OUR CARS IN ASIA MINOR.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15773, 14 December 1916, Page 5

OUR CARS IN ASIA MINOR.

PATCHED WITH SHAVING SOAP.

PETROGRAD. October 20.

The Czar has received at the Imperial Headquarters Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson (Unionist M.P. for North Huntingdon), commanding the British armoured car unit in Russia.

Tho British cars havo had exciting times in Asia Minor. They were between 300 and 400 miles from the railhead. "When tlicy branched off from tho main road through Turkish Armenia they had to rely on bullock tracks, which climbed through tho roughest mountains. Some of tho gradients were so steep that tho cars had tx> bo hauled up by hand and then lowered again by ropes. In many cases rocks on tho track caught and ripped the base plates, thus letting out tho oil. In a single day twelve cars were thus damaged. but all except two started again after about a couple of hours, thanks to an ingenious patching device m which ordinary shaving soap was held in position by medical plaster. One driver, unable to obtain cither plaster or -soap, took six bullets, melted them on a stove, poured tho metal into a mud mould, and mended tho hole by this means. Ono squadron took two days to cross a river, tho men working naked tho whole time.

Before the cars reached the front in the Mush region the Turks and Kurds prepared an ambuscade to prevent them from getting through. An unarmoured touring car, in which Commander Xocker-Lampson was alone, felHnto tho ambush and had the narrowest escape. Tho car was under the fire of tho Turks and Kurds along a hillside skirting the road for many miles. At the end of the road was a river. There va| nothing to do but to charge it. The car emerged safely, pierced by numerous bulleta. The driver never lost his head for a moment, and is to-reoeive the Cross of St. George.

The cars have been in action many times. A most successful attack was made on the Turkish left flank on the villago of Norshen. Not only was the village taken and tho enemy dispersed with considerable loss, but the Turkish base in the rear of the position was shelled by the cars' guns and a magazine was blown up.