24 APRIL 1953, Page 5

All Aboard In the course of a year I spend

quite a lot of time climbing, or watching others climb, in and out of military vehicles, and I often wonder why their designers are at such pains to make this feat as difficult as they can. I see no real reason why it should be almost impossible for a soldier in full kit to clamber unaided into a three-ton lorry, or why so much time should be wasted when a party is embussing because of the acrobatic exertions which this process involves. Anyone who devised the simple sort of contraption which would obviate all this incon- venience would materially increase the mobility of our land forces.