Where Animals Were Needed More Than Jeeps

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 266, 10 November 1945, Page 8

Where Animals Were Needed More Than Jeeps

MISTAKE OF BURMA CAMPAIGN That the Burma campaign might very well have taken a different course had the British Army there had more in the way of animal transport, was the opinion ventured by Mr. A. D. M. G. Laing, M.R.C.V.S., when speaking at the conference of veterinarians at Massey College yesterday. It was to bo hoped he said, that never again would the mistake be made of going the “whole hog” on any ono form of transport. Mr. Laing is an ex-imperial Army officer now stationed at Hastings. He told the gathering of 60 veterinarians that during 1939-45 animal transport in India, w r here he served for over three years, had to be improvised at very short notice, and * the veterinary personnel necessary to keep that transport efficient was not available. Means of overcoming any such shortage of trained personnel in the event of a future war were suggested by Mr. Laing. He said that responsibility for the soundness of all animal products used as human food was one of the principal functions of veterinary surgery, but it was a matter for regret that the armed forces of the British Empire had made little use of the profession for such work in the field. In contrast to this, the lOtli American Air Force had brought its own veterinary staff to India in 1942, their routine duties being to ensure the safety of all animal products used for rations. The speaker believed that New Zealand veterinarians should insist on carrying out similar work in peacetime, as it was an important part of the professional duties for which they were peculiarly fitted. Above all, it would mean that should war unhappily occur again, and should animal transport have to be improvised at short notice as in the 1939-45 war, trained veterinary personnel would be available on the spot. The organisation of animal transport on active service was similar to that in New Zealand said Mr. Laing. ‘‘Light Divisions” for jungle warfare were formed, and it was probable that most of the Fourteenth Army which had done such great work in Burma was so composed. Such divisions relied on animal transport and air supply, which entailed, for damp tropical jungle conditions, a very high standard of physical fitness for all concerned. The devoicing operation, entailing thp removal of portions of the animals’ vocal chords, was fairly successful, and a ‘ ‘ guaranteed silent ’ ’ mule was obviously desirable for jungle warfare conditions. Trials of special dyes for grey and white animals for camouflage purposes resulted in the old and well-tried potassium permanganate in ono per cent solutions being found the most lasting under rainy conditions.. The year 1939 saw India still with several horse cavalry units, and a number of mule and bullock transport companies and camel corps. The animal transport was utilised mainly in the mountainous country on the northwest frontier of India. Several Indian mule companies went to France in 1939, but nearly all the personnel w r ere captured at Dunkirk. T n India bullocks and camels were bought fully trained. Cavalry chargers were bred on big farms in the Punjab or imported from Australia. Mules were imported from the Argentine and trained by the Animal Transport Mule Training Regiment at Jullundur in the Punjab, and in which the speaker commanded a company for some time.

“Early in 1942,” stated Mr. Laing, “it became apparent that animal transport would be required on a quite unforeseen scale, with veterinary officers to correspond. Even that mechanical * maid-of-all-work’, the jeep, cannot go where the mule or pony goes in the jungle. During the whole of that year, therefore, a huge expansion of mule and pony transport took place. The Mule Training Regiment at Jullundur, for instance, had at one period about 10,000 mules and ponies on charge for trafti ing, with staff for the normal peacetime strength of 600. The same applied to the Military Veterinary Hospital, which had to service from 8000 to 12,000 mules, ponies and horses, 300 camels, and over 1000 milk-cows and milk buffaloes.

“It says much for the soundness of the animal training methods that the peacetime period of one month for breaking-in and training to pack-saddl3 and draught was still kept up. Primarily this was due to good organisa? tion and the high standard of the personnel; but the change-over from Argentine mules, which used to arrive with an intense dislike of all humans and a determination to translate it into action if at all possible, to ‘local purchase’ ponies and mules which had nearly all been handled, eased matters a little.”