Motorcycle Convoys

In England, not in action, but in England, convoys of the regiment, now the convoys were seven miles long, a regiment took seven miles long with, but you see with that it had to be 50 yards between each gun and vehicle, stretched out. You had to pass by that, seven miles of vehicles, to get to the Front to stand at the next crossroads and, holding your arm out the right direction that they'd go, they'd turn. You see, the roads in England it's, you have to, you have to, did you ever travel the roads in England? Without any signs whatsoever pointing in the right direction, find your way through some towns and villages. On the map it showed a Y. You'd come up and there's a Y. If you took the right one, you'd end up in, jammed into their whole outfit behind you, would be jammed into a, a barn yard or a, or a dead end street. That wasn't the Y at all. The Y went that way, it didn't show on the map that it went that way. But that's the way it was and so maps were killers. So to keep the regiment in tact on the way for a two day's trip up to Sennybridge in Wales, subalterns were on motor bikes and you continually leap-frogged ahead, now you're passing often, you know, the roads are about like that with hedges on both sides, and you're passing by the right hand side and you're passing, you're, you're brushing your sleeve on the squads going by here, and you're brushing the ivy on the thing there, and you're doing 70 miles an hour that's the only way you are ever get to the Front. With the thing wide open. So you had to be pretty well trained, even, even so, the hospitals, wards were full of motorcycle accidents. They were full of them.