"The Brains Behind the Move"

Hore-Belisha's speech continued to describe theorganisation required to transport the BEF to France with some interesting comparisons with 1914.

It was a small body of specially selected officers in the War Office who, with seven confidential clerks and typists, secretly worked out every detail of the plan for moving the Army and the Royal Air Force to France. They foresaw and provided for every need: the selection of ports and docks, of roads and railways, of accommodation of all types, of rest camps and depots, of hospitals and repair shops, at every stage on both sides of the Channel. Their ingenuity, their precision and their patience would have baffled Bradshaw....

The Expeditionary Force has been transported to France intact without a casualty to any of its personnel.

May I describe to the House some aspects in which the task on this occasion has differed from that of 1914, although , as one watches the process, continuing with the smoothness of a machine, one finds it hard to believe that there has been a break of 25 years in the passage of these two armies?

Then the men marched on to the ships, the horses were led, and a light derrick could lift what the soldier could not carry. In those days there were only 800 mechanised vehicles in all, and it was a rare load that exceeded two tons.

We have already on this occasion transported to France more than 25,000 vehicles including tanks, some of them of enormous dimensions and weighing 15 tons apiece or more.

Normal shore cranes could not raise them, special ships were required to carry them and highly trained stevedores to manipulate them. Consequently, as contrasted with 1914, where ordinary vessels took men and their material together from the usual ports, in this case the men travelled separately and the heavier mechanisms had to be transported from more distant ports, where special facilities were available. The arrangements for the reunion of the troops with their material om the other side made an additional complication.

Similarly, and for other reasons also, more remote landing places had to be selcted in France, thus making the voyages much longer.

Again internally, and as a precaution against air attack, more devious internal routes were taken than in 1914. Vehicles and men were dispersed in small groups, halted in concealed areas by day and moved onwards by night.

As with transport, so with maintenance, the problem has become greater than it was a generation ago.

Every horse eats the same food and can continue, like man, to move though hungry. Vehicles come to a standstill when their tanks are empty. There re in France 50 types of vehicle, and most of them require a different grade of fuel and lubricant. Great reserves have had to be conveyed and stored...