With so many technical innovations, it is perhaps understandable that the impact of motor transport during The Great War has received such poor coverage. The introduction of motor transport with the BEF made a critical contribution to eventual victory. – Most Highly Recommended.
NAME: On The Road To Victory, The Rise of Motor Transport with the BEF on the Western Front FILE: R3104 AUTHOR: Michael Harrison PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword BINDING: hard back PRICE: £19.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWI, World War I, World War 1, World War One, First World War, The Great War, motor cars, lorries, tractors, buses, armoured cars, tanks, petrol, mechanics, drivers, military personnel, civilians, ambulances
ISBN: 1-52676-043-0
PAGES: 292 IMAGE: B3104.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/whgd76j DESCRIPTION: With so many technical innovations, it is perhaps understandable that the impact of motor transport during The Great War has received such poor coverage. The introduction of motor transport with the BEF made a critical contribution to eventual victory. – Most Highly Recommended. The provision of lorries to carry troops, supplies, and ammunition was a revolution in mobility that has largely been lost in the terrible static trench warfare. The deliberate design and construction of vehicles specifically to provide motorized transport was a major achievement but so too were the rather more ad hoc provisions. The RNAS sent fighter squadrons to France to fight alongside the RFC and the French Air Force. RNAS pilots often took their own motor cars with them and used them for transport, communications and as armoured cars for airfield protection and ground reconnaissance. This was very much ad hoc and at the initiative of individuals. Armour was added by squadron engineers and machine guns 'borrowed' for mounting on the vehicles for defensive purposes. Famously, London buses and taxis were sent to France to move reinforcements up to the line, again an ad hoc use of motor vehicles ahead of the deliberate provision of adequate purpose built vehicles. The author has provided an engaging account of how the BEF benefited from motor transport with an excellent selection of images through the body of the book in support of the well-researched text. Included in the story are the girl drivers who joined the transport teams and the modified tanks that were used to carry supplies and troops, with a very rare photograph of a prototype Armoured Personnel Carrier that arrived too late to see action.