Chapter 5 THE MOTOR-LORRY CONVOY

Our duties continued daily, with one or two exceptions, in an unbroken monotony for the remainder of the winter, loading the supply lorries at railhead one day and taking them out in convoy the next, to deliver the supplies to the troops who were billeted in the surrounding villages.

What cold journeys those convoy jobs used to be too! The front seat of a lorry leading a convoy, on a frosty, snowy, windy or wet day, is no place for a joy ride, and the only alternative for a section officer, namely, a motor-bicycle on a muddy or dusty road, as the case may be, is not much better. The mud of the trenches in winter has become proverbial, but it is not confined to them: it exists on the roads behind the line as well. It must be seen to be believed! Take any good main country road, that for years has been used merely by a few farmers' carts and periodically perhaps by a small amount of motor-car traffic; suddenly start running over it several hundred heavily loaded motor-lorries, ambulances, general service wagons drawn by teams of four horses, not to mention sundry motor-cars, motor-bicycles, and several batteries of artillery; continue to do this every day for a few months, in winter for choice; let the heavens pour forth torrents of rain, fairly continuously day and night, as was the case during the winter months of 1914; let the road be made on a clay soil and ill-drained, perhaps not drained at all artificially-the one and only result in due course will be a road full of pot holes and ankle-deep with mud and slush. This is no exaggeration; it is exactly what has happened to the roads on which we have to travel behind the trenches. The only wonder is that they have stood such a severe test so well. In summer, of course, they are correspondingly dusty, and it is an open question which is the lesser of the two evils-to get oneself splashed from head to foot with mud, or almost choked with dust. The user of the roads that one pities most, though it must be admitted he appears to be perfectly happy and contented with his job, is the motor cyclist dispatch rider. Clad in leather overalls with map-case hanging from one shoulder, dispatch case from the other, and revolver attached to his belt, he dashes along the worst roads, frequently into the danger zone, wet or fine, day or night, winter or summer, at lightning speed, nevertheless finding time as he goes to salute any officer he may chance to meet or overtake. This he accomplishes by turning his head and eyes smartly in the direction of the officer to whom he is paying the compliment, at the same time proceeding at considerable speed in a direction at right angles to that towards which he has turned his head whilst saluting. Such courtesy surely deserves appreciation from the officer!

Cases of motor-lorries being "ditched" or stuck in thick and squelching mud at the side of the road are not unknown, though, of course, during the succeeding winters they were less prevalent than in 1914, through greater expertness, born of continued practice and more experience on the part of the drivers in handling their lorries. Still, the liability to stick in a convenient ditch is always present in bad weather on narrow country roads, and during the temporary pause of the lorry thus caused, the greater the effort exerted by the driver and engine to extract it, the more briskly the rear wheels revolve in the mud without advancing the lorry, and the worse becomes the "ditching." Non-skid chains that can be easily fitted in such an emergency have proved themselves an invaluable aid. With these securely fixed on the offending wheel or wheels and another lorry in front, attached to the defaulter by towing chains, the latter is soon on the crown of the road once more and able to continue its journey.

All convoys are run strictly in accordance with orders, and the cardinal principles are briefly that lorries running in convoy must keep twenty-five yards, approximately, apart and not travel at a greater speed than ten miles per hour, even this being reduced on passing troops on the march or going through a village or town. Since the convoy must keep together, its speed must therefore necessarily be the speed of its slowest vehicle, and the method of keeping a convoy together and thus preventing lorries taking a wrong road or getting lost is a very simple one. In addition to the driver, each lorry has a driver's mate, who rides inside the body of the vehicle just behind the tailboard, and as soon as the vehicle immediately in rear of him stops, he signals to his driver to pull up. Thus the driver of the lorry immediately in front will receive the same message from his mate, namely, that the lorry immediately behind him has stopped, and in a very few minutes the whole column of vehicles will be at a standstill. Instances of such a stoppage occurred in the event of a lorry in the column suffering from any mechanical breakdown during the course of its journey or meeting with a mishap of any kind on the road. It is also the job of the "look-out" man in the back of the lorry to warn the driver, by means of the communication cord, when vehicles approaching from the rear desire to overtake the convoy, so that the driver can be immediately warned to pull off the centre of the road and thus enable the faster-moving vehicle to pass. The idea of the communication cord is a good one; on these occasions it makes outbursts of fiery language from Staff officers in cars, who are in a hurry, superfluous.

