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192 The Motor in Warfare
British equipment was magnificent. In
addition to its own normal supply of fourton
lorries, of a special War-Office type, it
than in the case of the British, and French
papers have been all but barren of information
throughout the war; but from
sundry stray allusions in the English papers
there is ground for believing that the
French piou-piou has been well fed, and
has fought in good spirits accordingly.
The Germans could tell a different tale.
Their initial motoring equipment was colossal
in itself, but the whole scheme of
supply failed by reason of the frustration
of their scheme of stalking through Belgium
and reaching Paris within a fortnight.
The "quick decisive blow" was
never realized, and, as the comfort of
their "cannon fodder" was the last thing
that Prussian autocrats had thought
about, the German army suffered the
pangs of hunger for days at a time. The
Kaiser himself, however, had a fleet of
From a photograph by "Topical" War Service.
Pegoud, the famous French aviator, in his military
uniform as one of the French Flying Corps.
had commandeered large numbers of fiveton
and three-ton vehicles. The firstnamed
naturally proved the most serviceable,
a number of the hastily acquired
wagons, which had already undergone
heavy commercial use at home, breaking
down from one cause or another in the
first two or three weeks of the war. They
were speedily replaced by newer vehicles,
however, and it may be said at once that
the commissariat has never failed on the
British side, and "Tommy Atkins" has
rarely been without good food in plenty.
That an army "fights on its stomach" is
a well-known military axiom; it was certainly
adequately fulfilled in the case of From a photograph by the Record Press, London.
the British troops, and what particularly Sharpshooters attached to the Belgian Flying Corps.
impressed the French was the self-contained
way in which they moved throughout,
carrying complete supplies and selcluding
a travelling kitchen of special de­
fifty cars for his immediate entourage, indom
needing to requisition from the towns sign.
through which they passed.
Not by any means the least interesting
There is no reason for supposing that feature of the "heavy-motor" equipment
the French lines were not equally well of the allied armies is the way in which
served by their motor-lorry trains. Even vehicles designed for peace purposes have
greater secrecy has been observed as to performed invaluable service. The British
commercial wagons already the equipment of General Joffre's army
mentioned