Convoy

“ Nevertheless, the convoy takes an easterly direction, and the men are so disposed as to cover the retreat. We are on a rocky kopje swept by an icy wind. Thinking we were to bivouac again further on, we had packed up our cloaks and rugs on the trolley. Our benumbed fingers can no longer grasp our rifles; we shiver, swear, and sneeze in chorus. ”

“ As we near the first school, we drive through a maze of narrow, walled streets with haphazard electrical wiring just out of reach of our Humvee’s antennas. Residents are lined on each side glancing curiously in our convoy’s direction. While some children laugh and wave, others try their best to ignore the convoy’s presence. ”

“ Our duties continued daily, with one or two exceptions, in an unbroken monotony for the remainder of the winter, loading the supply lorries at railhead one day and taking them out in convoy the next, to deliver the supplies to the troops who were billeted in the surrounding villages.
What cold journeys those convoy jobs used to be too! The front seat of a lorry leading a convoy, on a frosty, snowy, windy or wet day, is no place for a joy ride, and the only alternative for a section officer, namely, a motor-bicycle on a muddy or dusty road, as the case may be, is not much better. ”

“ Yet a few statistics eloquently disclose the part played by the convoy system in winning the war. In the latter months of the struggle from 91 to 92 per cent. of Allied shipping sailed in convoys. The losses in these convoys were less than 1 per cent. And this figure includes the ships lost after the dispersal of the convoys; in convoys actually under destroyer escort the losses were less than one-half of 1 per cent. Military experts would term the convoy system a defensive-offensive measure. ”

“ On the march our huge convoy stretches out in line, waggon following waggon along the rude track, and extending to a length of nearly ten miles. At night, of course, it collects (parks is the proper word) at some selected spot where the ground is favourable, and where in the shape of a sluit, river, or farm-dam there is water. On the slopes and hills around infantry pickets are set, while the convoy and main camp are massed in the hollow beneath. You must not think of our camp in the English sense of the word. We have no tents. ”

“ Convoying along roads which are in view and under observation of the enemy, even by night, is as exciting as it is a fascinating game, for even if the convoy is, by the absence of headlights, to all intents and purposes made invisible, the enemy is able to assume from their geographical positions what roads are of strategical importance and being made use of for transport purposes to the trenches. ”

“ There is no doubt that, where troops are marching with a big convoy, it is a wise thing to give the infantry a rest of a couple of hours in the middle of the day, as it enables the convoy to close up, to water and feed, and to get a short rest too. Transport animals travel all the better after being watered and after having had a short rest, and it is a sound policy to do this, as the column travels all the faster afterwards. ”

“ It is the convoy that always hampers our movements so, that dictates the formation of an advance and makes us almost a passive target to attack. Our convoy with Ian Hamilton must have been seven or eight miles long, and was often delayed for hours at fords and creeks, where scenes of wild confusion took place and you were deafened with yelling Kaffirs and cracking whips. ”

“ Our intention is to give out that we are going down the valley to meet the convoy and to block the mouth of a pass from which we profess to expect an attack. Very good. We shall make a night-march to-night and reach their camp. Once there I shall conceal my two hundred men in the waggons and travel up with the convoy again.
Our friends the enemy, having heard that we intended to go south, and seeing the caravan going north without us, will naturally swoop down upon it under the impression that we are twenty miles away. ”

“ We marched on a few miles, and bivouacked, while the whole convoy slowly trailed in, and formed up in laager. This operation, and the business of posting the troops for the night, is horribly tedious. It has to be done in the dark, and one is continually mounting and dismounting, and moving on a bit, and making impossible wheels round mules and waggons. ”

“ The Boche makes a present to France of only such human wreckage as is unuseful for his purposes. He is an acute man of business. The convoy consisted of two classes of persons—the very ancient and the very juvenile. You can't set a man of eighty to dig trenches and you can't make a prostitute out of a girl-child of ten. ”

“ Wagons in convoy travel at a rate of from 1 to 2 miles an hour, according to the state of the roads, and other circumstances; and a mile may be said to contain 100 wagons. A great object in the march of a convoy, is to preserve the draught animals as much as possible from fatigue. For this purpose, if the convoy amount to many hundred wagons, they must be formed into divisions of not more than 500 each. Should it consist of thousands, it will be advisable to form them into grand divisions, and then again into subdivisions of 500 each. ”

“ The escort for a convoy should be divided into front, centre, and rear guards; beside the divisions for the flanks, which should never be beyond musquet shot, or at most 400 yards from each other. The whole escort should never be so separated that they could not be collected in an hour. Under proper precautions against an enemy, a convoy of any size cannot travel more than ten or fifteen miles per day. ”

“ England demands it. The whole civilized part of this world demands that you be successful. And now, here is the actual part you are to play. Down there somewhere off the coast of France is that raider and her under-sea wolf pack. Sometime tonight she will probably put to sea to maneuver into position to make her surprise attack upon the convoy just before dawn when the light is bad and the convoy's lookouts are staring into a rising sun. Between midnight and dawn you will make contact with that raider and her pack, locate her, and lure her into the waiting arms of British warships. ”

“ Convoy.—A convoy consists of provisions, military munitions, &c., sent from one point to another, under the charge of a detachment of troops, called an escort. When regular dépôts and magazines are established, with proper relations to the line of operations, convoys requiring particular escorts are seldom necessary, because the position of the army will cover the space over which the magazines are to be moved. But in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, or in a country whose inhabitants are hostile or insurrectionary, precautions of this kind should always be resorted to. ”

“ The engineers had finished an overlay strip map of the route by then, and mimeographs began to spin out copies for the quartermaster drivers. An MP platoon moved out in a truck and one man was dropped at each tricky intersection to wave the convoy through. Each MP had a couple of K-rations with him, because he'd be busy long into the night; as the convoy went past the rearmost men they'd be picked up in the truck and leap-frogged ahead of the foremost men to the next tricky intersections. ”

