154
W. A. REYNOLDS
All hospitals and medical services in China were very short of medical supplies both in terms of medicines, anaesthetics, equipment and everyday requirements such as bandages and sheets. In addition, in a time of inflation, assets were put into easily saleable form of which medicine, such as quinine, was a favourite. This meant that there was little western medicine for sale in the open market and supplies of such materials, whether in store or in transit, were a favourite target for thieves. However the greatest losses in the Nationalist armies were undoubtedly from the malnutrition/dysentery cycle from which, beyond a certain point, there was no recovery.
3 The daily routine on the road varied with the fuel used, but there were common features. The driver and mechanic (or assistant if carried) slept on the truck, the shorter in the cab and the taller on top of the cargo. This helped to prevent theft of cargo and removal of parts such as headlamps and half-shafts which were in great demand. Passengers slept in the nearest inn, or perhaps mission station. Techniques for an undisturbed and loss-free night in an inn included an oiled sheet (p.8) sewn into the bottom of the mosquito net which was then slit at one end and fastened with clips, and placing the bed or table legs into shoes to make unauthorized removal of them difficult.
Activity started at dawn and after refuelling and a check on wheels and springs a quick breakfast of ji dan dou jiang (p.8) taken from a travelling salesman, the truck would get under way. There would normally be a stop at a convenient fandian (p.8) between 10.30 and 12 noon- refuelling, wheel and spring checks and away again until late afternoon and a stop for the day.
Liquid fuel was carried in 50 (US) gallon drums and was siphoned out into 5 gallon cans for transfer to the truck tank. A skilled man, using a rubber hose, can induce a siphon by sucking at the end and avoid getting his mouth full of raw alcohol, rape seed oil or whatever the fuel might be. Operation and refuelling of the charcoal burning trucks was a much longer and dirtier procedure and is described in the section devoted to them.
4 The Sentinel/HSG trucks had an interesting history. With the loss of the coastal region and the main railway lines, China had not only lost the possibility of importing diesel fuel and petrol but had gained a number of experienced, but unemployed, steam railway engine drivers and firemen. The IRC decided to enquire into the possibility of steam road transport and got in touch with the Sentinel Steam Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd. at Shrewsbury, England, the major manufacturer in the past of steam road engines. The transport would use local coal or charcoal fuel and the available engine drivers and firemen. However, the tare weight of steam wagons is high and the gross weight would have been greater than the bridges would have stood. The Sentinel company suggested an alternative. They had recently taken up the designs of the High Speed Gas engine and offered a 5 ton capacity truck fitted with a 4 cylinder horizontal HSG engine with a 12:1 compression ratio. This burnt producer gas made from charcoal in a gas generator of the cross-draught type. Four of these Sentinel/HSG were purchased and may have been the first (and possibly only) ones built. One of these had been lost on the Burma Road and the remaining three contributed to the death of one man, resignation of another, and almost broke the hearts of several other Unit members. It should be a cardinal point never to introduce any equipment, mechanical or electrical, into a tough environment lacking supporting services, unless it has been in series production and has been thoroughly tested in similar conditions.
154
W. A. REYNOLDS
All hospitals and medical services in China were very short of medical supplies both in terms of medicines, anaesthetics, equipment and everyday requirements such as bandages and sheets. In addition, in a time of inflation, assets were put into easily saleable form of which medicine, such as quinine, was a favourite. This meant that there was little western medicine for sale in the open market and supplies of such materials, whether in store or in transit, were a favourite target for thieves. However the greatest losses in the Nationalist armies were undoubtedly from the malnutrition/dysentery cycle from which, beyond a certain point, there was no recovery.
3 The daily routine on the road varied with the fuel used, but there were common features. The driver and mechanic (or assistant if carried) slept on the truck, the shorter in the cab and the taller on top of the cargo. This helped to prevent theft of cargo and removal of parts such as headlamps and half-shafts which were in great demand. Passengers slept in the nearest inn, or perhaps mission station. Techniques for an undis- turbed and loss-free night in an inn included an oiled sheet (p.8) sewn into the bottom of the mosquito net which was then slit at one end and fastened with clips, and placing the bed or table legs into shoes to make unauthorized removal of them difficult.
Activity started at dawn and after refuelling and a check on wheels and springs a quick breakfast of ji dan dou jiang (p.8) taken from a travelling salesman, the truck would get under way. There would normally be a stop at a convenient fandian (p.8) between 10.30 and 12 noon- refuelling, wheel and spring checks and away again until late afternoon and a stop for the day.
Liquid fuel was carried in 50 (US) gallon drums and was siphoned out into 5 gallon cans for transfer to the truck tank. A skilled man, using a rubber hose, can induce a siphon by sucking at the end and avoid getting his mouth full of raw alcohol, rape seed oil or whatever the fuel might be. Operation and refuelling of the charcoal burning trucks was a much longer and dirtler procedure and is described in the section devoted to them.
4 The Sentinel/HSG trucks had an interesting history. With the loss of the coastal region and the main railway lines, China had not only lost the possibility of importing diesel fuel and petrol but had gained a number of experienced, but unemployed, steam railway engine drivers and firemen. The IRC decided to enquire into the possibility of steam road transport and got in touch with the Sentinel Steam Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd. at Shrewsbury, England, the major manufacture in the past of steam road engines. The transport would use local coal or charcoal fuel and the available engine drivers and firemen. However, the tare weight of steam wagons is high and the gross weight would have been greater than the bridges would have stood. The Sentinel company suggested an alternative. They had recently taken up the designs of the High Speed Gas engine and offered a 5 ton capacity truck fitted with a 4 cylinder horizontal HSG engine with a 12:1 compression ratio. This burnt producer gas made from charcoal in a gas generator of the cross-draught type. Four of these Sentinel/HSG were purchased and may have been the first (and possibly only) ones built. One of these had been lost on the Burma Road and the remaining three contributed to the death of one man, resignation of another, and almost broke the hearts of several other Unit members. It should be a cardinal point never to introduce any equipment, mechanical or electrical, into a tough environment lacking supporting services, unless it has been in series production and has been thoroughly tested in similar conditions.
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