TRANSPORT'S PART IN THE ARMY EXERCISES.
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A Résumé of its Activities During a Two-Day "Battle."
AFURTHER and still more important demonstration of the undoubted value of mechanical road transport for the ammunition and ration supply services of the Army took place on Thursday and Friday of last week, representatives of The Commercial Motor being in attendance at the invitation of the War Office.
Owing to Press arrangements, we are unable to deal fully with the proceedings in this issue, but we give a brief resume of the general programme, and will follow this in our next issue by an illustrated description, which will deal with the intensified use of mechanical road transport following the lessons learnt during the last great conflict. The previous articles dealt with the divisional transport and exercises with these, but the matter with which we are now concerned was on a much greater scale, and included the supply of actual ammunition for the 4.5-in., 3.7-in. and 18-pounder guns, as well as the transport of food and fodder for men and horses.
One of the most, important features was the great distances traversed by the vehicles. For instance, in the case of ammunition supply, this was carried in 3-ton A.E.C. and Thornycroft lorries from the neighbourhood of Basingstoke to a refilling point some four miles north-east of Petersfield, where the ammunition section was met by 30-cwt. pneumatic-tyred vehicles of the new subsidy type, the ammunition being transferred to the latter and then conveyed to the neighhourhood of Elsted, considerationsregarding the number of vehicles of the latest type available and the difference in the load-carrying capacity between the two types of vehicle necessitating a double jourlacy, which would not be required or desirable under service conditions, except where very short distances were to be traversed.
At a point near Elated the light lorries of the ammunition company of the divisional train were met by horsed transport vehicles of the divisional ammunition column, which then transferred the loads to the firing line at the north side of the Hog's Back, much of this work being performed after dark.
Reference to a map will show that the 3-ton vehicles, forming the ammunition section of a maintenance company, had to run some 60 miles to the refilling point, and the light lorries also put up a big mileage, the whole scheme forming an excellent test of the capabilities both of vehicles and drivers.
So far as the transport of rations, etc., were concerned, the headquarters of the ammunition company and the supply company were at Bra,mshott Common, whilst the headquarters of the first divisional train were at the Jolly Farmers' Inn, Puttenham, close to the Hog's Back.
There was a great amount of aerial activity, giving a valuable conception of the extent to which mechanical transport must be camouflaged in order to avoid observation, and spread out when in motion to reduce the risks of concentrated damage due to bombing and machine-gunning from the air.