[Training Manual]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

TRAINING MANUAL
Civilian Motor
Convoy Transport
Program
OCD Publication 2009 • November 1943
U. S. OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE • WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
PREFACE
The Motor Transport and Convoy Training Program of the Office of Civilian Defense was designed to establish, where necessary, motor transport units in large bus and truck companies and industrial organizations for possible use in Army or Navy convoys, evacuation of civilians, movement of emergency supplies, or other long-distance wartime service.
The resultant training of vehicle drivers has outstanding value not only to insure efficient public service at times of need but also in the valuable byproducts that will result to the carriers that participate, as in the improvement of accident records.
This Training Manual, the official textbook to be used in the teaching of convoy planning and operation among motor-carrier personnel, was compiled from material used or prepared by the Ninth Civilian Defense Region and the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army and by the Third Civilian Defense Region and Third Service Command of the Army. The experience of motor transport schools conducted on the West coast and in the Third Civilian Defense Region has proved to be of considerable practical value in its preparation.
How well we plan, how well we organize, how well we train and direct, all will be reflected in operation on our home front in the crucial hour if seribus war emergencies ever should occur in our land.
Wholehearted and unfaltering cooperation is vitally important to the success of this stage of preparation. It is necessary now, not at some future date.
FOREWORD
Importance of teamwork.—You now are all going through the same training, and the same type of training is being given throughout the Army. The reason for this is that effective military motor transportation depends on teamwork—teamwork within each company and between organizations. The rules of the game and the techniques must be the same for all vehicle operators on our side, for the same reason that every man on a football team has to know and follow the same signals. Otherwise, victory is going to be much farther away. So “play ball” with your teammates—follow the rules and do your best to learn the techniques that we have worked out for our side. And remember—teamwork should start right now. If you cooperate, you will become first-rate motor transport convoy operators in the shortest possible time. Our Army and our country depend on vast and effective motor convoy transportation. That is going to be your job.
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CONTENTS
Part I—INTRODUCTION
Part III—MARCH TECHNIQUE
Sec.	Subject	Page
1.	Purpose of program____________________ 1
2.	Service possibilities_________________ 1
3.	Civilian evacuation___________________ 1
4.	OCD insignia_________________________  1
5.	Definitions___________________________ 2
6.	Organization of Civilian Motor Transport units____________________________ 3
7.	Role of motor vehicles in modern warfare__________________________________   4
8.	Column space and speed (graphs) __	5-6
Part II—TACTICAL AND LOGISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
9.	Convoys_______________________________ 8
10.	Types of convoys_____________________ 8
11.	Factors in convoy operation______	8
12.	Types of marches_____________________ 8
13.	Shuttling____________________________ 9
14.	Selection of route__________________ 10
15.	Daily schedule______________________ 10
16.	Starting____________________________ 10
17.	Convoy control methods_______i___2	10
18.	Factors affecting speed_____________ 11
19.	Distances between units_____________ 12
20.	Hints on control____________________ 13
21.	March formation_____________________ 13
22.	Road rules._________________________ 13
23.	Hints on road procedure_____________ 14
24.	Halts_______________________________ 14
25.	Bivouacs____________________________ 14
26.	Parking_____________________________ 15
27.	Security____________________________ 15
Sec.	Subject	Page
28.	Discipline__________________________ 16
29.	Intracolumn communication_________	16
30.	Control personnel___________________ 16
31.	Loading and unloading_______________ 17
32.	Halts_____________________________   17
33.	Traffic control_____________________ 19
34.	Traffic management________*_______ 20
35.	Traffic plan________________________ 20
36.	Traffic planning____________________ 21
37.	Systems of control__________________ 21
38.	Traffic schedules___________________ 21
39.	Classification of routes____________ 21
40.	Night operations____________________ 21
41.	Traffic orders______________________ 22
42.	Execution of traffic plan___________ 22
43.	Route marking_______________________ 23
44.	Passage of columns__________________ 23
45.	Traffic escorts_____________________ 23
46.	Night operations____________________ 24
47.	Vehicle identification______________ 24
48.	Loading or unloading________________ 24
49.	Emergency services__________________ 24
50.	Feeding_____________________________ 24
51.	Night driving_______________________ 24
52.	Preparatory organization and tactical and logistical data of a unit______	25
53.	Infantry drill______________________ 25
54.	Training films______________________ 25
55.	Hand signals (with charts)__________ 25
III
Part I—INTRODUCTION
1.	Purpose of Program,—a. To organize and train personnel of commercial motor transit firms to serve the armed forces on special road-haul or convoy assignments and to participate, perhaps under general military direction, in civilian emergencies requiring nonlocal service.
b. To organize and train operating personnel, other than that attached to motor transit fleets, to serve local Defense Councils in emergencies, under the immediate direction of local Transport Officers.
