EMERGENCY MEASURES ON THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
The Work of the Chief Motoring Organisations--The Requisitioning
of Vehicles by the War Department--Arrangements for subsequent
Supplies.
A noteworthy feature in connection with the mobilisation of the British
Army on the outbreak of war was the energy with which the great
motoring organisations took up the duties of rendering the private
motorist, so far as might be possible, available for the service of
the Government. The Royal Automobile Club sent out a circular letter
to some sixty provincial Automobile Clubs affiliated to the parent
body, asking that their members owning motor cars should be requested
immediately to register them with the R.A.C. for the use of the War
Office and Admiralty, in case they should be wanted. This scheme was
simultaneously furthered by means of advertisements in the principal
organs of the London and provincial press, and posters were placed in
all the Club’s officially appointed hotels and garages throughout the
Kingdom. Registration forms asking for particulars of cars, and an
indication of the nature of the service for which they would be made
available, were rapidly prepared and widely distributed with admirable
results. These machines were placed at the disposal of the War Office
and Admiralty both for home and for foreign service, and in many cases
their owners made their own services available for facilitating or
accelerating the urgent business of the country by providing officials
with a ready means of rapid transit.
In addition, the Club kept in constant communication with the British
Red Cross Society, and has put at the disposal of this Society
the use of the R.A.C. annexe at 83, Pall Mall, for office, store
and organisation purposes. As the need for the provision of motor
ambulances for foreign service became urgent, the Club gave invaluable
assistance to the Society by keeping up a constant flow of cars
unreservedly given or lent by their owners. Cars have been supplied
for this and other purposes through the R.A.C. organisation from
practically every county in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. All
members and associates of the Club have been asked to assist the work
of recruiting by carrying on their cars cards urging prompt enlistment.
The Automobile Association and Motor Union was equally energetic and
prompt. The Association immediately conveyed to the War Department an
offer to help the Government to the fullest extent of its resources,
and upon the acceptance of this proposal communicated at once with
its 92,000 members--owners of cars, light cars, cycle-cars and motor
cycles--inviting them to volunteer their services, and to that end to
forward the fullest possible particulars. The response to this appeal
resulted in the enrolment of the names of about 20,000 motor owners,
and within a few days large numbers of these were being utilised not
only by the War Office, but by municipal and other bodies all over
the country. The earliest mobilisation took place on the Doncaster
race-course, where about 150 cars assembled in a few hours in response
to telegrams. This fleet remained concentrated for some days, but
the eventuality against which it was intended to provide did not
materialise. Large numbers of the A.A. members were employed during the
first two or three weeks of the war to guard telephone and telegraph
lines and cables, until permanent arrangements could be made for this
service. Hundreds of motor cycle and car members undertook long spells
of duty by day or night under the supervision of the post office
officials.
In connection with the conveyance of wounded, the Association placed
fleets of cars at the disposal of the chief military centres throughout
the country, its members holding themselves in readiness to go out at
any hour during the day or night, to carry wounded from the railway
stations to the hospitals. In a considerable number of cases, the
motorists so employed undertook, at their own expense, to convert their
cars into ambulances, and a large number of machines so transformed
were sent across the channel to work behind the firing line. Vehicles
were also forthcoming in plentiful numbers to meet refugees, and
take them to their temporary homes. Hundreds of motor cycle members
volunteered for dispatch-carrying work, and the committees of the
National Service League and other recruiting bodies in all parts of
the country were supported by cars, light cars, and motor cycles with
side cars, ready to pick up recruits and convey them to the enlisting
depôts. At normal times, the Association employs on the main roads
of the country over 500 road patrols, whose duties involve continual
cycling over their appointed beats from daybreak until dark. These men
were evidently ideal recruits for the cyclists’ battalions required
for scouting work. Over 250 of them enlisted in various regiments, or
rejoined their old regiments, while a picked body, over 100 strong,
was formed into the first two companies of the 8th Essex (Cyclist)
Battalion, under the command of the Secretary of the Association,
Captain Stenson Cooke, who was formerly a member of the London Rifle
Brigade.
[Illustration: _“The Autocar” photograph._
ONE OF A FLEET OF “MAUDSLAY” MOTOR BUSES COMMANDEERED BY THE WAR
DEPARTMENT, AND FITTED WITH LORRY BODIES.]
