Adjuncts of an Army Corps.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 106, 8 February 1900, Page 3

Adjuncts of an Army Corps.

One of the most remarkable military parades that has ever been seen, was held in the Long Valley, Aldershot, recently, when fifteen traction engines and forty trucks were tested, previous to their embarkation lor South Africa. The trucks were built to convey all possible war material, from loose grain to iron pipes. The Long Valley, wit^h its great stretches of hill, is somewhat similar to* the country in which the engines will be u&ed at the seat of war, and it was therefore well suited for the trial. The engines, with trains of tracks,, were started off across sountry, taking hillocks and ditches in their way in a marvellous manner. Some of the

ditches had stoop banks of between two and throe feet, yet these weLe negotiated with safety', and although the wheels :,auk ofr.cn up to the hab in tho wei, ground at the bottom of the ditches, nothing stopped the piogress oUhese Uiange machiucs or Ywii 1 . Tho transpo.'t-s oi iha Auvy Corps, and iU adjuncts ib a ia.-k of con^v.tiabk' magi.it ada. Taking the' £c'il\\j) Co; p^' alone, it involves th } soivitc^ 01 do fev.oi than 16' 1 loeotneti\o& un.l. Jl'Js) vehicle . !>sulob theso, Uiaro arc hoi-sc-l)o\os. u.u.'ia^os, and store l'-'cH. Li.Kv.l, the raihAvys, at j h'j present cnn». -city a, \eiy nuj'o.vnb ivi)fc m \. t u-. "They fn B {- of til. i'.iciljracu mobihsajiou nnl coacontj<i,tioj"i, {>nd then piovidwfor the conveyance of pi>)\isinns and munihuns 01 war. Ai>ain, ing has actually commenced, raii-v,-ay,j Iki\o an lmpm-tanfe btrxteoic p.'vi, to play, c^sDvCiiiUy in cpcrynr; sick and bounded to the rear, and bringing remiorcencnts to the u-onii. In Bodth Ah-ica, the rjulloaJs are practically all on the single-system. For concentration piupjsos, the numbor of turns that can lie despatched m one day from a strategic entraining centre is limited by th» number which can actually be loaded successfully within a time. Tho great lengtli of tho tail journoys m South Afiica, however, necessicate an abundant supply of rollmq stock, tor there is he tie ch-i.nce oi the ilrst trains despatched being returned as "empties" until t\Co or three, wp» ks havo elapsed. The length oi the journeys to be undertaken, the ntiiTO"MK>s-! of thegaugo,, and tho economical engmeeun n characteri&tjcs of the tracks fchembohes, must all tax exi&Ling rcsoiu'ces to th" uttermost. Still, as Xlarsb'ill Saxe once v/rote, " the secret of Avar lies in the legs," and h"iic" it is thit commonplace traction ergmes and x-uiway material are some of ihe most important adjuncts of an Army Corps.