ASC Ammunition Parks

[Chris_Baker]

Can any ASC expert out there tell me exactly what an Ammunition Park did? And what about an Ammunition Sub-Park?

[charlesmessenger]

Chris

Ammunition Parks were essentially dumps which kept the divisional ammuntion columns supplied.

Charles M

[pjjobson]

Can anyone explain the difference between the Ammunition Park and the Sub Park?

Thanks

[Old Tom]

Hello,

An interesting topic which I have tried to research without much success - not just ammunition parks but logistics in general. I think that the functions of ordnance and supply services and the French and later British railways interleaved and were subject to quite a lot of changes as the size of the BEF and its operations increased. At one end of the system were the Div Ammo Columns and Corps and Army RGA units and at the other the ports. Ammunition was moved by trains as far forward as practicable and stocks built up at or near the railhead. The term 'Park' has a long history as meaning a store, mobile or otherwise, set up in a theatre of operations. In the lead up to major operation very large stocks of ammuniton were built up and I suspect that these were split up and dispersed in order to suit the deployment of the div ammo columns and other ammunition users and to protect against the consequences of an enemy ait attack.

I don't think that answers the question but may be helpful.

Old Tom

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Chris, and Op-Ack

To add to what Old Tom said, Ammunition Parks were MT units of the ASC (with some gunners attached for care of ammunition) which collected ammo from either railheads or depots/dumps such as Audruicq, and took it as far forward as the roads permitted before handing it over to the horse-drawn Divisional Ammunition Columns. They corresponded to the Supply Columns for supplies other than ammo, which handed material over to Divisional Trains.

Originally they were L of C units provided on a scale of one per division. In about 1916 they became Corps units, being re-structured as a Corps Amm Park (HQ and Corps Troops) and a sub-park for each division in the corps. The sub-parks corresponded to the former L of C parks.

Supply Columns had a similar re-structuring. In 1918 the div supply columns and div amm (sub) parks were amalgamated as div MT Companies, but were still corps troops.

Hope this makes it all clear!

Ron

[pjjobson]

Thanks Old Tom and Ron, that is very useful and makes it very clear.

Phil