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Remembered Today:

801 MT Coy ASC War Diary


Gardenerbill

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There was an airfield at Marian. Marian and Nigrita are south-east of Orljak at the north end of Lake Tahinos. They aren't all that far apart so I'd guess the guns were more or less at either end.

Keith

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Marian is now called Lygaria, about 8 miles SE of Orljak/Strymoniko. There was a British airfield there. Nigrita is now a sizeable town about 6 miles further SE.

They're Rolls Royce (I think!) armoured cars, and according to the French archives, the above photos were taken at Zeitenlik or Lembet Camp in August 1916.
Here's another photo of two of them on Koundouriotis Street, just behind the harbour at Salonika, probably taken the day they arrived. (The warehouse behind was bombed by the Zeppelin LZ85 on 1 Feb 1916, so the photo is definitely before that!)

post-16303-0-61377100-1384527740_thumb.j

Don't know about D.S.T., sorry, but sounds feasible! :)

Adrian

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I have just had a brainwave (rare) could D.S.T. be Divisional Supply Train?

Probably "Director of Supply and Transport"

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SO is normally the abbreviation for Staff Officer, followed by a number (1,2 or3) to identify the grade and consequent level of responsibility

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Once again Stephen I think you may be right, this entry from 30th November 1916 would mean that the officer mentioned has become a Staff Officer at the K72 dump

'2nd Lt Foucard took over duty of S.O. at Kilo 72'

If you look at the diary page at the start of this thread, the right hand column contains the description of what is being moved e.g. rations, but it also contains SO.

Could it be that the lorries listed are being sent to a dump to be used by the Staff Officer as required?

On the other hand it could be Stores Officer!

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I think I'd rather go with Stores or Supplies Officer. Staff Officer seems much too general a title for what would appear to be a specific post.

Keith

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Mark, sorry but I missed the part of your post about the lorries. I am sure that unit-based GS lorries were used, if available, by other functions. Some of the AA Sections around Salonika, in particular, record their lorries and their crews being seconded to Base for days at a time for unrelated transport duties, for example. It makes a fair amount of sense to use vehicles that are being under-utilised than to bring in others and have them under-utilised in turn.

Keith

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At the end of May 1917 the company continues to supply 287 A.T. Coy R.E. at 671/2.

An unnamed Captain of the Mobile Hygiene Laboratory inspects water supply.

1 lorry to B.M.T.D. for spares .

Cpl Fieldhouse on a sanitary course.

Then an interesting entry on the 23rd of May:

Major (local rank) Korderch J.M.T. came to inspect Corps vehicles & to see how much work I had on hand, took him to see Corps cars & A Air Sect lorries

Presumably a Major from the Greek army.

Finally 27th C.C.S. lorry inspection and Cpl Filedhouse returns.

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The last few days of May back to supplying 143 A.T. Coy R.E. at K621/4 day and night work.

Reconnoitred road across plain (not Seres), suitable for lorries from C.H.Q. near K72 to 3K beyond Kopriva.

Then on the 31st shifting H.Q's from Kajali to Livri and K72 to Livri.

Inspected Anti Aircraft Baty at Kopriva.

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Is there any mention of the make of lorries used? Early in the thread is a mention of 15 ton lorries. Were these on caterpillar tracks [1/2 tracks.]

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I haven't found any reference to the make of lorries used, so far. I have transcribed about 30 pages out of around 180 so there may be lorry makes mentioned in the coming pages. I think 15 tons is probably the unladen weight of the vehicle rather than the load capacity which tended to be 3 tons for the standard lorries. There is no evidence to suggest they were tracked and I suspect they were of the conventional type such as the Thorneycroft. The IWM have a number of pictures of lorries in Salonika and at some point I will try and identify the makes. I heard somewhere that the Royal Logistics Corps (formerly A.S.C.) have vehicle records in the museum at Deepcut barracks, another place on my list to visit. The lorries were also quite likely to be older refitted ones from the western front as Salonika tended not to get the latest gear.

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Checking the place names in post #36 on the SCS Military maps, Kopriva is north of Orljak on the western edge of the Struma valley, Kajali is a village at the end of a track to the south of the Seres road back in the mountains, however I couldn't find Livri. I did find Sivri again at the end of a track in the mountains to the North of the Seres road. Looking again at the war diary page I am convinced that it is Sivri. These H.Q. moves into the mountains for the summer were to avoid the heat and the mosquitoes down in the valley.

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Where did the 15t lorries come from?

Most,as you say, were 3t carrying capacity, but that would not mean an unladen weight of 12t.

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From the AA Diaries I know that there were Packard and Thorneycroft lorries in Salonika. Their three-ton GS lorries were replaced. later in the War, by 30-cwt Daimlers.

Keith

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The 15 ton lorry reference is on the first page of the war diary October 21st and reads:

'7 Lorries, 15 ton long, 1 Workshop long, two light cars and two motor cycles sent to Avonmouth'

This is when the company is forming at Bulford, the lorries are transported separately on the 28th aboard the S.S. Comerata.

post-91681-0-74159600-1385206607_thumb.j

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I have tried to decipher '15 ton lorry'. I wondered if it meant 1 x 5 ton lorry? The next bit I can't read.

The pics I have seen of lorries are 4 wheelers. These would probably carry 3/5 tons.

To carry 15 tons, I would expect to see at least 3 axles. I will dig about and try and see if there are any.

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Ah! Workshop lorry,

I'll still keep digging.

If you look at this thread there are loads of pages of motor vehicles.

 

 

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I have been following that thread for awhile, very interesting and I have copied the truck images from it onto my lap top.

I am building up a collection of truck images for identification purposes, I have a list of 34 manufacturers from Michael Young's ASC book of which I currently have 9 pictures.

There are some more pictures in the book that I plan to scan as well.

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Have you come across 15 tonners , Keith?

In a word, no. I don't think anything that size would have been much use in Salonika. The main roads were always struggling to cope with the volume of traffic, even after they had been upgraded. Out in the sticks roads could be much worse. Gun lorries had an all-up weight of something like 7 tons and got stuck in fords, broke bridges and had problems staying on the roads at all when the weather was bad. I may be talking tripe but I would think they'd get a lot more use out of a Decauville railway than trying to upgrade the roads to cope with super-heavy lorries. They certainly had caterpillars but they towed the heaviest guns and could never be classed as lorries. A five-tonner makes more sense than one three times the size.

Keith

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