ARMY DRIVING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 71, 25 March 1941, Page 11

ARMY DRIVING.

MOTOR NOTES.

STANDARD IS HIGH,

SPLENDID WORK IN CONVOY

(By SYNCHRO.)

An English motoring journalist recently commented on what he considered a partieulaxly high standard of motor driving by men at the wheel of .motor trucks when travelling in convoy on highways in the Old Country. Although it might be considered a minor thing, he was amazed, he stated, at the way drivers keep their position in convoys. It sounds a fairly easy tiling to do, but all sorts of trouble may occur when a long string of motor trucks is travelling along a highway in the region of 45 miles an hour.

There is always the risk of a sort of concertina effect, and the danger of one vehicle ramming another when a large number of trucks- is proceeding at speed. Yet, regularly, says the writer, he sees large military convoys proceeding perfectly evenly at 45 miles an hour. This •sort of performance demands skilful driving, but the British Army drivers seem to ta/ke it as a matter of course.

The same skill is being displayed bydrivers of mechanised units with the British forces in Libya, and this fact was recently mentioned by the 8.8.C. in a broadcast from London. These men were depended upon to bring up supplies of all kinds, the most important of which were jietrol, ammunition and food. Detailed to cross, the desert from Tobruk to south of Bengasi without any road to guide them and assisted only by compass, these drivers, drawn from England, Wales, Scotland, Australia. and New Zealand, showed an uncanny skill and courage in not only traversing the vast expanse of trackless desert, but in locating and arriving at their objective, often in hours of darkness, in the specified time.

Sufficient prciise cannot be given for feats of this nature, for these «re the men who virtually provide food for the troops, ammunition for the puns and petrol for the tanks. Delay in carrying out their part of the job, particularly in respect of petrol supplies, could easilv turn victory into defeat.