Rickshaws, Camels and Taxis
(Rogues, Ruffians and Officers of the Royal Corps of Transport)
Most books written about the British Army contain stories about the Infantry, Royal Artillery, Army Air Corps and/or its Armoured Regiments. They generally tell stories of how brave the protagonists within each Regiment were and how their actions usually changed the course of each battle or firefight. Great reading for most schoolboys and aspiring 2nd Lieutenants and of course these stories are deservingly told in vast volumes of books. But stories of who actually supported these Regiments and got them to the right place with the right equipment is rarely told, probably because stories of the supporting Corps and their soldiers are deemed to be too routine and dull for anyone to read.
But If it wasn’t for these so called REMF’s (Rear Echelon Mother F*****'s) then Britain’s fighting forces would be about as much use as a Regiment of traffic wardens. They might look good in uniform but when it comes to defeating the enemy they can’t do it without vast amounts of fuel, ammunition, rations, communications, medical support etc. Books written by Corps Officers don’t help in portraying the ‘Rear Echelon Troops’ with a more exciting vision either, they're usually written with quotes like, ‘If the strategic role of the blah blah blah was militarily blah blah blah and 17 Corps was in the vanguard blah blah bleeding blah. The small amount of reading materiel written by Corps officers rarely tells the stories of the soldiers serving under them, but they will tell you about when this Corps or that Division did something or other quite tedious and impersonal.
‘Rickshaws, Camels and Taxis’ (Rogues, Ruffians and Officers of the Royal Corps of Transport) will hopefully go some-way towards disproving the myth that its soldiers and officers are uninteresting and not noteworthy. The interviewees in this book have great stories to tell about how they dominated army boxing in the 1970’s, how some of them coped with prison sentences at the Military Correction Training Centre (MCTC) in Colchester, about being ambushed whilst on a Combat Logistics patrol in Iraq and what happened when one of the Corps' Staff Sergeants had a loaded pistol shoved in his face in Belfast.
The contents of this book does not tell the reader about Britain’s amazing fighting Regiments who have defeated an enemy force to protect our green and pleasant land, it quite simply tells the story of some amazing, and sometimes fighting, soldiers of the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT). All soldiers from every Corps and Regiment of the British Army have foible's and that includes these eleven, but these men would definitely be the sort of soldier you'd want standing at your shoulder 'when it all kicked off'.
Harry Clacy
(Rogues, Ruffians and Officers of the Royal Corps of Transport)
Most books written about the British Army contain stories about the Infantry, Royal Artillery, Army Air Corps and/or its Armoured Regiments. They generally tell stories of how brave the protagonists within each Regiment were and how their actions usually changed the course of each battle or firefight. Great reading for most schoolboys and aspiring 2nd Lieutenants and of course these stories are deservingly told in vast volumes of books. But stories of who actually supported these Regiments and got them to the right place with the right equipment is rarely told, probably because stories of the supporting Corps and their soldiers are deemed to be too routine and dull for anyone to read.
But If it wasn’t for these so called REMF’s (Rear Echelon Mother F*****'s) then Britain’s fighting forces would be about as much use as a Regiment of traffic wardens. They might look good in uniform but when it comes to defeating the enemy they can’t do it without vast amounts of fuel, ammunition, rations, communications, medical support etc. Books written by Corps Officers don’t help in portraying the ‘Rear Echelon Troops’ with a more exciting vision either, they're usually written with quotes like, ‘If the strategic role of the blah blah blah was militarily blah blah blah and 17 Corps was in the vanguard blah blah bleeding blah. The small amount of reading materiel written by Corps officers rarely tells the stories of the soldiers serving under them, but they will tell you about when this Corps or that Division did something or other quite tedious and impersonal.
‘Rickshaws, Camels and Taxis’ (Rogues, Ruffians and Officers of the Royal Corps of Transport) will hopefully go some-way towards disproving the myth that its soldiers and officers are uninteresting and not noteworthy. The interviewees in this book have great stories to tell about how they dominated army boxing in the 1970’s, how some of them coped with prison sentences at the Military Correction Training Centre (MCTC) in Colchester, about being ambushed whilst on a Combat Logistics patrol in Iraq and what happened when one of the Corps' Staff Sergeants had a loaded pistol shoved in his face in Belfast.
The contents of this book does not tell the reader about Britain’s amazing fighting Regiments who have defeated an enemy force to protect our green and pleasant land, it quite simply tells the story of some amazing, and sometimes fighting, soldiers of the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT). All soldiers from every Corps and Regiment of the British Army have foible's and that includes these eleven, but these men would definitely be the sort of soldier you'd want standing at your shoulder 'when it all kicked off'.
Harry Clacy