The tendency of drivers of all forms of motor vehicles is, and I suppose always will be, to drive too fast, exceeding the speed limit, whether the nature of the road and other circumstances allow or not. The condition of the roads within the war zone is such that to drive too fast spells broken springs, to mention only one result. Severe disciplinary action has become necessary, and with this in view Assistant Provost Marshals have a way of employing military police with stop-watches in the old and approved method of the Portsmouth and Brighton roads. I heard of one trap which was set on a little stretch of road that was within view and under enemy observation. At this particular spot the military police made some easy captures. All roads are under the supervision of the military police, who direct all traffic. Each army issues a Traffic Map of the area in which it is operating, and this is in possession of all officers in charge of convoys. On it, roads over which, owing to their broadness, traffic is allowed to travel from both directions are marked in a certain way; narrower roads, over which it is only allowed to proceed one way, are otherwise indicated on the map. This road control, though often an inconvenience, necessitating a long detour, in some cases, to reach a certain place, in order to avoid going against the orders, is absolutely essential. Without it, blocks in the traffic, ditching in narrow roads, and consequent delay, would be of frequent occurrence.

All lorries are, of course, inscribed with a W.D. number, duly registered at G.H.Q., and from this their histories can be immediately traced. Different supply columns and ammunition parks choose and register distinguishing marks of their own-almost like trade-marks: the Bee, Bluebird, Black Cat, Bulldog, are all to be seen, to give only a few examples. The origin of these distinctive marks is a matter of some interest. When the 1st Indian Cavalry Supply Column arrived in France in November 1914, there were, of course, far fewer lorries in the country than there are to-day. At this time there was a General Routine Order to the effect that all motor-lorries were to have affixed to the outside of their tailboards a large white card, 15 inches square, with a red danger bull's-eye, 6 inches in diameter, in the centre of the card. Cards of this size and description were accordingly issued, one to each lorry, to be nailed on the back, the idea being that, at night especially, the driver of a lorry would be able to distinguish a lorry in front by the aid of his headlights shining on to the bull's-eye and thus avoid collision. The idea was a good one, but the inventor did not take into account the weather conditions that prevailed during the winter of 1914 in the North of France, for in less than no time the cards became pulp, destroyed by the constant rain. We therefore did away with the cards and painted lasting facsimiles in red and white where the cards had been. But even this was not everything that was required, as the lorries of our Supply Column were not easily distinguishable from those of others. To overcome this, a special mark was painted over the bull's-eye and square. This was the origin of all the distinguishing marks in existence at present amongst the various -- Supply Columns and Parks.

Every lorry and car is equipped with a complement of tools, necessary for adjustments and the carrying out of roadside repairs. The tools are all entered up in the log-book with which each vehicle is provided for the purpose, the driver signing a receipt for them in it, when taking over the vehicle, and having to make good any deficiencies that can be traced to his own neglect when he is transferred to a different vehicle and "hands over" to the driver succeeding him.

The multifarious duties of the motor-lorry convoys continue in all weathers and at all times of day and night. Carrying as they do every imaginable material, from bread and meat to stones and coal, they do not work by time-tables, nor do definite hours end and begin their day's work, so that a high-pressure state of readiness has to be constantly maintained, this being only possible by perfect organization and the closest attention to the most minute details, which can alone pave the way to thoroughness.

The duties of the Army Service Corps in peace-times are many and various, and the inauguration of hundreds of mechanical transport units since the outbreak of war has multiplied in every possible way the duties which previously existed, and considerably enlarged its scope of action and power of assistance to the armies in the field. Its many phases, and the important part that it plays in the commissariat of our armies, cause the Army Service Corps to be an integral part of the fighting machine. From a Departmental Corps it has become an army in itself, with many thousands of officers. Its spheres of operation with the Expeditionary Force in France alone are of such a magnitude as could never have been adequately realized before the war. It will be seen, therefore, that thousands of mechanically propelled vehicles, from motor-cycles to huge tractors, are employed in this vast undertaking. This necessitates supply depots, where are kept stocks of tyres, spare parts, tools, and reserves of all kinds of stores, such as oil, petrol, etc., essential to the maintenance of this huge system in the desired state of efficiency, so that it is capable of promptly satisfying the many and constant demands which are made daily by officers commanding mechanical transport units in the field. The organization now existing does credit to its originators. For the original Expeditionary Force, motor-vans and such-like suitable vehicles were hurriedly impressed, and of them Supply Columns, Ammunition Parks and such-like units were rapidly formed and dispatched to France. So one would, in those early days, frequently meet on the road a convoy composed of miscellaneous vehicles of various makes, brewers' drays, grocers' vans, etc., still bearing the names, in blazing letters, of their former owners, and the nature of the load they had previously carried. The London General Omnibuses and their drivers, which were previous to the war subsidized by the Government, continued for some time to run along the roads of Flanders loaded with troops, still displaying their former route through London. "Piccadilly-Strand-Bank" routes were to be seen, whilst many of them continued to advertise the Revue at the "Empire" and the fact that it started at "8.30 p.m. every evening."

But times have changed, and convoys are now composed, not of miscellaneous subsidized or impressed vehicles, but of standard motor-lorries; each convoy made up of vehicles of the same make, each painted a uniform colour, and all of exactly similar appearance, groomed and turned out like a regiment on parade.