War Office Activity.
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An Account of the First Practical Experiment of the War Office in the Use of Motorbuses for the Transport of Troops.
News has been plentiful, during the past few months, of the activity that ha, been displayed by the Army authorities in Germany in the 'natter of the utilisation of motor vehicles of all types for the rapid transport of troops and stores, and in the last issue of this journal we had ceetision to chronicle the amount of attention that this enterprise, on the part of their neighbours, had occasioned in the Chamber of Deputies in Paris. Assurances have recently been given by the French Minister of War that his subordinates were busily engaged upon the preparation of practical schemes for the employment of motor vehicles, of both the pleasurecar and commercial types, in the service of the army of the Republic. In view of this activity on the part of several of the Continental Powers, it cannot fail to be gratifying to all those of our own countrymen, who have the ellicieney of our second line of defence sincerely at heart, to realise that the department of the British War Office, which is charged with the initlaCoa and control of no chanical transFort in the service of our own comparatively small army, has by no means been unaware of the possibilities of advantage that lie in the utilisation of the various tYpes of motor vehicles which are being employed in ever-increasing numbers by various industrial undertakings in this country, The tendency on the part of both our Army and Navy " powers that be " often seems to be to allow preliminary experiments in all new fields of activity to be undertaken by other countries—at their expense, be it noted. It must not, however, be too rashly assumed that our own authorities are asleep in all cases, despite the well-worn assurances that are constantly offered to the public by a certain ultrapatriotic section of the daily Press. In instances such as the one we are now considering, it is often a question entirely of money—or the lack a it. There is plenty of initiative available amongst a large section of the departmental chiefs of our own War Office, but the sinews of ‘yar are often pitifully attenuated. We do not err when we ascribe the apparent apathy of the War Office towards the question of the wholesale adoption of motor transport, in all its varying capacities, to armv requirements, to the inability of certain departments to procure the wherewithal with which
to put into execution tests, trials, and experiments the net for which many responsible officers realise only too wel In Spite of the Treasury's Parsimo..y.
Things, however, do seem to be on the mend, and we on, need to remind our readers of the forthcoming War Offic tractor trials, which are to be held in February and Mart next year, and to assure them that a comprehensive schen for the adoption of motor transport on an extensive scale the service of the Territorial establishment of the Army h: been practically decided upon, in order that it may realised that the commercial-motor vehicle and its capabil ties from a military point of view have not been ignore The very practical motorbus-mobilisation test, which wi satisfactorily performed last Friday under the care, so f: as the transport was concerned, of Captain R. K. Bagnal Wild, R.E., the Secretary of the Mechanical Transpo Committee of the War Office, affords a real measure proof that, notwithstanding the fact that the purse striN are held tightly at headquarters, responsible officials cz act effectively.
In the issue of " Tim COMN1ERCIAL MOTOR " of the nal instant, we chronicled an interesting Experiment that hk been performed on the previous Sunday in connection wii the conveyance of a number of men of the 5th Battalion the Essex Regiment of the Territorial Army front Chelm ford towards the coast. Two Clarkson steam omnibuses, motorvan, some private cars, and a number of cycles we employed on that occasion, and the transport over 14 mul. was satisfactorily achieved in good time. This test wt initiated as the result of a problem that was suggested du ing a " War Game " that had been played by the officers the corps, and the experiment completely vindicated ti arguments of those gentlemen whO had declared for tl possibility of rapid transport of this nature. In accident proximity to this enterprise, the long-laid plans of ti Mechanical Transport Committee for the conveyance of number. of troops by motorbuses requisitioned from tl Metropolis came to fruition. On Friday last, the ra instant, to the orders of Captain Bagnall-Wild, 24 mote hoses and a complement of three stores wagons as tende were sent down, in the early hours of the morning, to co vev 500 troops and their equipment to some point in ti neighbourhood of Southend and Shoeburyness, which latt place was presumed to be threatened by invaders.
Last Friday's General Scheme.
