Help with 21 Army Group Main Car Company

Evening All
The Trux archive is a fantastic resource - though I sometimes find it needs a little unpacking. I've been working my way through the car company that handled 21 Army Group headquarters's transport. Looking at the lists there appears to be a missmatch between vehicles and drivers. Each of the five transport platoons appears to have fewer drivers than they have vehicles. Overall there are 368 vehicles and 437 all ranks. However, a number of these are non-driver roles like cooks and clerks, reducing the available total to 352. Looking at individual platoons, the problem appears more accute - as an example E Platoon has 57 vehicles and only 39 soldiers of all ranks. At least three of those seem to have non-driver roles.

What am I missing? I'm sure there's an obvious reason.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

All the best
Dan

 

Hello Dan,

Easy question, many answers.

First attempt: Who drives which vehicles?
An attempt to show that it is not as easy as counting other ranks; even officers were used to move vehicles. Apart from the following examples, there were remarks in several WEs as "Drivers may be found from suited unit personnel".

The part "Organization" of many WEs might help here. This list is not exhaustive.
Some WEs researched:
III/10/5 - A Medium Regiment, R.A.
II/240/1 - A Machine-Gun Battalion (1944)
II/217/1 - Divisional Signals (1942)

Motor-cycles:
- Orderlies
- Despatch riders
- certain specific trades (Corporals in command of sub-Units; Signallers; Artificers, R.A.; Fitters, gun; Regimental Police; Transport Corporals; Electricians; Linemen; ...)
- certain serjeants (Serjeants in command of sub-units; Signal; Provost; Intelligence; Transport; Company quartermaster serjeants; Company quartermaster serjeants (foremen of signals); Company serjeant-majors; ...)
- certain officers (Subalterns; Command post officer's assistant; ...)

All other motor vehicles
- Drivers, I.C.
- Batman-drivers
- Driver-operators
- Driver-mechanics
- Vehicle-mechanics
- certain specific trades (Fitters; Carpenters and joiners; Despatch riders;...)


Researching your WE in question: XVI/1827/1 - Headquarters, 21 Army Group Main Car Company, R.A.S.C., A.C.I. 18.04.1945, effective 18.02.1945, cancelled 31.01.1947. It consists of a company headquarters, 5 transport platoons (A, B, C, D and E) and a workshop platoon (F).
Columns:
A = Motor-cycles
B = Motor vehicles
C = suitable personnel (without officers, including serjeants, driver, I.C.)

Platoon: A, B, C.
HQ: 5, 10, 31.
A: 8, 65, 76.
B: 2, 59, 72.
C: 2, 60, 57.
D: 2, 66, 63.
E: 2, 55, 39.
F: 2, 19, 48.
Coy: 23, 334, 86 (6 serjeants, 114 tradesmen [driver-mechanics, driver class, and vehicle-mechanics], 266 [all] non-tradesmen)

So, there are no problems for HQ, A, B and F platoon. They have 16 + 3 + 11 + 27 (= 57) trained drivers in excess.
C and D platoon are missing 5 drivers each; E platoon is missing 18 drivers. (5 + 5 + 18 = 28 missing drivers.)

I take E platoon as a pool especially for "jeeps", supposing that these could be ordered with or without drivers. R.A.S.C. WEs allow for a 10 % spare for "task vehicles" by default.
This would reduce the disproportion,

Other thoughts:
The company serves Headquarters, 21 Army Group; at that time (last two months before VE-day), XIV/1/3 was effective, the last of 5 WEs for this headquarters. It lists on 29 pages 3,570 all ranks without attached. For transport, 38 bicycles are given. No motor transport at all! With this disproportion and the many tasks of the HQ's personnel, I imagine that there were constantly calls for transport of any kind.

XIV/1/3 provides some more interesting information, not answering your question directly, but showing some relation between the two WES.
It contains no part "organization", not unusual for such a headquarters. But note 7 deals with the "organization of tactical headquarters" in detail. Only a small part of the unit, the tactical headquarters, 75 out of 3,570 all ranks, is directly provided with motor transport. Personnel from several WEs are attached:
VIII/714/1 - (729) G.H.Q. Car Company, R.A.S.C., 21 Army Group (including attached Royal Signals personnel)
XIV/150/2 - 21 Army Group Defence Company
XIV/1571/2 - Army Film and Photographic Section
II/359/2 - (50) Field Security Section
III/58/4 - (3) G.H.Q. Postal Unit
III/312/1 - 21 Army Group Signals
258 all ranks from these units, plus notes on attached:
XIV/1502/1 - A Provost Section, C.M.P., for tactical headquarters, 21 Army Group.

The first two WEs mentioned (VIII/714/1 and XIV/150/2) and the 21 Army Group Signals (III/312/1) also provide transport.

So, we look at two WEs in context: the Army Group Headquarters and "its" Car Company.
XIV/1/3 reveals that VIII/714/1 is the WE for 729 G.H.Q. Car Company. To understand this, one has to know that VIII/714/1 is the predecessor of the one in question (XVI/1827/1 - Headquarters, 21 Army Group Main Car Company, R.A.S.C.). The latter was promulgated on 18.04.1945, so this explains that XIV/1/3, promulgated on 07.02.1945, could not mention XVI/1827/1.

VIII/714/1 provides 47 (motor) vehicles, plus 7 motor-cycles, solo, some trailers and 73 all ranks including attached. These include 51 drivers, I.C., 2 motor-cyclists, 1 batman-driver, 4 vehicle-mechanics and 5 driver-mechanics.


Some more comments:
- XVI/1827/1 - Headquarters, 21 Army Group Main Car Company, R.A.S.C.: The title is somewhat misleading, as the WE contains the complete company, with 5 platoons. For better understanding, it should read "Main Car Company, R.A.S.C., for Headquarters, 21 Army Group". The title in its promulgation in Army Council Instructions (A.C.Is.) differs and is clearer: "21 A. Gp. Main Car Company, R.A.S.C."
Its predecessor VIII/714/1 - G.H.Q. Car Company, R.A.S.C., 21 Army Group - used a clearer title.

Compared to its predecessor, XIV/1827/1 was significantly smaller:
VIII/714/1: 734 all ranks including attached, 105 motor-cycles, 411 vehicles, 39 trailers. It had only 4 transport platoons (less E), and the workshop platoon is W.
XIV/1827/1: 450 all ranks including attached, 23 motor-cycles, 334 vehicles, 15 trailers.


I hope this improves your situation a bit. Any more questions are welcome, but answering might be a bit time-consuming.

Wolfgang

 

Good evening Wolfgang
Thank you very much for your detailed and considered answer. I was leaning towards some kind of car pool for E Platoon but didn't want to prejudice any answer. The information about VIII/714/1 is excellent as I hadn't come across that. Do you know the dates it was extant? My starting point was Mike's listings (TRUX) and it has been fascinating to work out how the HQ's and their transport fits together.The enormous expansion of the Defence Company after the initial landings made me presume that an earlier version of the Car Company would have revealed a similar expansion. Seems I got that back to front.

Thanks again for an insightful explanation.

Kind regards
Dan Taylor

 

Good evening Dan,

VIII/714/1 had been effective from 21.04.44 until 28.02.1945, when it was superseded by XIV/1827/1.
No amendments were promulgated for either WE.

PM-ed you.

Kind regards
Wolfgang