With the Mad 17th to Italy. By Major E. II.
Hody. (Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d. net.)—This lively book will make the civilian understand the strenuous labours of the Army Service Corps, which is indispensable and yet rarely gets a word of com- mendation. The author was suddenly ordered on October 28th, 1917, to take the 17th Divisional Supply Column by road from the Salient to Italy, whither the Twenty-third Division, to which the column was attached, was going in hot haste by rail to relieve the Italian Armies after Caporetto. Major Hody had to conduct some sixty heavy motor-lorries, with workshop lorries, to Ventimiglia by the night of November 9th. The route fixed for him was over eight hundred miles long, and avoided main roads and large towns, so that it was difficult to follow on the imperfect maps provided for the column, and often led through rough country. The lorries were continually breaking down, and the travelling repair staff were at work day and night. Nevertheless the column reached the Italian frontier at the appointed time, having travelled over eighty miles a day for ten successive days. It then went up into Lombardy and Venetia, and for three busy months helped to feed the British troops north and east of Mantua, especially in the Montello. Major Hody's spirited narrative is not concerned with the war in general, but with his own particular work, and for that reason it is instructive as well as amusing. If we allow for the exceptional difficulties caused by the war, the story is a wonde.ful tribute to the efficiency of road motor-transport. Most of Major Hody's troubles were due to overworked and defective engines, lack of spare tires, and, in Italy, an insufficient number of skilled drivers. We are sorry to learn from the Preface that the author died soon after he had completed his very readable book.
Previous page
