with an intended destination of San Francisco, California.
World War One vintage Motor Transport Corps recruiting poster.
This would be a long trip by contemporary standards, but in 1919 it was daunting in the extreme. Only adventurers with cash tried to drive across the United States as a rule. While it had been done quite a few times by 1919, it was not a short trip by any means. People who wanted to cross the country did it the logical and safe way. . . by train.
The purpose of this trip was several fold. A primary one was to test the inventory of trucks that the Army now owned, thanks to the Great War, in order to determine which ones were the best and weed out those that couldn't endure. Additionally, however, problems with the railroads during World War One, by which we mean labor problems, inspired the service to see if trucks were a viable means of transporting men and equipment for mobilization in time of war.
The scale of the test was massive. Over 250 men were detailed to the experimental operation which included repair vehicles and bridging equipment. Vehicles were highly varied and ranged from artillery tractors to to motorcycles. It's significance was appreciated at the time, and the Signal Corps was detailed to film the convoy in route, which was proceeded by a Publicity Officer and a Recruiting Officer who arrived in towns along the route several days ahead of the convoy. The route was that of the already established, but far from modern, Lincoln Highway.
Lincoln Highway route as of 1916, which was the same as it would be in 1919.
Command of the overall operation was in the hands of Lt. Col. Charles W. McClure with the actual "train" commander being Cpt. Bernard H. McMahon. Officers who were familiar with motor transport, including Bvt. Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, were detailed to the operation.
So how did day one go? Well, the official log of the trip gives us a picture, albeit a brief one, of the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment