14th L.A.M.B.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Would anyone know of a Regimental History of The 14th Light Armoured Motor Battery,in Mesopotamia,1916~21,I have read the Kermit Roosevelt Book but am hoping there may be a more O/R friendly Tome,As I am trying to research one L/Cpl;A J Sproule MM RASC{Attd 14LAMB}presumably as a Driver/Mechanic of the RR Armoured Cars!;Any suggestions welcome?

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

A late night sojurn to the CWGC site & an hunch off chance check to see if A.J.Sproule had been a victim of the London Blitz,as he had lived in Holloway in 1919, & was probably in some arena of Civil Defence,ARP;AFS, or the Like,revealed to my astonishment that his poor Wife,Agnes Galbraith Sproule,aged 50, was listed as a Civilian War Casualty @ 60 Prince John's Road,Woolwich,Oh what a tangled "Web" we weave{no pun intended}its wonders to amaze;A whole new avenue of research now opens up,what happened to #60 Prince John's Road!!!!in March 1941,that resulted in the death of poor Mrs Sproule?

[charlesmessenger]

To my knowledge no history of 14 LAMB exists, but its war diary is at the National Archives, Kew under WO 95/4996. It arrived in Mesopotamia from the UK on 1 Jan 17. It is, however, many years since I have looked at the war diary and so can't vouch for its detail.

All armoured car drivers were badged ASC and the remainder were Machine Gun Corps.

Charles M

[david murdoch]

It's hard going finding anything detailed on any of the L.A.M.B units, Ive been at it for a couple of years. My grandfather was with 8th L.A.M.B through to the begining of 1920 (he was MGC(M). I am away at work right now, but when I get back to Scotland I will dig through my paperwork and see if I have anything relating to 14th L.A.M.B.

As Charles mentioned the ASC and MGC(M) retained their separate badges. In L.A.M.B units there were usually eight armoured cars, divided into four 2 car sections. Then they had several open tops or "box bodies", lorries, cars and also motorbikes which were used to scout ahead for suitable routes for the cars and provide flank protection. In the L.A.M.B training booklet I have it states that the MGC pesonnel had to instruct the drivers in loading ammunition belts and loading/firing the guns, and for sure the gunners would all have done basic driving - training was done on a "heavy lorry" before getting near an armoured car. A lot of the MGC guys came from motor machine gun batteries and were mechanical types. These were pretty small units, and were leading edge technology for the time, both in equipment and tactics.

A good book for background on the vehicles is David Fletcher's War Cars, and you may find photographs of 14 L.A.M.B from the Tank Museum archive.

David