This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the history of the units of the Army Service Corps. Note that the ASC is the same as the RASC: it received the Royal prefix in late 1918.

The unsung heroes of the British army in the Great War - the ASC, "Ally Sloper's Cavalry" - were the men who operated the transport. Soldiers can not fight without food, equipment and ammunition. In the Great War, the vast majority of this tonnage, supplying a vast army on many fronts, was supplied from England. Using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and were one of the great strengths of organisation by which the war was won.

Manpower: how big was the ASC?

At peak, the ASC numbered an incredible 10,547 officers and 315,334 men. In addition were tens of thousands of Indian, Egyptian, Chinese and other native labourers, carriers and stores men, under orders of the ASC. Yet this vast, sprawling organisation - so vital to enabling the army to fight - merits just four mentions in the Official History of the war.

The organisation of the ASC

The ASC was organised into Companies, each fulfilling a specific role. Some were under orders of or attached to the Divisions of the army; the rest were under direct orders of the higher formations of Corps, Army or the GHQ of the army in each theatre of war.

Horsed Transport Companies (including Companies in Divisional Trains, Reserve Parks and SAA Trains)
Mechanical Transport Companies (including Companies in Divisional Supply Columns and Ammunition Parks, Companies attached to the heavy artillery, Omnibus Companies, Motor Ambulance Convoys, Bridging and Pontoon units and Workshops)
The Army Remounts Service (Companies involved in the provision of horses)
The ASC Labour Companies

The organisation of the Lines of Communication

"Lines of Communication" was an army term used to describe what today we mught call the army's logistics; the supply lines from port to front line, and the camps, stores, dumps, workshops of the rear areas.

It is difficult to comprehend just what supply to an army that in France alone built up to more than 2 million men actually means. Here are some statistics that give an idea:

These huge tonnages were moved through a complex chain of supply:

Base Depots
Rail routes, regulating stations, railheads and refilling points