*On the Beach
Page 66
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As today is the 25th anniversary of the Normandy landings which marked the beginning of the end of the 1939-45 War this has been an appropriate week to be reading Citizen Soldiers, which has just been published by the Royal Corps of Transport. This is not a "war book" but a balanced review of the part played by various classes of "spare-time" soldiers over the period from 1859 to 1965.
During what may be described as the motor transport era the contribution by the Territorials and the Supplementay Reservists has been enormous. Many of the older generation will recall the great numbers of goods and passenger drivers and mechanics from the transport industry who enrolled before 1939 and whose technical competence proved so valuable particularly at the outbreak of war. The book deals faithfully with the volunteers of the Royal Army Service Corps and Royal Engineers Transportation and Movements who were the predecessors of the Rd.