Driving in Convoy

[Western SMT]

The following is an extract from my father's world war 2 experiences, he was a driver/clerk for REME mobile workshops.

Convoy driving in the dark was not as easy as it sounded.
Each truck had a white circle painted on the rear axle differential and the truck behind only used a pencil beam light so in theory if you were correctly positioned the light would show the white circle of the truck in front. Theories are all very well but in practice it was very easy to lose sight of the trucks.
I had the unenviable job of driving the 13th truck and having the Artificer Sergeant Major with me riding shotgun. All was going well this night or so I thought until we stopped at one of the many crossroads in Belgium, the first nine trucks had disappeared so I was now the 4th truck in the convoy. At this point a noise was heard and it sounded like a tank coming towards us and as we had no tanks in the area it was time to dive for cover. The scource of this noise stopped beside our trucks and discovered it was one of our own lost trucks driven by two Aberdeen comedians now towing a trailer they had found, and one of the trailer wheels was down to the metal rim making this tank coming noise. They were ordered to ditch the trailer and we continued, after many miles and losing more trucks I was now lead truck and seeing that the road ahead wasn't right I stood on the brakes throwing everybody in the back forward. After the shouting and swearing stopped we found out why the road wasn't right - there was no bridge ahead only a drop into the canal.
A local going down the canal path put us on the right road and all the trucks eventually met up at the designated area, so driving truck 13 was not as bad as it could have been.

[Energumen]

Good job there wasn't a war on. Oh!, there was!, goodness me.

Great story Mate, it is the fog of war.

[JamesPB]

When I was in the RAF Regiment in the very early 80s we used to drive in convoy like most other armed forces units i.e. with our lights on. Now that works fine in the UK as a way of recognising the military vehicles in front (permanent tail lights) of and behind you amongst all the other traffic which doesn't have and isn't required to have its lights on.
HOWEVER, once you get to certain countries on the continent e.g. all the Scandinavian countries, it no longer works because over here all vehicles are required to have their lights on all the time, from dark winter mornings to bright summer afternoons.

The last convoy I was on, was during the Falklands (spring 82), and we were going from RAF Hullavington (near Chippenham) to one of the tank firing ranges on Salisbury Plain to exercise with our Scorpions and APCs. The convoy included several low loaders carrying our Scorpion tanks and other Alvis CVRT vehicles, Sultan, Spartan etc. Because the rubber feet on the tracks of these had a very short life we weren't allowed to drive them on metalled surfaces....My lasting memory of the trip was the whole convoy stopping in some tiny Wilthsire town to buy fish & chips...and having purchased food I remember myself sitting on the roof of one of our SWB hardtop Landrovers. Christ knows what the public must have thought, II Field Squadron Airborne, the parachute sqn of the RAF Regiment out for a spin in the country with their Landrovers, 3 tonners (still S Type Bedfords) and armour on lowloaders.
Personally, as it was during the Falklands, I think a lot of our swanning around like that & in full uniform off station when off duty was a means of support for the public. And it made us feel good too.