The presentation will be live and online.
The Army Service Corps tended to be the butt of the Western Front joke but without them there was no fighting or surviving. By mid-1917 the ASC had mushroomed into a gigantic supply and movement organisation supporting every aspect of the BEF. Guns and shells, rations and RE materials, bullets and boots, gum, thigh and even lemons and chewing gum, the ASC moved and supplied them all.
Behind the front-line ASC units was the strange world of those staff officers whose work is never celebrated. Exotic figures such as the SMTO, AA&QMG, DT, and DDS&T were the men who organised this tremendous undertaking. But who were they? What did they do? How did they do it? This talk by Rob Thompson aims to shed some light on this ignored and truly forgotten world, without which military failure was guaranteed.
Members wishing to participate will need to register: details of how to register will be circulated via the WFA's newsletter 'Trench Lines'. If you are not a subscriber to 'Trench Lines' please subscribe now.
To subscribe to Trench Lines, go to the home page of the WFA web site and complete your details in the 'Newsletter signup' box.
It is also possible to register by clicking this link: Lemons, Chewing Gum, Whale Oil and Rivets
The talk will be undertaken using the 'Zoom' software which is freely available. It may not be necessary to load the software to your PC / iPad etc: but we would recommend doing so if you wish to participate in this event.