THE MOTOR IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 51, 28 August 1914, Page 4

THE MOTOR IN WAR

(By "Autos. ")

ITS FUNCTIONS & POWERS IDEAL FOR HEAVY WORK SCOUT, TOILER, AND FIGHTER.

Though not very much has been cabled yet on the subject, it is clear that motor vehicles are playing a very important part in the great European war. The extraordinary rapidity of some of the German movements in Belgium have been definitely ascribed to their use ; and this is no novelty in other armies. The arrival of the motor as a military factor practically happened only three or four years ago. In 1911, a new "transport scheme" taking cognisance of the automobile, was-issued vi Great Britain. When it -was found th^t the motor was a factor having as "distinct and direct a bearing on the solution of strategical problems as the improvement of firearms had on the solution of tactical problems," as one army lecturer put it, the War Office had to decide how it could best be used in combination with the horse.! A totally new organisation with efficiency as its first essential has had to be devised. There is no doubt that views which a month ago seemed most extravagant have by this time been proved fully justified, and that the great armies now trampling the soil of Euiope are making an almost inconceivably great use of the motor for all sorts of purposes. In war, as in peace, the horse is> being "pushed off" by the motor. SEVERE TESTS. The automobile has been thoroughly tested in times of peace, and found of a definite and very high value. When the war is over the motor-world will have placed before it a mass of information which it is within reason to believe may utterly revolutionise many flrmlyrooted opinions about "cars" and "cars." The usual way to impose severe tests upon motors is to race them; a very severe test it is, too. But it tends to produce a type of machine with very highly strung nerves, and to that extent ia not the most perfect system. Not everyone wants a thoroughbred. But oji the battlefield the test is infinitely more severe. Motors are in the hands of men often poorly skilled, men who are not concerned about their motors so much as about their business of getting through. They are overloaded, knocked about, fed with odd fuels, ' shot at, neglected. Tlie car that comes through a hard campaign with a good record for "getting there*' with its load will be able to hold up its head with pride. There is obviously an opening in such circumstances for the type of car which, to use a phrase not 6O common now as it was when modern factory methods were new, is "made by the' mile and cut off in dozens.',' Ten Fords, for instance, are going with the Now, Zealand Expeditionary Force, and with their lightness and strength, simplicity, and exchangeability of parts, they should have a reasonable percentage of survivors. Two dead Fords are not necessarily useless; they may quite well be taken to pieces and made to produce a live one ; and that is a quality which certainly cannot be claimed by the highly finished and fitted continental cars. THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CAR. For military purposes one may divide the functions of the motor into five sec tions : (1) the rapid transfer of considerable bodies of troops from place to plnce,~with"lighb- material ; (2)-the transport of ammunition ; (3) scouting and despatch work; (4) heavy transport; (5) actual fighting. j THE CARRIAGE OF MEN. ! The i first section is a quite obviousapplication of the motor. One need not admit the possibility of putting an army . corps in automobiles; but for the pur-^ poses of a " flying squadron '\ no tinei*' means of transport could £>c found. Experiments in mobilisation in England on both a large and a small scale have shown that very valuable results can. be obtained ; ttnd on occasion the sudden arrival of even light reinforcements at high speed might have a critical effect upon an action. As a branch of this form of service there is to be considered the increased mobility of officers whose duties are spread over as wide an area as they can cover. Imagine, for instance, the spectacle of the Frejich Commander-in-Chief, General Joffre, who has for his chauffeur the famous racing driver Boillot, and compare his position with that of Napoleon, who had to be content with a horse ! Military operations depend very largely upon railways for the rapid movement of troops and supplies, and in Europe the greater part of the country is woll served with' tj nes. But trains cannot go everywhere, and the miles between the railway and tha desired spot must, if possible, be .cover, ed at high speed just as much as the railway line itself. Moreover, a, rail, way is much more easily crippled than a road. The removal of part of a. railway line may conceivably be imjanediable; a damaged road can be repaired, with comparative ease. A MOST VITAL SERVICBj. As to the ammunition servicia, the motor steps into one of the most difficult of military problems. Modenyi battles are so huge, extend over so! great* a front, and exhaust euch a vast ajmount. of ammunition that an adequate -supply is most difficult to maintain. Magazine riflea use an enormous amount of am- | munition; but oven more serious 1 is the demand of artillery. So rapid is the consumption of field-gun ammunition that an artillery biigade in actkjn must be constantly waited upon, so .'that it shall not run out of powder and shot. Modern quick-firing guns are table to maintain a steady rate of fire of nine shots per gun per minute ; and at that rate a battery will exhaust aIL (the ammunition in its limbers and wagons in about twenty minutes. Such hot fire is rarely maintained for long, but it is easy to see from this that ammunition supply must be an elaborately ocganised service, whose proper working- is of critical importance. In one of the latest works on artillery in the field, Colonel H. A. Bethell, in a chapter on mechanical transport, expresses the opinion that in civilised warfare the motor will soon replace the ( horse in the transport and ammunition line, and indicates ways in which "tractors" will be uaad in the firing* line. In considering the question of scouting and despatch carrying thq-re are few points- that will not be appreciated by anyone without elaborating tine matter. Speed and long range of action are the principal features of motor traction. In no other way can such long distances be quickly covered, and whether the big motor-car, light car. or motor-cycle be employed, new fields of activity are opened at once. The assistance of the motor-car in this respect approaches that possible by the help of the 'aeroplane, and it is safer. THE HEAVY CARB-IEKS. But it is in heavy tract/ion that the motor-car is mo&t useful. It is many years since this was recognised, and motor manufacturers applied their skill to the subject at once. Scoies oi' vehicles more or less like — often very unlike — the ordinary commercial \ types were designed and test*fl- Tractors qufmbta oi pulling a load of bcvrii tons *ny wberg— even of lifting jit vertically

