Review of Reoieivs, 119113. 



LEADING ARTICLES 



697 



GERMAiNY'S SUBSIDISED ARMY MOTORS. 



Mr. Reginald Mcintosh Cleveland, 

 writing in the American Revieiv of Re- 

 views, says: — With her usual prepared- 

 ness and foresight in things military, 

 Germany has distanced other nations in 

 the matter of motor vehicles for war. 

 Her pre-eminence in this field lies not 

 so much in the ownership by the War 

 Department of automobiles, nor along 

 the line of motor fighting units, but 

 rather in the establishment of subsidised 

 automobile corps for both passenger 

 and supply transportation. Without the 

 great expense incident to possession — an 

 expense which would be useless in time 

 of peace — she is thus possessed of a 

 well-developed arm of the service. 

 Corps under subsidy and subject to de- 

 mand in war time include one of motor- 

 cycles, one of passenger automobiles, 

 and a third of motor supply trains of a 

 sort practically unknown in other coun- 

 tries. The first and the last are subject to 

 purchase by the Government at a fixed 

 price, the passenger machines must serve 

 in mancTuvres for a certain period each 

 year, and all receive in compensation 

 substantial payment divided m various 

 ways. 



At all times the problems of the com- 

 missariat, ammunition trains, and other 

 transportation facilities have been 

 serious ones for an army, and have fre- 

 quently p/oved the most severe drag on 

 the mobility and freedom of the fighting- 

 forces. With the use of horse waggons, 

 for instance, the typical German army 

 corps has a marching length, in troops 

 alone, of fifteen and one-half miles, but 

 to this must be added an unwieldly tail 

 made up of some 5000 men, 5000 horses 

 and 1200 waggons, which increases the 

 length of the marching column by from 

 fifteen to eighteen miles. If one adds 

 thereto the reserve supply column which 

 follows in the rear, the road behind an 

 army corps is occupied for a distance 

 of some thirty miles by appurtenances 

 of transportation all of which avail, 

 however, to carry only provisions 

 enough to support the corps for one 

 week^ and ammunition enough for its 

 use in a single battle. 



It IS due to this obvious and enormous 

 burden on the movements of the fight- 

 ing men in the field that mechanical 

 haulage has been developed. The field 

 railroad failed as a remedy because it 

 required so much time to lay its tracks, 

 and because its trackage destroyed the 

 usefulness of the road for waggon 

 transport. Attempted solution of the 

 problem by the use of self-propelled 

 vehicles is not a new thing. England 

 used traction engines in India as early 

 as 1873-74, and in the Transvaal ope- 

 rated such a locomotive with fifteen 

 trailers at first, and later some thirty-five 

 tractors of this type. Germany also 

 made use of two traction engines in the 

 Franco-Prussian War when the railroad 

 to Paris was blocked by the fortress of 

 Toul. But this type of war equipment 

 lost rather than gained in practical 

 utility, and it was not until the develop- 

 ment of the automobile during recent 

 years that forward strides were made. 

 The armies of all the Euro])ean nations 

 now include many motor vehicles, and 

 in Germany various types of motor- 

 drawn waggon trains ha\e been de- 

 veloped. 



Among the many advantages of motor 

 over horse-drawn equipment of this kind 

 are its greater endurance under load, 

 greater load capacit)', speed, saving in 

 number of men, horses and waggons, 

 great shortening of the column of march 

 and consequent increased freedom of 

 movement lor the troops, and lightened 

 burden of commissariat, ammunition, 

 and impedimenta of all sorts. For e\- 

 am])le, a provision column consisting of 

 thirty-six two-horse waggons will carry 

 from twent\--seven to thirty tons, and 

 takes up a length of about 450 )-ards, 

 whereas an ordinar\- motor truck, six- 

 teen to nineteen feet long, will carry 

 fdur, and with a trailer six Ions. A 

 column of fi\e cf these trucks with 

 trailers, then, woukl carry the same 

 tonnage as the horse-drawn train, but 

 would occup)' but 100 \ards, as against 

 the other's 450. Also it would ha\e a 

 dailv marching cajiacitv of about fift\-- 

 five miles, as against fifteen to e'ghleen 



