The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-18
FINE SERVICE OF
MALLET RESERVE
Flying Squadron of Trucks
3 With Which j. F. Kuech
Is Connected
ALWAYS SEEN WHERE
FIGHT is HOTTEST

Drivers Move and Live in Their Trucks
as Turtle Lives in It's Shell-Trans-
port Machine Gunners to Very Rim
of Battle.
The following article which was TAX
en- from the Stars and Stripes and re-
printed in the Field Service Bulletin,
which is published in Paris, is an in
teresting account of the Mallet Reserve
with which Julius f. Kuech, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Fred w. Kuech of this town.
is connected. Private Kuech went to
France as a volunteer with Dartmouth
unit which went into service for the
French government before the United
States was identified with the reserve.
In October, after the amalgamation of
the French and American branches of
service, the Dartmouth unit was trans
ferred to the United States service and
IS now serving under the American
flag.
When Private KLech was called back
from q recent permission three days
time was consumed in finding his com
pany, they moved on so rapidly While
N hotel when on his leave he saw Rev.
Roy NJ Houghton, formerly pastor of
he Centre Congregational church, who
had a room only three doors from him
n the hotel. He said Rev. Mr.. Hough-
on expected to return TO America this
fall The story of the Mallet Reserve:
In summer when. again and again,
The historic phrase Franco American
! troops appears in the communicates,
the distinction of being the most com
plete amalgamation of the two armies
belongs to that flying squadron of emer-
gency transportation, that trundling
roop of trucks, that charging company
of camionS, the Mallet Reserve.
"This organization consists of 700
ive-ton trucks-American trucks driven
over French roads, driven now by
French, now by American drivers, Off
cered by French and American officers,
carrying French and American troops,
| French and American ammunition.
The Mallet Reserve is so named be-
cause its commanding officer is Ma ior
Mallet of the French cavalry, and is
called reserve because il is attached
10 no army corps, but rather is held in
| reserve for emergency duty whenever
a crisis in the war brings a crisis in
/ transportation. This means that the in
/ terminable line of camions bearing the
/ Mallet mark will invariably appear
wherever things are hottest that the
trucks and their drivers know no rest
| from one year s end to the other.
''Thus, you saw them along the roads
up Cambria way last fall. When French
troops We're rushed into the gap that
opened during the German drive of
March 81, Mallet trucks carried them
and they were Mallet trucks which bore
northward the French soldiers who
made their sudden and startling appear
ance among the British in Flanders dur
ing the April fighting The American
troops and ammunition that were moved
with a rush to the lines of the Chateau
Thierry front were transported. many
of them, in the homegrown camions OF
the Mallet Reserve.
1.-THE trucks themselves, if YOU ex
anime them, tell many story of trans
port under shell-fre, tell of machin,
gunners borne to the very rim of thu
battle so that the gunners need onl,
drop from the cannon, run across asfielt
/ |
1.-THE personnel of the Mallet Re
! serve numbers $500 Of these 800 ar
Americans. Some of the Americans ar
alumni of the old American Field Serv
ice; some of the officers began as ambu
lanciers with that group of volunteer
who preceded the A. f. F. Some of tn
Americans who drive these trucks frs
learned their trade at the wheel of thei
. own fast roadsters back home; some o
| them learned it in that company of low
! er East Side taxi-drivers who were fol-
7 ever appearing in the gang fights whic
!. used to excite New York when Their
: were no greater fights to absorb its al
:, tention
e "They live in their trucks, sleep i
:. their trucks. They move over Frame
: like gypsies, Whenever groupemen
e ment, group or company withdraw
n from the road into a field for fe'
e days rest and repair, the trucks sti
), serve as tents.
l. ''Time was when each truck dragge
f its drivers quarters behind in the forl
e of trailer, but it was found that TIL
wasted gas, so the trailers were abo
ished, and the drivers of the Mallet r,
q serve now move and live in their truck
3 as turtle lives in its SHE'LL
Later a tent which accommodate
o 60 soldiers was given the reserve b
the Y. NJ. G. A., and it was much o.
70 preeiated.