Motor Transport in Campaign (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: study to the working out practically of this question of a suitable type of combat train wagon. The heavy auto-truck companies are often supplied with trailers, the trailer having the same carrying capacity as the truck. This type usually carries 3 tons, but for all-round service a l-ton truck has been found most acceptable. The use of trailers, however, must depend upon road conditions, and where good road conditions do not exist the strain on the truck is so great as to render the use of the trailers with the truck not advisable. The number of auto trucks is usually fixed by the number of vehicles required to transport either one day's rations for a corps (125 tons) or two " lots " of ammunition, infantry and artillery (160 tons). The trucks are expected to make 12 miles an hour and to be able to travel about 100 miles a day. The personnel with an auto-truck company varies, but it is not far from the organization prescribed for our motor-truck companies. (See Tables of Organization.) The use of motor transport has reduced, by many men, the personnel of the service of supply, thus releasing a greater number of men for the firing line. In the past, during some wars, the number of men required behind the lines was equal, if it did not exceed, the number of fighting men. 4. AUTOMOBILE PARKS. The extended use of automobiles of every type in the present war has created some new problems, one of the most important being the maintenance of the various motor wagons in a condition for service. Although the reliability of motor cars has been enormously improved in recent years, they, more than most machines, are subject to many ills and troubles. Motor-car troubles may be conveniently grouped under three heads: Ordinary road troubles, such as can be repaired by chauff...