American Trucks for the French Army.
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Very Large Quantities are being Delivered. An American Attempt to Make a Corner. Carrying Crated Lorries on Deck and the Result.
These messages from Our awn Special Correspondents have been submitted to and censored by the Press Boreau, whichdoes not object to their pabheation but takes no responsibility for the correctness of the statements contained therein.—ED.
Ilevue, 1st January.
Of the MN motor lorries bought by the French Government from American manufacturers, more than half have been landed. At the time of my visit one steamer had just come in writ]. MI American lorries aboard, another had almost finished unloading ; in one of the big sheds there was a quantity of corn, which, as a simple calculation showed, represented one day's rations for the French Army of four million men ; vast quantities of copper lay about; there were miles 'upon miles of barbed wire, several tons of horse shoes and nails, and hundreds of Ameriean machine tools.
French Government Agent.
When the French Government decided, a few months ago, to purchase American motor lorries, it gave Lieutenant Lumet full powers to act in its name. In civil life Lieutenant Lumet is head of the Technical Committee of the Automobile Club of France, and. also founder and chief engineer of the club's modern laboratory near Paris.
An Exhibition that Failed.
The attempt of an American trusi to capture the French officer is an incident worth relating. The first intimation that American manufacturers received i>f the French intention to purchase army lorries, was a letter from a big steel corporation in thc east, stating that the entire business was in their hands, and inviting the motor manufacturers to send sample lorries to their establishment. The individual manufacturers fell to the plot, nearly a score of them sending an exhibition lorry to the steel works. It was expected to get Lieutenant Lumet to yisit this commercialmotor show and place his orders through the steel corporation. with, as it was afterwards learned, a net profit to the intermediary of more than three-and-a-half million francs. But the scheme was frustrated by the refusal of the French envoy to be tied down. Never having before been in America, Lieutenant Lumet was so anxious to see American factories that he ran direct to Detroit, without even stopping for a look in at the exhibition specially prepared for him in the east. Thus all the French orders were placed direct with the American factories, without the aid of any intermediary whatsoever. The firms which have received the c20
order g are Packard, Pierce-Arrow, Kelly-Springfield, White, and a small number from the Jeffery Company. Two and three-ton models -have been purchased, these being in each case the firms' standard models with practically no modifications. The types selected accord, as far as possible, with the French subsidy machines, but in order that there should be no delay in delivery it was decided to overlook the smaller differences. All the models have four-cylinder motors, but they comprise worm, bevel and chain drive. Four-wheel-drive types have not been purchased abroad.
Deck Loads Come to Grief. At the time of my visit to NNE the four following makes, White Packard, Pierce-Arrow and KellySpringfield, were being unloaded with rapidity and prepared for an almost immediate departure for the Front. When shipments were made from New York, some person foolishly decided that the boxed lorries should be carried on deck. One steamer, with a total of 220 lorries, had 40 of these on deck. Of these 40, there were 20 which were nothing more than scrap. When the steamer put into port not a vestige of the stout boxes was to be found. The heavy seas had broken through the packing, carried the wood away, and left the lorries on deck with ropes over them. In this condition they were dashed about. until fenders were
carried away the guides of the rudder chains, and before the remains could be securely' lashed several sailors were injured.
Prompt Attention after Landing.
• In addition to this wreckage, many of the machines suffered slightly through shifting cargo, and in a. large number of cases sea water got to magnetos and carbu retters, thus throwing considerable extra work on the engineers sent over by the respective factories. Notwithstanding these mishaps, however, there was no delay in getting the lorries under way when the stedm crane had deposited them on the dockside. Big gangs of French soldiers burst the cases open with crowbars, petrol, oil and water were put into the respective tanks, the planks Frain the cases were loaded into the body, and in certain 'cases only an hour elapsed between the dumping of the case on the dockside and the departure of the lorry for the military depot in town. Many of the motors were completely rusted over, but as the engines had been filled with oil, all the necessary work was on carburetters and magnetos. These two accessories were taken off, and in the warmth of a small wood shed were dried and cleared of rust and brine.
The French method of dealing with the new lorries is first of all to send the vehicles to a depot in a town, and each day to carry out a 25-mile test with a convoy of about 20. The factory experts are present at these tests in order to give whatever attention may be needed to the vehicles and, at the same time, to give instructions to the drivers if necessary. This run is brought to a close in an important fort, where the lorries are definitely taken over by the Army, From the fort they are sent out almost daily to the two most important motor depots at NESSE and MEW from which places they are drawn upon by the officers in the field as required.
The American engineers complain of the very varied quality of the drivers sent to take these lorries away. While some of the men are really experts, capable not only of driving but of executing almost any repair, there are others who do not appear to have acquired the most elementary notions of the internalcombustion motor. I am assured that the following cases are authentic. One driver never used the clutch ; when it was necessary to stop he used his brakes until he stalled the motor ; then he put into neutral, got down and cranked. Another complained that his lorry could not keep pace with the others ; it was found that he was not aware of the existence of a third gear. After injecting petrol into the cylinders until it ran out of the exhaust pipe, in an endeavour to start from cold, a French driver gave it as his opinion that American lorries were no good.