The authorities, in order that the test should be carri out under service conditions, had drawn up a genet scheme of operations for the day. An invading army which local imagination was not slow to suppose was G( man—was presumed to have effected a successful landir on the banks of the river Crouch ; the river Roach, tributary, was, for the purposes of the day, labelled as n navigable. The enemy were to be presumed to be makir across country to attack Shoeburyness, whose defenc were for the time being undermanned. A body of tro% therefore, had to be transported with all possible speed reinforce the garrison at Shoeburyness, or, if possible, check the invaders on one or other of the roads lending that direction. The barracks at Warley, near Brentwoo contained the nearest available troops to the threatened di trict, and the scheme of defence provided for the requit tioning of sufficient motorbuses from the depots of ti London General Omnibus Company for transport purpose 24 of these vehicles were to leave London at 5.30 a.m., be ready to "embark " soo men and their equipment \Varies' soon after 8 a.m., and to carry them, in whatev direction the commanding officers thought to be necessar for the carrying-out of the " general idea," Lieut.-Color Massy, of the Norfolk Regiment, was in command column number one, which followed the southern rout and Major Ballard, of the same regiment, had charge • the northern column. Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Pagc was an interested spectator later in the day.
How we Saw the Test.
The clerk of the weather was apparently no less anxious an everybody else that the test should be a thoroughly 7actical one, because the atmospheric conditions provided tick mist and drizzling rain almost all day, whilst the .ad, of a particularly unpleasant and chalky nature, was 1 that could be desired. Although it is to be presumed Lat, in a time of actual warfare, the enemy would not be so :commodating as to warn the London companies beforemd, on this particular occasion Mr. Frank Searle, the def engineer of the amalgamated General, Road Car and anguard Companies, had instructions, a few days before .e one appointed for the test, that he would be required to .rnish a certain number of vehicles which would have to rudezvous in the manner already described. In view of e importance of the results which were anticipated, and .e lessons which would undoubtedly be learned from this .st experiment, Mr. Searle very wisely decided to spend
e day in personal command on the civilian side of the derprise, and he very kindly offered a seat in his private e to a representative of this journal for the day's operaas. Colonel Cobbett, of the Norfolk Territorials, was
e other member of the chief engineer's " detachment," id he materially imparted a cheerful and technicallyterested air to a very strenuous day's experiences. Leaving Cricklewood soon after 4.30 a.m. in his fast de ion-engined Darracq, Mr. Searle picked up his two pasngers at Euston, about 5 a.m., and, after an admirable hibition of skilful control on the part of Robbshaw, the iver, over the treacherously greasy streets from west to st, the Vanguard depot at Upton Park was reached just the vehicles were "parading " preparatory to their leavg for the official rendezvous. So far as the selection and ganisation of the "transport train " was concerned, the .ar Office authorities had purposely imposed no restricins on the company, in the commendable belief that many ;sons were to be learned on both sides of the contract. !ft very much, therefore, to his own devices, Mr. Searle lborated a scheme of his own, with the assistance of cerin members of his staff : Mr. Field, the new assistant ief ; rr. Fenner who has charge of the recentlyaugurited hiring department of the company ; Mr. 'Hard of the Road Car division; Mr. Turner Smith, who is charge of the Vanguard portion of the company's [ling stock ; and Mr. Johnson, whose particular aim in e seems to be the elimination of " lost journeys ' with sde Dims.
The Start from London.
Orders had been issued to the superintendents of each of
e three amalgamated companies to parade eight similar hicks, and a tender of the same make in the shape of a eakdown lorry, at Upton Park, at 5.30 a.m., and it was is assembly of 27 vehicles all told which was found to be awn up ready for the long day's work ahead, in three aaraie columns of eight motorbuses and an attendant -ry ; 4oh.p. de Dions had been selected to represent the Generals," eight 4oh.p. Strakers came from Mr. Pollard's rds, and the Vanguards were all latest-type Winesiimlers. Two of the vehicles were labelled "Ambulance," d one bore the legend " Staff." The Daimlers had been ipped of their route and service number boards, but. the Dions and Strakers still bore evidence of their workaday rilian service in the shape of " Hammersmith and Shore:eh," or " Liverpool Street and Barnes" route boards, 7-vice-number boards, and traffic letter-plates. On the mote country roads, later in the day, these destination licators formed a subject for much speculation on the rt of the rural population.
Thick mist prevailed, as soon as a start was made, and ? brilliant acetylene lighting of the Vanguard machines dad considerably to the difficulties of the drivers, who had keep a straight course on an unknown road. It would ve assisted matters, had the drivers extinguished all the -hts on their machines except those necessary to comply th the Motor Car Acts. Several of the Vanguards were 11 a blaze of acetylene, long after the sun had presumably. en on the shortest day but one.
