Recovery in The Field - 1944
WO K.A. [Sandy] Tocock,mid - Recovery
Sandy Tocock
When I transferred to RAEME from the British Army in the early 1950s, I had with me a special issue of the British Machine Tool Engineering, Jan-Feb-Mar 1944. Its 114 pages were devoted to the then new Corps of REME, its organization, operation and techniques. The foreword was written by the first Director of REME, Major General E.B. Rowcroft; available on this link
The section on Recovery in the Field covered Pages 7 to 17. They have been reproduced as web pages and may be viewed in the links below.
For those who are interested in or involved in the technical aspects of recovery, these pages will be very valuable. Throughout a long career, including as commander of an Armoured Recovery Vehicle on Operations, and later as a training specialist, these pages were a constant reference
British Machine Tool Engineering ... Jan-Feb-Mar 1944
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Recovery in the Western Desert .. Continued
Fig46 .. A 19 ton Valentine tank well bogged down in the treacherous salt marshes near Tel-el-Eissa.
Fig47 .. The breakdown tractors and transporter arrive to recover the Valentine from the salt marshes.
Fig48 .. The two Scammell breakdown tractors get into position; note the improvised wheel chocks to prevent backward movement when winching.
Fig49 .. A three-way tow from Scammells and caterpillar tractor pulls the Valentine on to firm ground.
Fig50 .. The Scammell transporter takes the Valentine in hand.
To conclude this section we reproduce photographs of R.E.M.E. personnel effecting a very difficult job of recovering a 19 ton Valentine tank `The Barbarian' well bogged down in the treacherous salt marshes near Tel-el-Eissa.
The first illustration Fig46 will give some idea of the magnitude of the task and the method to be adopted had to be carefully thought out. In the next picture, Fig. 47, we see that the equipment brought up for the job consists of two Scammell breakdown tractors, a 30 ton Scammell tank transporter, and, in the distance, a caterpillar tractor.
Fig48 shows the two breakdown tractors being got into position, with improvised chocks behind the wheels to stop any backward movement when the winches go into action.
In Fig49 the help of the caterpillar tractor has been enlisted to provide a three-way tow (the second breakdown tractor can just be seen behind the tank turret) and the tank is gradually drawn on to firm ground, and finally up on to the transporter as seen in Fig50.
The work completed the vehicles move off in Fig. 51 with yet another tank that will live to fight again. (The photograph also shows the caterpillar tractor being transported on its trailer towed by one of the breakdown tractors.)
Fig51 .. The transporter and equipment move off ; R.E.M.E. has successfully tackled yet another difficult recovery job.
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