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R.E M.E.'s Key Part in Desert Victory

22nd January 1943
Page 40
Page 40, 22nd January 1943 — R.E M.E.'s Key Part in Desert Victory
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This New Technical Corps is Playing a Vital Part in Modem Mechanized Warfare'

WHEN the Eighth Army started its VV great advance last October, the newly formed corps of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers began operations under real battle "conditions.

For weeks before, big R.E M.E. base workshops had worked night ande day on the repair of tanks, guns, lorries and innumerable other items of equip.' merit for the coming offensive, whilst mobile workshops had been wrestling, in the desert, with final adjustments, modifications to existing apparatus, and last-minute repairs.

Its job, when the British guns on the Alamein line began their barrage, was to keep the minefield lanes open for our tanks' advance. For this, the R.E.M.E. recovery section was detailed. Sappers had, of course, cleared tracks through these enemy minefields, but it was inevitable that some of our tanks should either deviate from the proper path, and thus encounter a mine, or should strike one that had escaped detection by the R.E.s.

Such a mischance, 'It was foreseen, was capable of wrecking the whole attack, because a tank with its tracks blown of or otherwise rendered out of action might block the way and render the route useless for'a vital period.

A duty of R.E.M.E , therefore, was

to keep the way clear. To rescue, under comfortable conditions, an ordinary lorry from a roadside ditch is no easy task; but bow much more diffi• cult to extricate, from an awkward pitch, in the circumstances of battle, a 30-ton tank, minus tracks!

Calls for R.E.M.E. began to be received when the advance had' barely started. With mines on all sides and amidst a hail of machine-gun and artillery fire, the recovery equipment hastened to the casualties. Men and machines inevitably were lost, but the lanes were kept clear, The tanks retrieved were quickly repaired by R.E.M.E. engineers, working immediately behind our guns and, in many cases, were sent back into action within a few hours, Wheeled vehicles were also involved in this operation, and the services of R.E.M.E. were also in big demand for

them. In one specific instance certain wheeled tractors became bogged, but a R.E.M.E. Brigadier, with tlpe assistance of a, subaltern, who has since died of wounds worked out the cola-don to this problem. They took the tracks hif captured German tanks and fitted them -to the wheeled tractors, converting them, in this manner, to half-track machines capable of negotiating the existing difficult condition.

As the battle surged forward, new problems had to be faced. Fighting vehicles of all sortslittered the battlefield and attempts' to bring them in by daylight for repair just. drew heavy shelling from the enemy, whilst to do' so by night was almost as hazardous.

'R.E.M.E. .bfficers and N.C.O.s had the job of carrying out reconnaissances to discover whether these derelict machines could be put back into action within a reasonable time, and they made many dangerous journeys, some of them fruitless, with this .object. Whilst a tank, from a distance, might appear to be almost undamaged, nearer examination revealed its interior to have been a flaming crematorium in which its entire crew had perished.

A particularly deadly hazard was. that of enemy snipers who used knocked-out tanks as cover for their nightly work and sometimes remained hidden in them for the day as well. The only solution to this problem was a grenade in each hand and a stealthy advance just before dawn," at which time the sniper was probably tired and less alert,

The officer who made this remark had been captured in a former campaign and had escaped. His own vehicle—a , by-no-means-new Fordson, mounting two Browning machine-guns, a wireless ..set with separate charging plant, and a large German water tank behind the front seat, which is kept

full and so serves as effective protection against low-level machine-gun fire —is known, far and wide,as "Old Faithful." It, too, fell into enemy bands for four days and was then recaptured. To-day it is often to be found, roaming .about No-Milia's-Laud and many a stranded fighting man has blessed its venerable and battered appearance.

There are innumerable tales of individual adventure among the R.E.M.E. personnel in the recent battle. A sergeant, examining a damaged truck, had just put his head under the instrument panel when the top of the cab was shot -away. In one instance of recovery under fire, the winch rope was shot in half, but the job was eompleted an hour later.

A British tank commander begged a R.E.M.E. sergeant to retrieve his tank

from a minefield. The sergeant thought t h e job impossible by daylight but went with the commander to inspect the damage. They intended to extract the tank officer's kit and wireless set, but these wer e shot away before anything further could be done. Following two days of abortive effort, this tank was recovered by night, after three enemy snipers had been located and-exterminated.

A R.E.M.E. workshop collected 40 -capffired vehicles immobilized by the retreating eriemy. Every one of these was running on our behalf within 24 hours. Tank engines were changed in less than eight hours, and one small workshop, which was expected to repair and put back into aCtion three tanks a day, actually averaged 11 during the

height of -.the battle. •

When the enany cracked and the great advance began. R.E.M.E. kept pace with the Eighth Army. In one case 'workshops leap-frogged each. other over a distanCe of 850 miles in 17 days without a hitch in the pre-determined output. Our tanks, travelling by a more direct route,• had to be repaired and maintained over a'distance of BOO miles of desert track. Quite apart from the engine and transmission maintenance there were the guns and wireless sets also, Almost all the senior officers of the R.E.M.E, in the field are young men. At base there is a leavening of seasoned veterans with young ideas. They have every reason to be pleased, but they certainly will not be complacent regarding the first action of their new Corps,

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