Eaell column, at the commencement of the run, %vas aded by a vehicle that was driven by a man who knew ? road out of London, hut it was not long before, aided the thick mist which was almost a fog and an inability realise the danger of driving fast on the very " greasy "
surfaces of unknown roads, a spirit of emulation overcame most of the drivers, and it was clear that a rush was likely to ill! made to get the de Dions of one branch of the company at me rendezvous before the Daimlers and Strakers of the other departments. This had not been anticipated, and in nil probability would not have developed had it not been for tile isolation afforded to each driver by the all-enveloping mist. The difficulty of " shepherding "a number of vehicles such as these constituted, under such adverse climatic conditions, had to be witnessed to be believed. Mr. Searle, immeuiately he realised what was happening, did his best to stop the wild rush with no uncertain hand; but, thanks again to the mist, the drivers of two Daimlers and a de Dion were " first past the post" at Brentwood, and, until the " chief " arrived, they seemed quite to have enjoyed themselves. judging by the order in which the cars ran into the main street of Brentwood, passing and repassing had been going on merrily all the way down. The most astonished man that morning was the policeman on earlymorning duty in Brentwood, when 27 buses and lorries suddenly appeared out of the mist and lined up, and the drivers, snatching a hurried breakfast, took a look at their engines. One casualty was reported at this point, and that was a most unusual case—a change-speed lever on a Daimler had broken; but this was subsequently " put into splints," and the vehicle joined the ranks again soon after.
The Actual Experiment.
At Warley, sop men— four companies of the 1st Norfolk, and one company of the 7th Essex Territorials—were paraded at the side of the road which runs past the barracks. The men were drawn up in detachments of twenty-five, with an officer and their equipment, at distances of about twenty yards apart. The vehicles were driven up in line opposite these detachments, which boarded the machines soon after 8.30 a.m. It had been previously decided by Captain Bagnall-Wild that only six men aside could be seated inside the cars, as the soldiers were in full marching order. Half of them carried 150 rounds of ammunition each, and the others had go rounds and entrenching spades and picks. All had blankets, full kits, and a day's rations, and each motorbus carried moo rounds of spare ammunition per man, and spare rations. The top-decks had to accommodate 14 men, and a Maxim was carried for each eight vehicles. For service reasons, -the three columns settled by Mr. Searle for his organisation purposes were rearranged as two columns by the officers commanding, and these two columns were instructed to follow different routes. The first column was to proceed to Horndon, Orsett, Stanford and Pitsea, and the second column was to take a more northerly route through Billericay, Crag's Hill, Wickford and Rayleigh. This subsequent redistribution mixed the types, and the adoption of two routes added to the difficulty of assisting lame ducks. Under service conditions, army columns always follow different routes where practicable, and with such large transport units on narrow country roads the wisdom of this method was evident. A serious breakdown across a lane would have jeopardised the success of the whole scheme, had all the vehicles followed one route, and Mr. Searle was quick to perceive the improvements he could effect in the organisation of his breakdown train to meet this circumstance. As luck would have it, another very unusual mishap occurred at the outset, when the Straker lorry twisted a sprocket shaft clean off behind the chain pinion, and this reduced the repair equipment seriously, as the vehicle and its load of stores had temporarily to be abandoned at Warley. The two divisions eventually joined at Hadleigh cross roaus.
A Few Mishaps.
