ARMY TO THE RESCUE

Evening Star, Issue 26031, 20 February 1947, Page 7

ARMY TO THE RESCUE

TOMMY MAKES GOOD GOAL HEAVER AIR FORCE ALSO LENDING AID tN.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) LONDON, February 19. Kipling’s line on Tommy This and Tommy That is being recalled all over Britain to-day ,as the British Army adds coal-heaving and coal transport to its responsibilities. Army lorry drivers, who used their wit and their chalk during the war to say what they thought about things, have been busy again as long as coal convoys move over ice-bound roads.

This time they are labelling their trucks “Monty’s Bevin Boys” and “ You want it—we’ve got it.” One cheerful crew drove a three-tonner laden - with,,coal and bearing the slightly reproachful comment, “We shifted the meat—now for the d coal.”

Last week nearly 600 men were lent each day by the Army for coal hand-

ling, together with hundreds of trucks, bulldozers, and other vehicles. Army generators were released in large numbers to provide emergency power and even flame-throwers wei’e employed in an effort to cut through the snowdrifts blocking the railway lines. This experiment proved unsuccessful owing to the danger of burning the railway sleepers, but it demonstrated the Army’s talent for improvisation. Another more successful experiment was the use of ■“ Fougasse,” a fuel originally intended to he released on the sea and set alight to form a wall of flame against invasion landings. Tn the Midlands it is being successfully used to melt snow.

In addition to the Army, the Air Force is also playing its part in Britain’s great battle for coal and against the weather. Several thousand men from Bomber Command are working on snow clearance in the Lincolnshire district, and during the blizzards which raged across _ the Midlands, R.A.F.- ground parties and aircraft took emergency supplies to isolated villages. German prisoners and Poles are also assisting in large numbers under the general direction of the Army.