RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q Tehgchuan 甘肅 GANSU Paschi SHANSI Slau = 成都 SZECHMAN Cheng tu HUBEI 重度 演练 ChungKinE Lushien 贵州 KHEICHOW Pichieh Kweiyang Tali Anshun Kutsing, Tu yun 下面 南庄 Ustakuan Paoshan 昆明 Nactan Kunming 河池 Hochih TUNNAN 源涟 Yuinling, 長沙 Changsha 兴遠 Xingyuan ○ 柳州 Liuchow KWANGSI 湖南 HUNAN Fig. 1. Map of China showing FAU Transport Main Routes A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 137 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 138 W. A. REYNOLDS The first two of these had their own transport fleets, the NHA had a few worn-out trucks, while the mission hospitals were partially serviced by the International Relief Committee (IRC) which also had some worse-for-wear trucks. It was decided that the best service the Unit could render was to take over responsibility for transport and distribution of medical supplies within China for the NHA and the IRC. The immediate task was transporting about 140 tons of medical supplies which had accumulated in Kunming to Kweiyang and Chungking. Thus the Unit became the major civilian medical and relief transport organization with a series of routes totalling about 6,000 km, and shown on the map in Fig. 1. For the next four years the pattern remained much the same; the supplies came by air over the "Hump" to Kunming where the Unit took delivery and transported them by road, rail and boat to all areas of China under the control of the Government in Chungking. It was not possible to take supplies to the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border Region controlled by the Eighth Route Army or to the New Fourth Army areas. The first medical supplies reached Yenan in Feb, 1946 at the time of the Marshall negotiations when the writer arrived with 3 truck loads; an interesting trip but outside the scope of this paper.2 Transport Routes and Operation The tonnage of goods moved on the different routes (See Fig. 1) varied but throughout the 4 year period 1942-45, three routes carried the major portion. These were: 1) Kutsing-Luhsien (✰★-✯⇓) 742 kilometres. This ran from the Kunming-Chanyi railhead 170 kilometres to the west of Kunming to Luhsien on the Yangtse Kiang. 2) Kutsing to Kweiyang (-) 500 kilometres. This is the capital of Kweichow province and site of the IRC distribution operations, especially to Kwangsi, Kwangtung and Kiangsi. 3) Kweiyang to Chungking (†-1A) 490 kilometres. Chungking was, of course, the war time capital of the Republic and is at the confluence of the Yangtse and Kialing Rivers. A diagram map and profile of the first route is given in Fig. 2. The other routes are included in Table III. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 500 ... 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 2040 2125 1970 2150 2060 2100 1920 104 150 200 ... M 154. 414 1 ... 10+ ... KUNNING YONNAI ... 南 一方 2200 2050 宣威 2380 YANGLIN ELONG MALONG KUTSING YENGTANG SUANWEI 2480 2300 一哲笔 2490 2400 2630 2400 2530 2630 THE CHOU HE SHIH TOH WSINING KWEICHOW 2420 1640 1890 野為川 1940 £750 3070 ... 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 Fig. 2. Map and Profile of the Kutsing - Luhsien Road 1750 1820 1600 000 1750 1600 800 ... MAKUCHER HECHANG YEN A CAL'DAN 700 480 500 500 480 *... 850 900 490 ... 520 139 PICHIEN YEH TŠE KLOU CH'IA SHUIDO NING PAN SHANT ZECHWAN ... 川 SUYUNG (SHANG BA CHANG NACH'E LAN TIEN PA A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 140 W. A. REYNOLDS It will be seen that many of the routes were mountainous, and the road near Makuchen () on the Kutsing-Luhsien (Fig. 2) run reaches 2,630 metres. The grading in almost all places was good and reflected credit on the engineers who had surveyed and built the routes, mainly with manual labour impressed from the surrounding countryside. There were no sealed or tarmac surfaces and the roads were kept in repair by filling potholes with hand-broken small stones. The first permanent transport base was at Kweiyang where the Unit took over and extended the garage maintained there by the IRC outside the city at Shi Sang Shi (4%). (Plate 18) Cover for four trucks, stores, tinsmiths and engine overhaul shops, office and living quarters for drivers, mechanics and their families were provided. The godown was at the old IRC headquarters inside the city, a Confucian temple courtyard (M). Other bases were purpose-built. Kutsing (), opened for operation in June 1942, became Unit Headquarters in August 1942 and had a large godown. Luhsien (⇓) was a small base used for serving trucks on the arduous Kutsing-Luhsien run and forwarding supplies to Chengtu by truck or by boat down river to Chungking. A small group with one or two trucks was based on the West China Union University (#606★*), campus at Chengtu for 1942 and part of 1943 for distribution to many institutions in that area and up to Paoki (**). In early 1944 a permanent garage was acquired and extended on the South Bank at 44 kilometres milestone at Chungking, and this later became a major base. Each transport base had a garage Manager, with assistants in the large ones, and an Agent who looked after all paperwork, permits and cargo details, with an assorted force of employee mechanics, tinsmiths, carpenters etc. Drivers and mechanics also worked on their trucks when in the base. Details of garage operations and numbers are discussed fully in a later section. The time taken for journeys varied widely according to the motive power of the truck (petrol, alcohol, diesel or charcoal gas), the skill of the driver in maintenance (especially with charcoal powered trucks) and the state of the road and the weather. When the diesel powered Fords, described in a later section, were new, convoys of 2-3 trucks would regularly complete the Kutsing-Luhsien (724 kilometres) run in 3-4 days giving, with crew rest days and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 141 loading and unloading, a week-long trip and turn round with a 24 ton payload. Charcoal powered trucks would, on average, cover 100 km. per