THE R.M.T.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 29, 16 March 1942, Page 3

THE R.M.T.

Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F,

CAIRO', March 1.

"Soft sand ahead." Often such a message came to them, as through clays of navigating across the desert and nights of moving in close convoy by starlight, the men of the Now Zealand A.S.C. carried our troops into the Libyan campaign, provided them with food, ammunition and petrol for weeks and eventually carried them back to safety in Egypt. Experience with trucks in all driving conditions, from the roughest stretches of waste land to the hubbub of mule carts and camels in Cairo's "mad mile," have put them among the most efficient convoymcn. Watching for trenches, deep potholes and soft, sand has become second nature'. The same Army Service Corps company which lias the distinction of being the first of the New Zealand Division in action when they carried Australian and Indian lighting troops forward in the first Libyan push, lias been operating since the earliest days of this campaign. Working with tliem during the last four months over many hundreds of miles of desert routes has been the Division's youngest company —of R.M.T. Formed in a fortnight less than six months ago, the company began its record in action with the difficult convoys that carried one of the Brigades forward for the spearhead of the attack on Sidi Rezegh. Since then they have had convoys continuousljon desert routes. So high is the standard of maintenance of their trucks, which have worked for periods six days a week across the roughest country, that the unit kept every truck required on the read. Recently I watched these tradesmen working in one of the complete mobile workshops that move with our Army Service Corps companies. Although the equipment is dispersed because of air raids, these desert repair shops handle any breakdown. In tAVo trucks are men working with enough equipment to equip a city garage. The staff car for a young Ashburton Major commanding a unit had a new body upholstered, painted and fitted in less than two days. Blackouts, sandstorms and numerous other difficulties associated with working in the forward area arc overcome by these men whose only concern is to keep the transport moving forward. I have seen them working on trucks during sandstorms when it seemed that the whole desert was lashed to fury of dust and grit. Once the unit's welders kept a R.A.F. plane in the air for a day which otherwise would have been lost Availing for repairs to be made at a station miles away. The recent reorganisation of the New Zealand Army Service Corps made it one of the most readily mobile units in the Middle East. "We could pick up the Division to-mor-row and take them anywhere if necessary," an Auckland section commander told me.