responsibility for the correctness of the statements contained therein.—ED.
A fortnight ago, in order to draw a lesson with regard to the necessity of discipline for recentlyenlisted civilian drivers, we quoted the case in which a loaded ammunition motor wagon had been destroyed, with its freight, owing, it was believed, to the lighting of a pipe whilst the petrol tank of the machine was being filled. This incident was, as we say, only quoted by us in order to point a moral. Since then, however, information has come to our hand which it may not be uninteresting to place before our readers as an historical incident in conelection with the A.S.C., M.T., on active service. We have been fortunate to interview Lance-Corpl. Hamilton, who was with the 47th Co. A.S.C., M.T., in an ammunition-column section when the incident, which we so briefly reported, happened. Lance-Corpl. Hamilton is now back in this Country, and will go out again as a commissioned officer. We may perhaps best tell of the blowing up of this load of heavy shells in our informant's own words, carefully deleting anything which we consider should be so treated.
"The wagon in question was one of a column section which was carrying ammunition of all sizes to a certain point in the northern field of operations. We were standing by in a grass-covered place in a famous and historic city in Northern France ; it was in the evening—to be accurate about S.30 p.m.—and, in accordance with regulations, all the men were on their lorries, the N.C..0.'s and officers in the immediate vicinity.
"A three-ton Albion, which, in civilian life, belonged to Shipstone's Brewery, of Nottingham, was being filled up with petrol, and a three-ton B-type Daimler, carrying steel drums of petrol, was backed up sideways to it during the operation. By some means, which 1 do not think has been definitely established, although, of course, there has been an official inquiry, the petrol caught fire. We all suspected it was from a light accidentally thrown down by a civilian. There was a blinding flasht and as we rushed up, some of the smaller ammunition began to pop off.
"Our first thought was that we were being shelled by the enemy, or perhaps by a Zeppelin even. Anyhow, all our efforts were at once concentrated on getting the Daimler away, and, as hard luck would have it, we could not get that engine to start. There we were struggling with ignition and carburetter, with these small shells going off all round us like so many fireworks, and every moment we were expecting the bigger ones to join the chorus.
"Luckily the other vehicles in the section were well out of range ; they were removed still further away, and, after a few moments' further efforts, we decided that the only thing to do was to try and push the Daimler out of harm's way. This we did, and then a further effort started up the engine. I have a shrewd suspicion that we had forgotten to switch on before that. You can bet that we were not long rushing away out of that place. "We could do nothing on earth to save the Albion, which was well alight and the centre of a very fierce artillery display on its own account. We got round the corner of seine houses and watched. In the end the whole of a load of 120 80Ib. shells, with the exception of 17, which were blown off the lorry—and were subsequently buried by us with great care, I might add, was destroyed. One house was blown to bits, and pieces of shell were found all over the neigh
bourhood. In one instance a French gentleman showed me a piece of shell which had fallen into his dining-room, while they were at a meal, half a mile from the scene of the trouble.
"The fire started at 8.30, and finished at 10.30. A French fire-brigade detachment arrived half-way through, but, of course, it was powerless to do anything ; they could only stop round the corner and watch like we did. It was a most unfortunate incident and an exciting one. Of course, the loss of material was serious.
" That was the end of a very good three-tonner. This ex-brewery Albion had been doing wonderfully good service I can say from my own observation. It was satisfactory, at any rate, to know that no lives were lost and only two men were damaged, both of them suffering from burns—one severely." In connection with the same incident, it may be interesting to reproduce part of a letter received from Private Streets, 47th Co., A.S.C., M.T., of the column to which the wagon was attached.
"It will interest you to know that Shipstone's three-ton lorry has gone for good. It happened while the petrol tank was being filled, and it blew up, also igniting the heavy shells that were on board. This created a pretty good mess. The people near by were tremendously alarmed, and some of the men were made prisoners by the police, as they thought the Germans were here. Windows were smashed and a tree blown down, but no one was fatally hurt.
"My car is going splendidly, and I have not had a single trouble yet., It is the same one I took from the Nottingham Brewery. I have had to take the governor off, as we had a brush with some Uhlans we accidentally ran into, and want to be able to show a clean pair of heels if necessary. "There are some tremendous hills here. We have a good many out here, but at first they cracked up lamentably, one fault being in particular the weakness of the springs, and another the propeller-shaft couplings. "We had a very rough time at first, and how the convoys got through is a mystery to me. We were complimented by General French on the work we had done. The roads in some places are good, but where there have been thousands of troops on the move, they are in a terrible state." A.W.W.