THE MILITARY MOTOR.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 949, 14 May 1908, Page 11

THE MILITARY MOTOR.

According to French reports, the military motor is a success. One of these vehicles was used during the recent operations in Morocco, and took part in the most decisive engagement of the campaign—that at Ain Sfa, where its usefulness was such that its commander, Captain Genty (a well-known French amateur racing motorist), has since been decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour for distinguished service. The chassis was of standard type—a 40 h.p. Panhard —with only normal clearance. From a few hours after it left the ship nothing in the shape of a “ road” was available. Rivers had to be forded, their banks in many cases having to be followed for miles before this was possible. Its facility for maanoeuvring, therefore, has done much to silence the pessimists’ tongues, which so often protested that “ motor cars were all right on roads, but for use in the desert or the veldt, or indeed on any broken ground, were quite impossible.” The journey to the front of this mitrailleuse was sufficiently beset with trouble to provide quite a test case. It was fitted with three quick-firing guns. In addition to fording rivers, it encountered quagmires,, snow, and sandstorms, and after experiencing one of these latter, had to be dug out of the grit.