VERDUN LORRIES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 185, 23 June 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

VERDUN LORRIES.

INSTRUMENTS OF VK'fdlY. REMARKABLE SYSTEM. Mr. H. Warner Allen, special correspondent of the British press with I the French armies, wrote ivently:— Since the beginning of tke wa" I liavo visited every section of the front held by the French armies between tke North Sea and the Swiss frontier, sometimes during, sometimes just bei fore, sometimes just after a gieat battle, as well as in those intervals of comparative trancpiility, which arc the characteristic of trench warfare, but so far as behind the lin.es is concerned : 1 have never soon anything so imprcs- : sive, from the material point of view, j as the unending lines of motor lorries which brought up men and inanitions | on the Verdun front, and were the dii rect cause of the German defeat. Every. i thing depended on the motor transi port, and the French automobiles | proved that they were more than a I match ftir all the strategic lines built | by the Germans before the I."ginning I of the great assault. One has a vague nienvry of deep mud, lorries puffing and blowing along . the miry roal. and men working fevorI ishly to keep the roadway passable. The ; organisation that accomplished this ■ great feat well deserved the ei ogy ae- ■ corded it by the Generalissimo lor its ! indefatigable efforts. Long; before the assault the French High Command was well aware that the line of communications by railway between Verdun and St. Menchoud, through the Argonne would, n case of an attack, be cut bv the German heavy artillery. There was another railway—the light railway of the Meusc—but it was clear that in case of emergency its services would need to ne supplemented by a transport system capable of giving the greatest results with the (smallest waste of time. For this purpose i the General Staff decided to i tilise a system of automobile transport. Early ! in February a special body was constituted for the region of Verdun, with the title of "Commission Regnlatrice Automobile.'' It was on this commission that devolved the duty jf regulating traffic and preparing an efficient '; motor transport organisation sufficient to meet all the demands of the General ' Staff. i 4000 MOTOR VEHICLES. ! The commission was cal'ed upon to arrange for the working with c (ck-like . regularity of 200 automobile sections — that is to say, some 40(H) motor velii- ; clcs. All these convoys had to be pro- . vided with petrol oil, and grease. Each day they had to run some 45 miles, and , consumed over 30,000 gallons ol petrol, I | over 4000 gallons of oil, and about 4400 I lb of grease. Tsese lorries wire over | and above those motor vehicles attached for special purposes to the fortified region of Verdun and the army of the Argonnc. The genera' principle of d,vision of labour was that the Meusc railway should as far as possible be restricted • I to the transport of provisions, while ■ I the automobiles should bring up men, ■ ammunition, and all the material re • quired by tin- engineers, as well as the i additional previsions needed to cstab- ; lish depots in tke advanced zinc. To ensure speed it was decided that the road to Verdun shou'd lie reserved to [ motor traffic. It was also arranged . that the motor convoys should not tranship their loads to horse-drawn vehicles in order to save time, but that they should leave them at prov-sion and ammunition depots along th 1 road. Obviously it was of the utmost importance tliat the traffic along 1 his road , should be strictly regulated, and for ' ! this purpose a special body of men was appointed. Further, for the rrending 1 of the roadway a very considerable body of expert road-makers was detailed. For the purpose of police the road was divided into sections, each section in charge of an officer and this ; I service, which worked night and day, ' j monopolised the services over a dis- ' ; tance of about 15 miles, of l ( ) officers. i ;}0 non-commissioned officers and 22> men. . It was at noon on I'ebrnary '~2 that this organisation was first put. to the • test, the day alter the battb began, i and at once'the men in charce of the policing of the rood began to perform . their duties. Within lour hours the road was free of all horse-drawn traffic and other encunibcranees, and since ' that moment it has been entirely reserved for motor traction. Every motor-lorry employe i for munition transport covered an .urage of just over a hundred miles a da..' During the same period huge numbers of troops uriv'ntly needed at Me front were brought up without a hitch.