day with a payload of 2 tons. One experimental charcoal powered truck took 5 weeks to cover the 500 km. from Kutsing to Kweiyang but, as a contrast, on one occasion Chungking to Kweiyang (490 km.) was covered in 24 days with a full load on charcoal. In addition to cargo, passengers were carried. This was done by all transport organizations since there was no public road transport. Passengers were of three varieties: official, ones who were on the manifest and had paid the organization; unofficial or huang yu (★★) who had paid the driver, and other drivers or mechanics whose truck had ‘pie mao'd' () and were going for spares etc. The Unit endeavoured to carry 'variety one' passengers only. These might be missionaries travelling to or from station, officials of cooperating or friendly organizations such as IRC, CIC, NCC, YMCA and YWCA, and also refugees. In 1942 these included Professor Gordon King and numbers of H.K. University students (including the present Vice-Chancellor) travelling to continue their studies in Szechuan. Passengers, unless with a child or otherwise privileged, rode on top of the load. Plate 19 shows the two Sentinel-HSG trucks on route to Chungking with cargo and the entire staff of the IRC Kweiyang office aboard. The normal procedure on main routes was to run trucks in convoys. This reduced the number of spares which had to be carried and ensured that help was available for extraction from ditches and repairing breakdowns. However, the speed of a convoy is that of the slowest member and optimum results for liquid fuel trucks were obtained with 2 or 3 in each convoy. With charcoal power, because of the variation in performance between trucks and the skill of drivers, single truck operation with a crew of two or three was eventually found best. For long range convoys, on liquid fuel, such as the 5,000 km. round trip to Suchow, there were a minimum of two men per truck. Equipment The original transport equipment, purchased in USA, was 20 Chevrolet trucks with a normal load capacity of 3 short tons. These came equipped with steel cabs and had wooden bodies with hoop ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 142 W. A. REYNOLDS and canvas tops added in Rangoon. Other similar trucks were obtained during the fall of Burma, but in the event a total of 12 trucks were left behind there. As has been mentioned earlier, the Unit took over the existing IRC fleet which was a very mixed bag. It also purchased eight Dodge 3 tonners in Chungking from Liddell and Co., a merchant house. Another addition was five 1938 Ford chassis into which replacement Hercules 4 cylinder diesel engines were fitted. By May 1942, the Unit had a fleet of 30 trucks, and those held in Feb. 1943 are listed in Table VI. Some of these were obtained by an ingenious arrangement. Some mission organizations had purchased trucks, brought them to Rangoon and taken them up the Burma Road loaded with supplies and people. It was, however, uneconomic and difficult for the organization to run the trucks once their destination had been reached. The Unit, therefore, offered to take them over in return for 16,000 km. tons of haulage of their organizations' goods.4 With the fall of Burma, importation of fuel oil, lubricating oil, and petrol became impossible except by air. Low octane petrol and diesel fuel were available at the Yumen oilfield in Kansu, some 3,000 km. from the centre of operations. The alternative fuels were rape-seed or other vegetable oils for the diesel engines, alcohol produced from sugar cane, and 'petrol' distilled from tung (#) oil for the petrol engines. All these fuels suffer from serious shortcomings. The rape-seed oil had a high acid content which gave rapid wear on the fuel pumps, injectors, and cylinders of the diesel engines, and these were worn out after two years of hard service. The alcohol was not only expensive, it was also rationed and gave a fuel consumption double that of petrol with the engines and carburettors available. The water content of the alcohol also caused rusting in the fuel tanks. The tung oil petrol was better but cost (in October 1942) NC$130 a gallon when the exchange rate was NC$80 to 1 pound sterling. The alternative was to convert trucks to run on gas produced from charcoal. The technical description of the system used is given later. Conversion sets were first purchased and later manufactured by the Kweiyang and Kutsing depots. Considerable skill and experience were required to operate the systems successfully, and the maximum power obtainable was perhaps 70% of that on petrol. The apparatus took up room and increased the tare of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q Table III FAU Transport Routes and Distances 1942 - 1945 ROUTE VIA. DISTANCE IN KM. Years of Main Use 1. KUTSING — LUHSIEN WEINING and PICHIEH 742 1942, 1943 & 1944 2. KUTSING - KWEIYANG ANNAN and ANSHUN 500 1943, 1944, 1945 3. KWETYANG CHUNGKING TSUNYI and TUNGCHI 490 1943, 1944, 1945 4. KWEIYANG CHINSHENG KIANG MA-CHAN and HANTAN 440 1942, 1943 5. - KUNMING KUFSING 162 1942 6. KUNMING — PAOSHAN HSTAKWAN 673 1942, 1944 7. CHENGTU - LUHSIEN LUNGCHANG 313 1942, 1943 8. CHUNGKING CHENGTU NEICHANG 450 1944, 1945 9. CHENGTU PAOKI KWANGYUAN 1155 1942, 1943 10. CHUNGING — SUCHOW MIENYANG - KWANGYUAN SHUANGSHIPU- TIENSHUI LANCHOW - WUWEI 2301 1943, 1944, 1945 A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 157 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 Checked by Michael Fox and Tony Reynolds Copies to COG Chungking GM Kutsing M Fox T Reynolds Truck No. 21. List of Tools Spares and Equipment: 23:3:45 Page Two 1 Chev water pump 1 chev rear spring main leaf 1 front spring assembly. 10 leaf. 3 spring clamps 4 front spring U bolts 2 rear spring U bolts 5 rear spring center bolts (enlarged for Dodge) 2 rear wheel bearing locking rings 1 roll asbestos assorted copper pipe 1 syphon hose 1 tuyere 1 offtake grid 1 half shaft (short) 159 ================================================================================