Our Despatches from the Front (No. 106)J
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Army-trained Drivers and Police Traps.
B. E .F. August, 1916.
(Continued.)
First the conservation of the labour of the waiting reinforcements, and now the conservation of Material has been dealt with.
Forests of Steel-lined Tires.
A run out on a lorry with a fatigue party will complete the survey. The tire stores are away from the main depot. Tire stocks being as they are so large, it is difficult to imagine them as not easily mentally grasped by mere multiplication of numbers. There are forests of steel-lined lorry, tires. Tier upon tier, pile upon pile, they stand like monoliths or, rather, huge ribbed pillars, upon which monoliths could rest. In and out they are being bowled along like huge hoops, and I have memories that one can get sore hands at the job with the grit. As fast as they go out up-country, -they are replaced by. new arrivals at the docks. I did this fatigue at the docks. It was not really very fatiguing, for they claimed me for writing, whilst my fellow " fatiguers " sweated and toiled with the huge picking cases of machinery and tires from the ship to the warehouses, and then on to lorries for the tire stores.
The school for instructing drivers for reinforcements mentioned in a previous article 6611 commands my admiration. It has saved enor mously the breakage through rough handling of the gears, and now, with the advance begun, no doubt its full influence will be felt, through men handling their cars as they would racehorses and not as mules. Stacks of Tires of All Sizes.
But to return to tires. Other warehouses have racks built from end to end, and here one sees a 'long vista of racking of great height and filled with pneumatics that, standing upright, side by side, make walls of rubber. The multiplication of all makes and sizes is handled with the same precision and, of course, by the same system. If you are interested in this story of one phase of our war industrialism, it is because, though ac. customed to it, it still interests The. It will remain, on a smaller scale, part of the " National Army" after the war, and offer a career to the right man.
Working for Honour.
Both here and at the Front, I have been fortunate in finding officers who have adapted themselves to the New Army, with a breadth of mind that augurs well for the Army " apres la guerre." Here one sees them working for honour and a mere pittance of their value to a commercial concern. Working for honour is a new feature. Fighting for honour is as old as the race.
The life of the staff is purely in dustrial without, of course, choice of environment. Even the most resourceful C.O. cannot create a domestic atmosphere, though doing the best for the recreative side. Taking into consideration the restriction of liberty necessary, our life compares with industrialism at home very favourably.
WITH A TUNNELLING COMPANY, August, 1916.
The few Army-taught drivers have had opportunities of observing show signs of having received most careful instruction in driving. They mostly drive very well indeed, though, naturally, their slight acquaintance with the machines which they handle and their necessarily limited experiende of practical driving renders them more fit for employment with the big M.T. units where care can be taken of them, than on detached work, as the following yarn demonstrates.
The Army-trained Driver's Reply.
An inspecting officer visited a small detached squad of nearly new lorries of a well-tripd make in charge of Army-trained drivers. He discovered that the crankcase of one motor was singularly short of oil, and, accordingly, addressed the first driver as follows :—" How often do you put oil in your engine ? " and received the reply,
Every time I see the engine smoking, sir "
Admirable Schools of Instruction.
Nevertheless, most " two-andfourpenny " men drive as well as many " six-bob " ones, who might with advantage go through one of the Army Schools of Instruction, which, from all accounts, are admirable. There is a large proportion of men who have never bson
taught to drive, but have simply picked up their knowledge, and if one of these gets hold of a difficult vehicle it takes him some time to get used to it, and the machinery
invariably suffers as a consequence. I believe that as men are sent down to a base for any reason they now have to go through a theory and driving test. Those who fail to pass generally have to take a course at the School again. .
Police Traps for Army Drivers,
The most scrupulously careful " two-and-fourpenny" driver. I know, a man who really overdoes the caution that was instilled into him during his course of instruction, was the other day a victim of one of those police traps which, as all the world knows from recent Parliamentary questions, have been added to the worries of active-service lorry drivers. Luckily his excessively careful driving was well enough known to save hias the penalty of his bad luck.
Vehicles Not Fitted with • Speedometers.
Thetrap in question was set on a flat, straight road with a splendid surface ; a road on -which, if no other in France, the ten-mile speed limit for lorries could with safety be exceeded. The timing arrangements were characterized by the same scope for inaccuracy as the home variety of police trap. It is impossible for any man always to be able to judge whether he is keeping within an arbitrary speed limit, 'unless his vehicle is fitted with an accurate speedometer. Needless to say, there are few Army lorries fitted with such instruments.