2.	Service Possibilities.—a. For military service.—Military tactical situations require from time to time that commercial vehicles be utilized in place of or to augment military vehicles. Such service for military purposes will be arranged directly by the military authorities and the motor firm through the proper District Manager of the Office of Defense Transportation.
b. For civilian emergency service.—War emergencies affecting civilians may require the use of motor transit facilities for transportation of supplies to stricken areas or evacuation of civilians from stricken areas to reception areas. Convoy service to the armed forces at the time of civilian need likewise is probable.
3.	Civilian Evacuation.—a. General. —Any evacuation of civilians, unorganized or organized, may result in large volumes of heterogeneous traffic, provide concentrated targets for enemy air attack, and delay or seriously immobilize vital military operations.. Such movements require particular consideration in the planning and execution of military operations. Control of this type of civilian movement is unusually difficult because of uncertainty as to volume, type, and timing of traffic to be expected and because of the state of public mind that may exist.
b.	Interference of evacuation movements with military traffic in the theater of operations, must be avoided or minimized by requiring—
(1)	That evacuation take place prior to or during a lull in military movements.
(2)	That evacuees use roads or trails that carry little or no military traffic.
(3)	That evacuation traffic be diverted from areas most important for military operations.
(4)	That such traffic be organized as convoy or march columns, whose movements are directed so as to cause least interference with essential military traffic.
c.	The objective of evacuation planning and organization is to provide, first, for the immediate care and welfare of civilians unhoused or otherwise affected by enemy action and, second, to obtain an orderly controlled movement from the evacuation district to the reception area. The first objective is attained by establishment of a system of assembly centers in communities where emergency aid and welfare service may be provided persons forced from their homes. The second objective involves the organization by State and local Defense Council Transport Officer, at the time of movement, of evacuation convoys under the control of column commanders, trial officers, police escort, guides, and guards. The movement, furthermore, must be closely coordinated with military operations and no movement from assembly centers (other than localized dispertion and return to homes) shall be made except upon order of military authority.
4.	OCD Insignia.—The organized personnel of motor companies or units should be enrolled with the local Defense Council to become eligible for OCD insignia, including emergency identification cards, which will enable the personnel to travel from their homes to their stations in the event that they are called into service during a period of emergency. If the training given the personnel qualifies them for membership in the Drivers Unit of the local Defense Corps, then they will be eligible to wear Drivers Unit armbands and other prescribed insignia. The personnel of motor transport units may wear the armbands of the Civilian Defense Auxiliary Group when the unit is engaged in civilian defense activities, upon registration with the local Defense Council.
Identification insignia will be prescribed by military authorities when the unit is employed for military service.
5.	Definitions.—
Arrival time.—The time at which the head of a column, or a specified element thereof, arrives at a designated point.
Assembly center.—The headquarters location of an evacuation area subdivision where the organization and dispatch of groups of parties of evacuees takes place. Evacuees are directed to assembly centers from their homes by Air Raid Wardens and Auxiliary Police.
Clearance time.—The time at which the tail of a column, or a specified element thereof, completes passage by a designated point.
Column.—One or more march units or serials under one march commander using the same route.
Control car.—The car that precedes a column, or an element thereof, and sets the rate of march.
Control officer.—The person, usually the second in command, who rides at the head of a column, or an element thereof, and regulates the rate of march.
Control point.—A traffic control post where information and instructions are given and received in order to regulate and control traffic.
Convoy.—Any group of motor vehicles organized to move as a unit under control methods.
Distance.—The space from the rear of one vehicle (including towed load, if any) to the front of the next vehicle in the column; or the space from the rear element of a march unit or serial to the leading element of the following march or serial.
Double banking.—The act of overtaking and passing, or parking or moving abreast of, other traffic headed in the same direction on a roadway.
