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WANTED Drivers and

16th December 1939
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Page 34, 16th December 1939 — WANTED Drivers and
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

tdesmen for the R.A.S.C.

ARELY in the limelight, enjoying, to the public eye, less glory than that attached to the more spectacular units of the armed Forces, but, never theless, as necessary and important to the Army as the foundations to a building, the tributary streams to a river, or the fuel and lubricant to in engine, the Royal Army Service Corps is a branch of the Services to which any man may be proud to belong, and which, inherently, has a strong tie with the commercial-motor industry. It is the road-transport organization of the Army.

The adulation of the multitude is to be won by those who enter fields that appeal to the popular imagination, and which of us does not enjoy basking in the rays of such reward? But the finer character is his who renders service seeking no other prize than the satisfaction of a useful work well done. There is as much scope for heroism in the R.A.S.C. as in the fighting regiments, in the air or on the sea, although there may be less public recognition of it. Let it not be thought, however, that this Corps is wholly devoid of glamour. That is by no means the case despite that its achievements may never have been sung. No one, moreover, need be deterred by the fallacious idea that men join it because they are looking for soft jobs. There are, no doubt, soft jobs to be had, but there are worthy ones as well. The " Any Sloper's Cavalry" is a joke as dead as the dodo. The Corps is absolutely without stigma. Did not His Late Majesty King George V confer, 20 odd years ago, a great honour upon the then Army Service Corps by adding the prefix " Royal "to its name?

In respect of numbers, it is the third strongest branch of the British Army, a.nd between 1914 and 1918 showed the biggest increase of any. First comes the infantry (with 1,750,000 rank and file in 1918 and 140,000 in 1914), next the Royal Artillery (530,000 and 26,000), and, thirdly, the R.A.S.C. (320,000 and 6,300). The difference, however, between the peace-time strength and

its estimated ultimate war-time strength is such that only 11 per cent. of the personnel, when the expansion is complete, will be " regulars."

Such an increase demands an immense influx of men. Equipment, we understand, is constituting no serious problem, and there is no conspicuous shortage of unskilled workers, but the real need is for skilled men— particularly drivers.

Drivers and tradesmen are wanted. P.S.V. and H.G.V. licence holders, fitters, turners, other machine operatives, blacksmiths, tinsmiths and coppersmiths, electricians, carpenters, Coach-trimmers, coach-painters, welders, vulcanizers, draughtsmen and technical clerks are in great demand to join the R.K.S.C. to work at their trades, at home or abroad, at advantageous rates of pay.

It is the finished product that is most-required, not learners to be trained. In a matter of weeks a man can

be drilled and made fit; he can fairly quickly be taught how to usea gun or a searchlight. Often he can, in no great lapse of time, be made a driver or even an aircraft pilot; but it is virtually impossible rapidly to impart the arts of the trades which are normally acquired during a long apprenticeship.

To become fully proficient in the use of the file, the lathe, the hammer or the saw, one should start at an early age, and it cannot be done in a hurry. Masters of A34 crafts such as those typified by these tools are specialists and proportionally valuable. In other fields than those which they can call their own they would be wasted.

Even greater, as suggested above, is the need for good drivers, who, it is sometimes said, are born not made. Whilst there is much truth in this statement, it is a minority who are proof against the abilities of the Army instructors. Nevertheless, four instructors per 300 men, if the percentage holds, are patently incapable of keeping pace with the demand.

Men who need no instruction and men who can, themselves, instruct are what the Corps requires. Machines are being turned out more quickly than qualified men are becoming available to man them. It is from the ranks of the heavy and light road-transport industries that one may expect the necessary personnel to. be forthcoming.

The work of the Corps, in general, is to transport supplies, personnel and ammunition, but not guns; these are the affair of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. It provides, drives and repairs mechanical. transport vehicles of R.A.S.C.. units and of certain other

non-fighting ones, such as medical and bridging units. These functions include building and equipping certain special bodies, receiving vehicles from manufacturers, distributing them and acquiring, storing and distributing spares. There is now no horsed transport in the Corps at all.

