Unit & Truck ID: 4 Line of Communication (Railhead) Company R.A.S.C.

[David Dunlop]

Hi Kuno.

It looks like one of the challenges you have with this current, very interesting, project is understanding what the RASC and Railways have in common. You are correct in your assumption they do not share common railway equipment. The key to how they compliment each other is in the term "Railhead" assigned to RASC Units.

In railway terminology, a 'railhead' is essentially the end of the line. The railway terminates there and goes no further. That can create a serious problem for the military trying to get supplies to their troops where needed. Typically the nearest major military supply base could be many miles away from the railhead. In a high risk war zone, it is not in the best interests of either the railway, or the military, for the offloading of cargo at a railhead to take a long time. That ties up rail cars and puts railway equipment and RASC personnel at risk of attack, and significant loss of men, equipment and needed goods for everyone. So the military need to get goods at the railhead offloaded as quickly as possible and into their supply chain. That is where these RASC Railhead Companies were employed. As you have noted, they were issued with cargo trucks at the high end of the load carrying capacity. This enabled them to offload goods from a train as quickly as possible and get them on the road to the nearest military supply base, where other RASC units with fleets of smaller GS trucks could take over getting the required supplies out to where they were needed.

This is a bit of a generalization, Kuno, but hopefully helps you see how these Railhead Companies fitted into the supply distribution network. In a way, they worked most often well away from the front lines and the critical work they performed is ofter forgotten.

Good luck with your project!


David