Double-staggered column.—A two-lane column of vehicles moving in same direction, so arranged that the vehicles in one lane are opposite the spaces between vehicles in the other lane.
Escort.—A group detailed to prevent interference with the column by other traffic, particularly that from intersecting roads.
Entrucking point or detrucking point.—
An easily recognizable-location where the head of a motor column, or an element thereof, halts for loading or unloading.
Evacuation area.—The community or communities beyond the limits of which military authorities order or advise the transference of civilians.
Guard.—An individual placed at a danger point, such as a railroad crossing or a turn into or off a main road, to prevent traffic accidents.
Headway.—The interval of time between individual vehicles, march units, serials, or columns, measured from head to head as they pass a given point.
Initial point (ip).—A point at which the column is formed by the successive arrival thereat of the various subdivisions of the column.
Lead.—Linear spacing between the heads of successive vehicles, serials, march units, or columns.
Loading or unloading point.—Same as entrucking or detrucking point above.
March graph.—A graphical presentation of a march used in planning and controlling marches and in preparing and checking march tables.
March order.—An order covering the details of a march.
March table.—A combined location and movement schedule for a march.
March unit.—A group of motor vehicles placed under a single commander to facilitate control within a column.
Motor company.—Groups of vehicles comprising two to four sections together with command and other organizational personnel and equipment organized as a part of a motor unit.
Motor firm.—Commercial organization owning and operating motor vehicles as a business or part of a business.
Park.—An area used for the purpose of servicing, maintaining, or temporarily storing vehicles.
Rate of march.—The average speed of a column over a period of time including short periodic halts.
Reception area.—An area determined by proper authorities on the basis of surveys made by State and local evacuation planning authorities and in which evacuees are received and distributed. Occupation of a reception area in a
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military area must be approved by the Defense Commander.
Reception center.—The headquarters location of a reception area subdivision where groups of parties or individual evacuees are received for processing and placement in the reception area or from which control for this purpose is exercised.
Regulating point.—An easily recognizable location where an incoming motor column, or element thereof, is separated into groups for movement to assembly or bivouac areas or to entrucking or detrucking points.
Road block.—Any obstacle that delays or prevents traffic movement on the road.
Road space.—The measurable length of a column on the road from head to tail.
Road time.—The total time of a column, or element thereof, required to clear a given section of road.
Serial.—One or more march units,‘preferably with same march characteristics placed under one commander for march purposes.
Shuttling.—A method of moving personnel and materiel on repeated trips by the same motor vehicles.
Speedometer multiplier (sm).—Any number by which the speedometer reading in miles per hour is multiplied to determine intervehicu-lar lead in yards in an open column.
Strip map.—A section or strip cut or reproduced from any map showing diagrammati-cally a definite route to be followed.
Time distance.—The distance to a point measured in time. It is found by dividing the road’s distance to the point by the rate of march.
Time interval.—The interval of time between successive vehicles, march units, serials, or columns as they move past a fixed point, measured from tail to head.
Time length, (tf).—The time required for a column, or element thereof, to pass a given point.
Traffic capacity.—The maximal traffic flow attainable with close column marching on a given roadway, using all available lanes.
Traffic density.—The number of vehicles per unit length of roadway.
Traffic How.—The number of vehicles that pass a given point within a given period of time.
Trail car.—A car at the tail of the column that
transports an officer whose duty it is to keep the march commander informed of the status of disabled vehicles at the end of the column and perform such assistance as may be practicable.
6.	Organization of Civilian Motor Transport Units.—a. The organization of motor transport companies and units by selected transportation companies, using their regular equipment, manned by their own employees, under the direction of their own supervisory force, makes available to the Army and civilian defense agencies’ motor transport organizations capable of moving tactical units of the Army, Navy, or evacuees under emergency conditions and of doing so efficiently. While it is apparent that the military authorities can take over any and all civilian transportation required to meet an emergency, the utilization of hastily assembled and unorganized groups of mixed vehicles is impracticable. On the other hand, organized units that have some uniformity of organization and a minimum of training in military movement will be more useful.
b.	Such organizations represent a cooperative war-time effort by the employer possessing transport facilities and by the employees who volunteer to man those facilities in event of emergency.
c.	When called into service, it is contemplated that the unit will work on a charter or such other basis as is agreed upon by the military authorities or civilian defense authorities and the parent company. All personnel will be paid by the parent company concerned when the unit is chartered for service. The time spent in organizing and training civilian motor transport units is on a voluntary basis.