“ A convoy is an association for a hostile object. In undertaking it, a nation spreads over the merchant vessel an immunity from search, which belongs only to a national ship; and by joining a convoy, every individual ship puts off her pacific character, and undertakes for the discharge of duties which belong only to the military marine, and adds to the numerical, if not to the real, strength of the convoy. ”

“ Convoys of evacuation shall be treated as mobile sanitary formations subject to the following special provisions:
1. A belligerent intercepting a convoy may, if required by military necessity, break up such convoy, charging himself with the care of the sick and wounded whom it contains.
2. In this case the obligation to return the sanitary personnel, as provided for in article 12, shall be extended to include the entire military personnel employed, under competent orders, in the transportation and protection of the convoy. ”

“ There are several vessels in the harbour which have discharged their cargoes and have not yet taken fresh ones on board, but are waiting to sail for England under a convoy. They will, no doubt, be glad of a job in the meantime.”
[pg 181] Four days later the cutter again put to sea, with five merchantmen and a frigate, which was charged to act as a convoy. When they arrived off the inlet Will went ashore, and to his delight found the storehouses intact, and the little garrison all well. ”

“ But it's here we are, pilot—not outside yet. A clearing out there doesn't show us th' leading marks, and I'll not risk it. I've no fancy for nosing into th' nets and booms. I know where I am here, and I won't stir a turn—unless"—bending over the light screen towards the launch—"unless you lead ahead!"
The convoy officer is somewhat embarrassed. Certainly the weather is as thick as a hedge; there is no 'drill' of convoy practice that empowers him to order risks to be taken—navigation of the ships is not his province. It is enough for him to arrange and advise and assist. ”

“ Then the figure “ (c) ,” that is, “3 (c) ,” and there it says:
“During an attack on a convoy one may have to submerge to a depth of 20 meters to escape from patrols or aircraft and to avoid the danger of being sighted or rammed....”
Thus we are talking here about a convoy. Now we turn to point “ (d) ” and here it says:
“It may become necessary to submerge to depth when, for example, the destroyer is proceeding directly toward the periscope...” ”

“ What the one hundred volunteers for this convoy had to contend with during the trip is a tale of its own, which must be related in terms of hardship, rain, mud, and mules.
CHAPTER XIX. (p. 093) AN ADVENTUROUS CONVOY.
What could be more pleasant or soothing to an adventurous spirit than a trip in the saddle through the scarred and devastated battle sector along the Lorraine border? This is what appealed to the boys of Battery D when announcement was made at Blancheville early in December that one hundred men were wanted to accompany a horse convoy to Longwy on the Belgian border. ”

“ Speed will be assigned by signal. During daylight every effort will be made to determine the revolutions necessary to [Pg 24] make the speed of the convoy in order that each ship may maintain a more nearly constant speed during the darkness.
Convoy will be manœuvred as necessary by the Battle Signal Book. Ships will manœuvre independently in accordance with the Rules of the Road in all cases when necessary to avoid collision. When convoy alters course each ship of the convoy will turn in the wake of the next ahead except in zigzagging when all turn together. ”

“ The most valuable convoy ever to set sail for a British port. Its cargo contains tons and tons of war materials most vital to our immediate needs. Food stuffs, raw materials, medical supplies, guns of all kinds, a thousand crated airplanes made in the United States and Canada, oil, gasoline ... everything that we need so badly. I don't need to tell you the staggering losses that Nazi U-boats and surface raiders have already inflicted upon England's merchant marine. The whole world knows the great toll that has been taken. ”

“ At 9:30 a. m. the convoy got started on the road. The convoy consisted of 96 mounted men leading 237 mules, the rolling kitchen drawn by four mules, in charge of George Musial, who had the assistance of Cook Burns and two K. P.'s in preparing meals enroute. Five auto trucks, carrying the forage and picket-line equipment, formed the remainder of the train.
Slowly the convoy proceeded over the mud-covered road leading from Lux. At noon stop was made at Fontaine-Francais, where the animals were watered in a stream and given nose-bags. ”

“ The different divisions of the convoy should be numbered, and obliged each day to change the order of their marching. Whenever the progress of a wagon-train is arrested by the breaking down of one of the wagons, or other delay, all the wagons in rear of the stoppage should immediately drive up into the first open space, to as great a number as it will hold. ”

“ Our shift of helm brought that portion of the convoy, in the midst of which the big brigantine was pursuing her nefarious trade, square upon our weather-beam, but as we were now going off practically at right angles to the course steered by the convoy, and as both they and we were sailing at a good rate, our relative positions very quickly altered ”

“ The orders stated that if it became necessary to pursue, the convoy would be sent back by the shortest route to the railway, that the mounted men would have to live on the country without supply, and such men whose horses gave in would have to walk east against the course of the sun, which line, after 20 to 25 miles, would bring them to the railway, where they could stop the first passing train. ”

“ Pledget and Gingham, deeming the road now safe, pushed forward to Aire, leaving the cart to follow with the convoy. At the same time, our numbers experienced a still more considerable diminution. Our cavalry escort, also, received orders to push forward, and started before us in high spirits, with the prospect of immediate operations. The convoy was, accordingly, left with only the infantry as a guard, under Corporal Fraser. ”

“ Now freight trains in France are quite unguarded and so at the mercy of marauders. Indeed the losses in transit have been so serious that since the armistice it has been the custom to have cars containing American goods “convoyed” to their destination by soldier guards. Last summer of course the men could not be spared for convoy duty. So it was the easiest thing in the world for the — Engineers to “cut out” a Y. or a Red Cross car, side-track it, and lighten the load at their leisure. ”