-Somewhere in England an anonymous contributor to this paper was privileged, on an unspecified but not long-distant date, to witness a demonstration of the activities of this Corps and to learn something of its present work and size, which are vastly different (he writes from personal knowledge) from the days of 1914-1918.

Some of the accompanying pictures are representative of the functions of the modern R.A.S.C., and men with road transport in their blood can hardly fail to have their interest aroused by its scope and methods. We do not propose to describe the demonstration or the splendid depot visited--virtually an engineering works and with its operatives working under unquestionably good conditions—but certain items are well worthy of mention.

For example, a mobile workshop had been established and its staff were seen all busily engaged at their various trades. The outfit comprised two Thornycroft vans with opened-up sides and extended canopies—one a machine and fitting shop and the other a material and tool store—a crane lorry of the same make and a lighter vehicle under repair. Forge, welding equipment, carpenter's bench, etc., were .erected on the ground beside the vehicles. It was a scene of orderly activity.

Without warning, a whistle issued the instruction to cease work and move off. In eight minutes the workshop lorries were closed, the curtains and framework dismantled and stowed away, the equipment on the ground was loaded on board, the vehicle under repair hitched to the crane with its front wheels lifted: the men were de-overalled, uniformed, lined up L and dismissed, and the entire outfit was ready to move off— a slick piece of work, done without confusion and by men .who, we are told, had not had much Army training.

Interest attaches also to the variety of types of vehicle operated and, in some cases, equipped by the R.A.S.C. They range from motorcycles (a building was visited in which there were 2,000) to six-wheelers and trailers, including general-service cars, light vans, ambulances (largely Morris-Commercials and Austins) and vehicles for special purposes.

One small unusual type was a Scanimell three-wheeler with small lorry body for use solo or as a trailer, and undoubtedly a very handy little unit.

There was an Albion equipped for X-ray work, with

a water-sterilizing trailer in tow. Examples of A.C. and Hands two-wheeled trailers were noticed complete and being equipped for this purpose.

Two Albion six-wheelers were seen adapted for pontoon-bridge building. There was a Bedford carrying a large Vincent horsebox body, a fire tender of the same make towing a. Dennis trailer pump, a Leyland fire-engine finished in red and chromium plate in contrast to the prevalent khaki and camouflage, a Morris-Commercial loudspeaker van used for recruiting and other purposes—possibly, but we hope not, to replace the military band---and a Fordson utility car. Excellent working conditions are afforded by the actual workshops, and the high standard of the equipment suggests that everything practicable is done to promote efficiency. Some of the views on the preceding pages give a good impression of the style in which the Corps conducts the functions it performs. Clearly, the standard will not be so good in all its many repair depots, but the pictures indicate that those responsible devote adequate care to the provision of all the necessary appliances.

There is, indeed, practically no limit to the work that can be undertaken in these repair shops, and a characteristic of the rriilitary engineers is to tackle anything, making the equipment ii necessary. The

writer remembers how, during the war of 1914-18, a cylinder block was successfully rebored with a tool made from a block of hard wood fitted with a' cutter.

Between 1914 and 1918, as stated earlier, the R.A.S.C, grew from 6,300 strong to 320,000. At the outbreak of this war its strength considerably exceeded the former figure, but the expansion in progress now to fulfil the war-time commitment is to a figure greatly in excess of

the latter. .

We doubt whether it is fully realized in our industry that such a large number of skilled men can be absorbed by this Corps. Whilst the manufacturing side is unlikely to be able to supply them, it is a fact that on the operating side there has been a big reduction of activity. Distributors and repairers, too, have lost business, although more in the private-car than in the commercial-vehicle fields, Accordingly, the personnel for the R.A.S.C. should be available and should welcome the opportunity to enter it.

We ask readers to assist us, in functioning in a recruiting capacity, by circulating this information and giving publicity to the needs of the road-transport organization of the Army.


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