By some misunderstanding on the part of a driver, column number one, which was composed of Daimlers and Strakers, was followed by the two remaining breakdown wagons, with their loads of carefully-selected spare parts, oil, grease, petrol and stores of every conceivable nature, and, by good fortune, this was the column which had the only real trouble of the day. On the outward journey, no less than four machines of this division were steered off the road by their drivers into the ditch at the side. The road surface was badly .cut up; mud there was in plenty and to spare; the travelling was very heavy indeed, and the thick white mist added considerably to the difficulties of the columns, and slowed the average speed of the whole transport by several miles an hour. The heavy wide tracks left by the twin tires made it a fairly easy matter to " follow the leader "; it was well that this was so, as during the early part of the day it was seldom that more than those upon two machines were visible to each other at any one time. In each of the four cases of " ditching " in column one —and there was a similar one in column two, five in all-the mishap was due to the driver's locking wide, and foolishly running on to soft ground at the side of the road, with his heavily-weighted machine, in order to pass other vehicles. Some of the men did not seem to appreciate the difference between driving up to a solid curb on a solid road and venturing on to the sides of loosely-packed, narrow, secondary roads in the country. This was one of the most important lessons that had to be learned by experience, and it was remarkably soon learned ; later in the day, the tracks were noticed seldom to deviate from the crown of the road, and no " ditching " occurred on the return journey. A Vanguard, when coming up a stiff hill on the return road, crushed through the actual road surface, and went in up to the axles on the near side, but this was no fault of the driver, who had unfortunately for him, been one of the casualties earlier in the day. Three Vanguard Daimlers and two Road-Car Strakers had to be towed out, and they were all rescued in quick time under the personal direction of Mr. Searle, who, there is no doubt left in the mind of the writer, takes a perfectly savage delight in breakdown work. An interesting feature was the fact that no one of the nine de Dions was ditched, nor, indeed, were these machines in any trouble whatever : their lightness of construction and excellence of design enables them to undertake most strenuous work of all kinds. They have once more proved themselves to be excellent vehicles.
The few other casualties were only cases of " slightly
wounded Daimler with a faulty igniter, and a few overheated engines on the hills. There were several stiff ones on the routes—say, 20 miles each way. The two columns joined at Hadleigh cross roads, soon after noon, with four machines following strongly, although far in the rear, after having been towed out of ditches by the breakdown wagons; in one case, with two lorries Low irig and its own engine running, it was only just possible get the stranded machine out. A motor-cyclist scout h a bad collision with a cart, and wrecked his machine.
The General Scheme a Success.
Several miles before Hadleigh, motor-cyclist scouts k sighted the enemy, and the troops were quickly "C embarked" and extended across the fields ; this operati■ of course, was merely a formality, and the return jourt was soon commenced. Barracks were reached by all machines, soon after five, although one member of expedition was heard to enquire why the authorities wan to go to Southend to fight a battle, and to get back in ti for teal
On the whole the experiment was satisfactory ; it I been carried out under very severe conditions, and it p sided invaluable data for both civilians and soldk Collaboration had, on purpose, been little indulged betvo the London General authorities and Capt. Bagnall-W The absence of serious mechanical failures was prai worthy ; the chief troubles arose from lack of judgment the part of the drivers, a fact which reveals the absol necessity for rehearsal. No skidding took place: this f was carefully verified, and the ditching in all cases was 4 to other causes. That the times were comparatively p was due to several causes, amongst which may be m tinned the strangeness and novelty of the whole proceed to all concerned, the presence of the thick mist and rs and the extreme heaviness of the roads; all these conditi are not likely always to be present.
Some ReIlections.
The distances to be kept and the speeds to be obser will have to be much more carefully ordered. The speet: the column must be that of the slowest machine, and breakdown lorry must " shepherd" the lot. Types m be concentrated so far as is possible, and " stations " m be kept en route, as in the Navy, at settled distances, wl: should be sufficient to avoid the necessity for a whole; " changing dawn" along the line when one vehicle front temporarily slows down slightly. A spare veh should be run to every eight or ten, so that mishaps of kind can be relegated to the care of the breakdown wag The conclusion was arrived at that the motorbus body is no means of a convenient shape for the transport of tre and their equipment, and the suggestion that was m that food might be carried for the drivers seems to m attention for several important reasons.
In view of the obvious and outstanding lesson to be drs from this test, viz., that rehearsal must be made of s operations in peace time if such means as are provided to be useful in time of war, and in view of the " ditchin which took place, it seems of particular interest to quol few prophetic remarks made by the Editor of this jou' during the discussion on a paper entitled " Power Trac on Roads for National Defence" which was read by 4 Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, R.C.B., in February, 1907, at Royal United Service Institution. In the course of Shrapnel! Smith's remarks, the following passage was ported in the Proceedings : " Anything on the lines gested with regard to the organisation of motor vehi for defensive purposes would, I am afraid, be hopeless were not rehearsed in advance. If the motorbus driver London especially were called upon to go from Londoi the Norfolk coast, and to take down twenty or thirty sengers in each omnibus, I am afraid there would k great many catastrophies on the road. . . I know f experience, when such men are driving in the dark, on known roads, a very considerable percentage of cars into the ditch."