d.	The organization of motor transport companies and units should be such that each company is composed of either buses of trucks and that vehicles of any motor company should be, wherever possible, of the same general type and capacity.
e.	As a practical matter, units first will be organized on paper, personnel selected for the various positions, tables of organization prepared for the unit, rosters prepared showing personnel assigned to positions, and statistical data prepared showing, for bus units, capacity in passengers, and, for truck units, capacity in materials or troops. Included in these data for truck units will be such information as
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straight truck, two-axle or three-axle, combination of tractor and semitrailer, or other com-
J bination, also body-type, such as flat, stake, closed, van, dump, etc. It is expected that a manual will be prepared by each transportation company containing organization, technical, and logistical data for each of its units.
f.	The equipment should be organized by sections of approximately six vehicles, which shall be organized into companies of two to four sections, which, in turn, shall be organized into motor transport units of two to four companies. If special equipment, such as wreckers, tank trucks, motorcycles with side cars, etc., is not available, appropriate notations should be made in the table of organization. Where one motor transit firm does not have sufficient equipment to form a motor company, it may join with a firm having similar equipment for the organization and training of a complete motor company.
7.	Role of Motor Vehicles in Modern Warfare,—a. Get one idea firmly fixed in your minds at the very start of this course. This is a war of movement. It is a war of machines. Many people have the idea that the only machines fighting this war are tanks, airplanes, and guns. This is an error. Tanks will not roll, airplanes will not fly, and guns will not fire unless they are supplied with oil, gasoline, and ammunition. The men at the front cannot eat unless food is transported to them.
b.	In this war, the striking power and the speed of movement of our Army will depend largely on the efficiency of our military motor transport system and its ability to get war materials to the places where they are needed and get them there on time. So .this is what I want you to realize clearly from this moment on throughout your training course and throughout the duration of this war: The Army’s system of motorized transportation is the backbone of our whole military system. The better our system motorized transportation, the more effective will be our entire war effort; so, if you go through this course successfully, you will be available for a job of vital importance to your country.
(1)	During the Civil War, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, of the Confederate Army, explained his ability to win victories by the state
ment: “Just git thar fustest with the mostest men.” General Forrest’s rule is just as true today as it was then. The only difference is that General Forrest and his men traveled on horseback and lived off the country, while today armies travel by motor vehicle and must be supplied from depots located far behind the fighting front.
(2)	The “Taxicab Army” of 1914.—The first great example of motor vehicles playing a decisive part in warfare occurred in World War I. In September 1914 the Germans had reached the Marne River and it looked as though nothing could stop them from breaking through and taking Paris. Then and there the war might have been lost by the Allies, but General Joffre commandeered all the motor vehicles in the Paris district and rushed enough reserves to the front to drive the Germans back. That was the famous “Taxicab Army” of 1914.
(3)	Verdun.—Then there was Verdun. The French railroads had been destroyed. The Germans were striking with everything they had. In 10 hours the French moved an entire army corps to the front with motor vehicles. You all know that the French held at Verdun.
(4)	Cambrai—Chateau Thierry.—It was a 5,000-truck convoy in the fall of 1917 that enabled the French to rush 100,000 reinforcements to Cambrai, where the Germans had broken through the British lines. And at Chateau Thierry the Germans were stopped because they got ahead of their lines of supply and because the French and Americans were able to rush fresh troops to the Marne.
(5)	Other examples.—On the whole, World War I produced few examples of motor vehicles playing decisive roles. For the most part, men traveled on foot, and 30 miles in 1 day was a good march. When generals wanted to shift troops and equipment to a new sector of the front, they had to allow weeks to complete the transfer. As a result of this slowness, the war bogged down into a military stalemate, with millions of men standing in trenches facing each other across a stretch of mud and barbed wire and blasted trees that came to be known as “No Man’s Land.” The stalemate might have gone on for years, with neither side able to win much ground, had not the manpower and supplies that the United States threw onto the scales upset the balance.
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AVERAGE ROAD SPACE OF MOTOR COLUMNS AT VARIOUS SPEEDS A CLOSE COLUMN
NUMBER OF VEHICLES IN MOTOR COLUMN
ROAD SPACE IN YARDS WHEN MOVING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS
564417—44---2
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