The Commercial Motor Users’ Association undertook the enrolment of
men competent to serve as motor transport drivers, and also formed
on behalf of its own members a kind of transport exchange. A similar
scheme on rather broader lines was handled by the Imperial Motor
Transport Council, the idea being that while some business concerns
would experience difficulties in effecting deliveries owing to their
horses being requisitioned, others--owing to the disorganisation of
trade--would have suitable facilities standing idle. In that event
considerable trouble might be saved by bringing into existence some
machinery capable of establishing contact between the two groups.
The Council also undertook work in assistance of the Motor Ambulance
Department of the British Red Cross Society, and circularised its
oversea members with a view to assisting the maintenance of British
export trade in motor vehicles.
At the outbreak of war, steps were immediately taken by the War
Department to secure for service all the motor lorries of subvention
type working for commercial houses. These not being numerically
sufficient for the whole needs of the army, several thousand other
motor lorries of approximately the same carrying capacity, but of
varying types, were requisitioned somewhat hastily. The quality of
the fleets thus formed was variable, even though a process of weeding
out at the ports of embarkation did something towards securing
uniformity. In the same way the urgent need of employing many thousands
of transport drivers naturally led to the enlistment of men of
varying capabilities. Drivers handling lorries or ’buses are in some
instances required to be fairly capable mechanics. In others, any
interference with the mechanism of their machines is discouraged, and
they are taught to be entirely dependent on the mechanical staff at
their headquarters. Such men, while thoroughly skilled in handling a
vehicle, are not really fully qualified for the business of a motor
transport driver in active service.
Very considerable numbers of London motor omnibuses were taken off the
streets and converted into ambulances or lorries, and similar vehicles
have also been used for the transport of troops and other purposes.
As soon as matters had had a little time in which to settle down, it
became apparent that the Government did not intend to rely on the
system of requisitioning to make up the wastage of their fleet in
service, or to provide transport for Indian and Colonial troops, or for
the new armies in course of formation. For this purpose large regular
orders were placed with many of the leading manufacturers, and in some
instances these orders amounted to taking over practically the entire
output. No exact figures are available as to the rate at which, during
the early stages of the war, the Government took delivery of new motor
lorries, but there is little doubt that the weekly supply ran into
three figures, and that a continuance of very substantial orders will
be necessary right up to the conclusion of hostilities.
In European countries, the comparative shortage of industrial
motor vehicles rendered necessary a more wholesale programme of
requisitioning. Thus, for example, Paris was promptly denuded of the
whole of its fleet of motor omnibuses, about 1,100 in number. A few
years ago, the old double-deck type of motor omnibus, at one time used
in Paris, was discarded in favour of a long-bodied single-decker,
capable of carrying up to about forty passengers. These machines are
so designed to the requirement of the Government as to be capable of
being transformed rapidly into waggons for the carriage of meat. The
windows are replaced by wire-gauze screens, the seats removed and the
handrails fitted with hooks. Alternatively, the ’buses can be equally
easily adapted for the carriage of wounded, by simple fittings from
which stretchers or hammocks can be slung.
[Illustration: _“The Autocar” photograph._
A LARGE NUMBER OF DAIMLER LORRIES HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER BY THE MILITARY
AUTHORITIES. THE EXAMPLE SHOWN IS FITTED WITH A SHIELD CONTAINING A
SHEET OF TRIPLEX GLASS WHICH WILL STOP A RIFLE BULLED AT 100 YARDS.]
During mobilisation, numbers of motor vehicles were employed in
France to transport troops, and, moreover, those of the Paris ’bus
type are of undoubted utility for this purpose whenever it may become
necessary to transfer moderately large bodies of men rapidly from one
point to another, where convenient railway communication does not exist.
All the Continental countries involved in the war made strict provision
against the export of motor vehicles of any kind, while even in Great
Britain an order was, for a period, in force, prohibiting the export
of heavy industrial vehicles. It was, in fact, realised in advance in
all quarters that a war of such magnitude and involving the employment
of such huge numbers of men, could not conceivably be fought along the
lines anticipated and subsequently realised, unless full dependence
were placed upon motor transport in the first case for the provision
of food supplies, and as a corollary for a similar service of warlike
stores, for the carriage of wounded, for scouting, and for enabling
commanders and staff officers to travel with sufficient rapidity
and freedom to make it possible for them to realise with sufficient
accuracy the essential facts with which they were called upon to deal.
_Wyman & Sons Ltd., Printers, London and Reading._
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic spelling that may have been in use at the time of publication
has been retained.