VALUE OF MULES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1940, Page 6

VALUE OF MULES

USE IN TRANSPORT WORK ON HILLS DEMONSTRATED. WHERE THE MOTORS LOSE. The old "Waggon Train" had a saying that “a horse can climb up a hill, but a mule can climb a house." wrote a correspondent of "The Times" from “Somewhere in the South" of England recently. Though the Royal Army Service Corps of today is almost completely mechanised it still retains its belief in the old adage, and has extended it with “Either can go where mechanical transport can't." This faith in four sure feet was proved to be thoroughly justified by a demonstration exercise in which an Animal Transport Company, Royal Army Service Corps, took loads of about 1401 b up and down hills with gradients approaching one in three. Most of the men engaged had been in the reserve for periods of eight, to fifteen years.

The speed of an animal transport company is not impressive according to modern standards, for it is no more than five miles an hour on the road and slows down to three and a-half to four miles an hour over rough ground, but in. country such as was being worked over today it. most certainly demonstrated, its worth. Bren carriers and other motor vehicles were being exercised at high speed over quite rough ground as the R.A.S.C. animals came on the scene, but it was noteworthy that they kept well away from the steep gorse and heather covered hills and dales by which the transport company approached the really steep hill selected for its demonstration. THE RELAY SYSTEM. The animals and waggons were offloaded in positions where natural cover—trees and deep ravines —required very little, help from artificial camouflage to give complete concealment from the air. They were then reloaded under "gas" conditions. The loads consisted of rations, petrol, barbed wire, clothing, and ammunition —in fact, a fair sample of the supplies that would be transported in the field. The general idea was that the waggons would take a share of the loads as far as they could go, and that then the pack trains, working in relays, should go forward over terrain impossible for any form of wheeled transport. The relay system of hill-climbing was shown after the animals had climbed very steep ascents individually, and had come down assisted by long ropes on the worst declivities, when four men acted as. "brakes." Short ropes were used on the lesser gradients. and also the simple expedient of a man hanging on to the mule’s tail and digging his heels into the ground at the worst places. When practising the relay system the whole column ascended and descended in "Column of Route," an impressive performance. The exercise ended with a demonstration of jumping obstacles, which is not so easy for the animals with a deadweight load as when' there is a rider in the saddle. INTENSIVE TRAINING.

In the afternoon a different aspect of Army Transport was seen in a finely-equipped Motor Mechanics School, from which 60 post-mobilisa-tion students passed out. They will be immediately replaced by another 60, for the school has always 300 men in training. They come from all Commands and from, any unit, and attend for a course which lasts ten weeks. When their training is ended (hey go back to their units, where their duty is to keep mechanical transport in running repair. The school is run by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and the instructors are all Ordnance officers, with n.c.o.’s and a few civilians as supervisors. The first eleven days are spent at bench-fitting, tinsmithing. and the making and reading of simple mechanical drawings. The students then pass to actual work on engines and chassis. Many of the engines and pHirts are sectioned so that students can sec exactly what the assembly is. Though 100 per cent passes as Motor Mechanics Class HI are not expected from these wartime students, who are cramming into ten weeks as much as possible of the work normally done in 44 weeks, the degree of proficiency is very high. The men come from’ the Regular Army, and. in the latter category, represent all walks of life. A proportion have been garage mechanics, and these have a good groundwork of practical knowledge to build upon. This school is the first Army establishment to specialise in the training of unit mechanics.