Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was initially known as the Army Service Corps (ASC), Royal being added to the title in 1918.
The first ASC units were sent to India in May 1916 (arrived June 4th) at a time when it was thought that the Indian equivalent, the Supply and Transport Corps, was not up to scratch – "The war in Mesopotamia quickly proved the shortcomings of the organization … for a campaign of this magnitude where the conditions differed from the accustomed ones. It was just after the fall of Kut el Amara that it was decided to send some Army Service Corps units to India."[1]
Regimental History
The Royal Army Service Corps Volume II, by Col R H Beadon 1931 contains a chapter "The Corps in India" – Chapter XV, pages 457-486. This book is available as a pdf download, refer External links below.
War Diaries at the National Archives
- WO 95/5390 War Diaries: North West Frontier Force contains
- 1028 Mechanical Transport Company ASC 1919 May – July
- 630 Mechanical Transport Company ASC 1916-1918
- 656 Mechanical Transport Company ASC 1919
- 692, 693, 694 Transport Company ASC 1915-1918
- 871 Mechanical Transport Company ASC 1917-1918
Also see
Indian Mechanical Transport Companies
From c 1921 there were some companies known as Indian Mechanical Transport, I M T. These units were officered by the Royal Army Service Corps but the rank and file were Indian. [2] Subsequently these units were transferred to the Indian Army Service Corps.
External links
- Royal Army Service Corps Wkipedia. Retrieved 16 August 2014
- The Royal Logistic Corps Museum The Princess Royal Barracks Deepcut Surrey.
- RLC [Royal Logistic Corps] Digital Library. A pay website. The RLC Digital Library is a searchable pay-per-view or subscription archive containing digital images of a number of documents and books held in the Corps Library and also in the Museum.
- It contains the Gazettes and Journals from the Corps which merged to form The Royal Logistic Corps in 1993, Including the Royal Army Service Corps (journals from 1891) and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (journals from 1906).
- It also contains Enlistment Book records from 1920 for the Royal Army Service Corps [Army nos. 1 - 35000] and the Royal Army Ordnance Corps [Army nos. 7574000 - 7581500]. Note: The enlistment register from 1918 containing a 'block' within the renumbering carried out by the RASC that year is missing.[3]
- 801 MT COY ASC 801st Mechanical Transport Company of the Army Service Corps in Salonica and the Balkans.
Historical books online
- With the M. T. in Mesopotamia by Brevet Lt.-Col F W Leland RASC 1920 Hathi Trust Digital Library. (M.T.= Mechanical Transport, part of the Royal Army Service Corps)
- The Royal Army Service Corps: A History of Transport and Supply in the British Army, Volume II by Colonel R H Beadon 1931. Link to an Adobe pdf download. Digital Library of India. Includes the First World War period, with chapters on the British Expeditionary Force , Gallipoli, the Balkans, Egypt and Palestine, Mesopotamia, East Africa, Italy, North Russia, England and India.
References
- ↑ michaeldr “Army Service Corp, Bangalore 1918” Great War Forum, 16 September 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2014
- ↑ Matthew B "IMT, Unusual Regiment?" Great War Forum 11 June 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2015
- ↑ Frogsmile Tracing Casualty Rolls in Newspapers Great War Forum 23 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015