French Ray Posted 4 January , 2015 Share Posted 4 January , 2015 Good evening, I have been piecing together the war record of my Grandfather. I have the following information 12.06.14 Attested at Brighton for 4 years into Transport Section Home Counties Division ASC 05.08.14 Embodied 14.09.14 Signed Imperial Obligation at Canterbury Station 23.12.16 with 662 Coy ASC 03.17.17 Sent To Salonika as reinforcement 09.02.17 joined 84th IBHQ in Salonika 14.09.18 att. to 857 ATC 02.11.18 IBHQ Salonika The questions I have are He was originally sent to the BHTD at Salonika. Would this have been where the Horses(were there more mules than horses?) would have been kept and maintained prior to use. If so how many horses/mules would there have been. I can see that on the 14.09.18 he was attached to the 857 ATC. Would this have happened because he would have been involved in the 2nd Battle of Doiran. If so in what capacity. His B178 document which is undated mentions 2/No1. Co HC Div. Train. Where does this fit in ? would this be his posting after training or at some other point. After embodiment on the 05.08.14 would he have gone to Canterbury(where he signed his Imperial Obligation) for basic training ? Finally would I be correct in saying ASC Drivers did not carry weapons and generally speaking were well behind the front line. Sorry to ask so many questions but I want to do my Grandfather justice without any over embellishment. Regards Ray l Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardenerbill Posted 5 January , 2015 Share Posted 5 January , 2015 Ray, I am not an expert on horse transport, but I think the BHTD would have been responsible for managing things like remounts, supply of feed, equipment such as limbers and tack and of course farriers, blacksmiths drivers etc, all to support the HT companies in the field. From memory I think there were around 160,000 animals (horses and mules) used to supply the BSF. Your Grandfather probably spent some time in a transit camp at the BHTD waiting to be posted. 857 ATC I think should be 857 HTC, this company is described in Michael Young's ASC book as a Train Pack Echelon Auxiliary Pack Company (HT) and was attached to 28th Division, so probably mules. Again from memory during the 2nd battle of Doiran September 1918 28th Division attacked the Bulgarian lines with the Greeks to the north east of Lake Doiran (you can check this on the 'Long Long Trail' parent site). Although transport companies were non combat, they had to supply units in the front line and were therefore vulnerable to artillery and sniper fire and enemy aircraft bombing raids. In my research of an MT company there are references to Musketry training so I assume the men were armed so that they could at least defend themselves adequately if required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin kenf48 Posted 5 January , 2015 Admin Share Posted 5 January , 2015 This photograph from the extensive IWM collection on Salonika shows a Divisional Train (albeit in 1916) it was not a small undertaking. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205213318 You will notice the drivers all carry rifles and if you refer back to the first of your now three threads on this man in your photograph of him seated on a horse he is wearing a bandolier with ammunition pouches which were used for carrying the bullets before loading them into rifles. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
French Ray Posted 6 January , 2015 Author Share Posted 6 January , 2015 Hi Thanks for the info. Great picture. Regards Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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