Organization: How Armies are Formed for War

by Hubert Foster

2. Transport

Road Transport alone will be here considered. This is the most important of the Administrative Services, as on it depend the mobility of the Force, and the working of the Supply, Medical, and Stores Services. Transport is required with the Units at the front, to carry the baggage and stores of the troops, and their ammunition and food for daily consumption, and to enable field ambulances to accompany the army. Transport is also required on the Lines of Communication, to bring up ammunition and food from the base to the front, and to remove the wounded to the base.

It is agreed that Transport must be organized on a military basis when accompanying troops at the front, where civil transport is hardly dependable; but to provide the vast amount required in rear of the army on the L. of C. would demand more military Transport than could be kept up in peace, and Auxiliary Transport has to be collected from civil services for this purpose.

It is obvious that without a carefully worked out system of organization for its Transport, an army in the field will be helpless from want of ammunition and food, and slow and uncertain in its movements; the sick and wounded will lack attention; and the troops cannot fail to undergo hardships and privations, which will have a bad effect on their morale and fighting power.

Owing to the enormous amount of food required for an army, the main function of the Transport is to carry supplies, so that the connection between Transport and Supply is a very intimate one. It has been found desirable, therefore, to amalgamate the administrative units which effect these two services. Those who are responsible for providing food should also be responsible for moving it. The administrative units of the combined services of Transport and Supply are provided by the Army Service Corps, as shown in detail in the next section of this chapter. The Officers of this Corps are trained both for Transport and Supply duties. Their identical training and their organization together in one unit tends to produce co-operation in both services of Transport and Supply, and should minimize any chance of failure in war. The fact that all officers are interchangeable between these services also gives an elasticity to the system which is wanting when they are separate.

REGIMENTAL TRANSPORT

The Transport with the Units in the field is called Regimental Transport, in distinction from the Transport on the Lines of Communication, and consists of two categories:

(a) Transport of Fighting Units, including all Head-Quarters. This Transport is divided into First Line, and Second Line, Transport.

(b) Transport of Administrative Units—i.e. Ambulances, Supply Columns, and Supply Parks.

(a) First Line Transport forms an integral part of each fighting unit; the unit provides its own drivers and superintendence for its transport, which accompanies it at all times. The First Line Transport carries on wheels (or by pack) all that the unit requires for fighting—namely: guns, ammunition, entrenching tools—besides signalling, medical, veterinary, and other technical equipment.

Second Line Transport for all units is provided by the A.S.C., to carry the baggage, supplies, stores, and water which the unit requires to have with it when at rest. This transport is not required for fighting, and, when near the enemy, does not accompany its unit, but is all massed in rear of the fighting troops, but able to rejoin its various units in a few hours. The water carts alone may at times accompany the troops.

The stores carried include cooking utensils and butchers’ implements, artificers’ tools and material, office books and stationery; also, when specially required, blankets, tents, and fuel.

The supplies carried are indicated later in the description of the Supply Service which follows.

Transport for each Head-Quarters is all furnished by the Army Service Corps (A.S.C.).

(b) Transport of Administrative Units.—This is provided also by the A.S.C., and is described in the two following sections of this chapter, under the heading of the Supply Services and Medical Services.

TRANSPORT ON THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION

The Transport on the Lines of Communication is controlled by the representative of the Director of Transport at Head-Quarters of the L. of C. It is carried on by Auxiliary Transport Companies, composed generally of non-military wagons, teams, and drivers, under the control of a small personnel of Army Service Corps. Mechanical Road Transport is likely in the future to be very largely employed on the L. of C. to work from railhead to the Units of field troops at the front.

In the British Army organization the details of the L. of C. Transport are as follows:

Twelve Auxiliary Transport Companies of 50 wagons, and six of 100 wagons, are formed. Each has an A.S.C. personnel of 3 Officers and 54 other ranks, with 10 riding horses. Every 50 wagons require 115 drivers and 210 horses, including 5 per cent. spare.

In case the local transport is formed of carts, the Auxiliary Company has an A.S.C. personnel of 1 Officer and 28 other ranks. Every 50 carts require 58 drivers, and 105 horses, including spare.

There are four units called Transport Depôts, each with a personnel of 3 Officers and 93 other ranks, organized in four Sections; each Section can form a small depôt on the L. of C., providing a reserve of horsed transport to replace wastage, and a repairing section for mechanical transport.

Transport for local work at the Base, and at posts on the L. of C., is improvised from civil sources, as it requires no great degree of mobility, and, working locally, and at a distance from the enemy, can be easily kept under supervision.