by means of a.,r<>pe — have been used successfully. They are used for pulling the vehicles which form the vast baggage and commissaruit trains of armies, for dragging heavy artillery, for carrying engineers' matenql — in fact, for every purpose to which tilie draught horse can be used. MoreoveiCj they can in some cases go over ground, of an amazingly unpromising charact|jr. The "caterpillar" can almost drag a Joad across a swamp. Its wheels do not sun on the ground, but on a huge endleas chain with many broad, flat feet, which are placed in succession on the ground, so that the bearing surface is as long as the motor. All sorts of obstacles, even such ugly things as sod walls, caia be climbed by the cater■pillar, followed by its protesting load. MOTOR. SUPPLY COLUMNS. "Supply (columns " of motor lorries »have, during the past three years or so, been incorporated into the British Expeditionary Force for the transfer of supplies from " railheads," or most convenient poii|ifc on the railway system of the " trains " or distributing organisations of the^variouß large military units. These are intended to keep up as far as possiblo an uninterrupted service, and can do bo while the forces aro not in touch with, the enemy, and to a less extent eyem when they are. In the case of any interference, their best defence consists in their speed and extended range of action. Suitable lorries can outstrip oven the fastest cavalry, and have sufficient powers of endurance to make deqours round dangerous points. A column may be protected, too, by two or more special fighting vehicles, which wijl be farther referred' to later. One of theso may be at the head, and one at the tail of the column, and the 'escort would be available to repel an attack of l the motors. . In addition, each lorry «q ries at least one armed man besides the driver and his assistant. In order t|iat the state of the roads and their faeedom from the enmy may bo known, each such supply column includes a party of scouts^ mounted on motor-bi-cycles with two or four-cylinder engines, becausa these can be more effectively silenceql than "singles." One very striking feature about the use of the motor is its efficiency at night. Some <?ocperts at first thought that, fast though^ it may be by day, a motor columrj must be comparatively slow at night;' but experience seenis to have contradicted this. One observer, remarking on the subject, points, out a psychological peculiarity of such a company, that every vehicle following another moves at night; at high speed with confidence simply because thero i 3 one iin front. Where one has gone, another can go. The fact that in moving vast bodies of troops every working hour available for heavy transport is precious makes the motor all the more valuable in this respectIt must not be imagined that the mililTary motor is invulnerable. It has been said that a baggage train is about as ijiard to defend as a herd of cattle ; and the same remark applies equally in the case of the motor-lorries >if they are properly attacked. There are well worked 'out tactical methods for getting out of 'difficulties, if they can be applied, bui a deal more depends on keeping out of (trouble than on getting out. A supply column is so vulnerable,, so easily cajight and overcome, that it is well VA«>rth attacking ; and if the enemy is prepared, he may not only capture the tr^in ; he may convert it to his own use, even to the extent of riding home on it. THE FIGHTING MOTOR. Reference has been made to the armed motor for convoying purposes. Such a ."machine is usually somewhat of the .'motor-omnibus type, though, as is the case with_ the military ti actor, it is /usually quite unlike its commercial prototype in looks. A typical armed car has the appeaijance almost of a rectangular box on wheels. The sides and ends are covered with thin but hard stool plate, similar to that used for gunshields—proof against ' rifle bullets at moderate ranges. The wheels also have a certain amount of protection, and the bonnet is armoured. The driver's seat is boxed in with the rest of the car, and he has a small slit to see through. Round the walls of the car, near the top, is an opening a few inches high, at an elevation at which the occupants can conveniently sight a" rifle ; and this opening can be securely covered by steel flaps. The motor may carry, also, two or three machine guns, also firing ' through the embrasures, and able, with the good protection afforded by the armoured sides, to bring a very effective fire to bear upon the enemy.