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

[Kuno]

Unfortunately the documents of the museum say that the 4 L.o.C. did not exist anymore after the fall of France. This is confusing since I have its war diary of 1941 when it was in Egypt and Palestine. But also the war diary does not help me much further since it only mentions that A Section with 40 trucks was in Sudan.

[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

[Kuno]

Thank you very much for this explanation, David.

[Bob Carriere]

There was a major port on the far Eastern side of the Mediterean that ships were dropping off Canadian CMP and parts...... they were taken to a rail depot in Russia by trucks over Arab territory....... thinking of Bhasra.... so that would have the port...British truck depot...... overland by HD trucks convoy to a railhead in Russia??? Could have been RASC personnel.

Does anyone remember the sea port????

[Kuno]

Thanks Bob - I am afraid I have to limit myself to the time where one section of the unit was detached to the Kufra-Convoys.

[Kuno]

I am afraid but it appears that nobody (not only here) knows about this unit... so it will remain one of the "desert misteries"...

[Keith Brooker]

Hi Kuno,
Do you have any photographs with a unit sign on them as they might be in this book i had printed.
Keith