History

 Water is essential to life; indeed humans are composed of about 60% water. Adequate amounts of water are essential to replace that lost from the normal bodily functions. In a 24-hour period a soldier could be expected to lose water through sweating (1-2 pints), urinating (3 pints), defecating (1/5 pint) and breathing (3/4 pint). In a hot climate, the amount of water lost through most bodily functions remains relatively constant. But losses through sweating will accelerate to 4 pints; with this there will be a need to double the water intake. Without food humans can survive for many weeks, their capacity to do this will depend on fitness, how well fed they were at the outset, what degree of work or activities are undertaken but above all the determination of the individual to carry on.

         The capacity to endure such hardship depends very much on morale. In the justification for an efficient Army postal service, it was pointed out that a man could march for a day on an empty stomach, but with a letter from home, he can march for four days. However without adequate supplies of water, no level of morale or letters from home can compensate for this shortage. Depending on the work to be done and the ambient temperature, useful activities can be reduced to as little as a few hours. It is therefore of paramount importance that an army supplies an adequate amount of clean water to its troops as a priority over virtually everything else.

The most important function of water is for drinking to make up for the inevitable loses through just staying alive. There are other human needs that need to be catered for. The activities of cooking require water for washing food, the process of cooking itself and the washing of utensils, cutlery etc. Water is required for body washing, this not only helps reduce the chance of the spread of disease but is important for maintaining basic human dignity and hence morale.  

Daily water requirements per man

- Absolute minimum 1/3 gallon not exceeding 3 days at a time

- Minimum drinking & cooking 1 gallon at rest not exceeding 3 days at a time

- Minimum all purposes 2 gallons at rest not exceeding 3 days at a time

- Minimum severe desert 3 gallons minimum to avoid heat casualties

- Normal without baths 5 gallons minimum

- Normal with baths 15 gallons

- Cook house 1.5 gallons in barracks

- Officer’s mess 20 gallons in barracks

Any army on the move needs to consider not only a strategic route but also one that will allow access to fresh water. There may be periods when access to water is not feasible, so water would need to be transported.

In ancient times the vessels for water storage were made of pottery, transportation of these vessels was risky as they could easily break if not well packaged. But wooden barrels are much more robust and were used by the Gauls some 2,000 years ago. It was whilst fighting the Gauls in the 3rd Century AD that the Roman Army adopted the use of barrels and this became the accepted means by which water was transported. In its strictest form the term barrel refers to a capacity of 36 gallons, but in general usage the term has also come to also include capacities of 1, 9, 18 and 54 gallons or indeed any wooden or metal container for liquids. Any horse drawn trailer, be it a wagon (4 wheels) or cart (2 wheels) could assume the role of water carrier by merely loading it with barrels of water. The transport of supplies for the British Army had been a civilian responsibility and was poorly organised.

Gradually supply matters became more organised and by 1820, the Flanders Wagon was widely used for this purpose. Although it was not specifically to a military design, it was of a type that could be pressed into military service as the need arose. A formal specification for a wagon appeared in 1862 with the introduction of the Wagon, G.S., Mark I. It was similar, although lighter than the R.A., Wagon, Mark 1. Of the various Marks that followed, weight, turning circle, reliability and off-road performance proved to be less than satisfactory.

In 1883, a forerunner of FVRDE was formed as the War Office Committee on Transport Vehicles. This lead to the purely experimental versions Mark V and Mark VI. The Mark VII then went into service in 1888 and with further improvements as the result of the South African War eventually led to the final design of the Wagon, G.S., Mark X in 1905. The design features of this that I particularly like are the rear wheels being the same size as gun wheels to allow interchange ability, a brake that can be applied from the ground as well as from the  drivers seat and roller chocks behind the back wheels to stop roll back. The weight of the wagon was ¾ ton and had a maximum payload of 1½ tons. This payload could never be realised for full-scale water transportation because of the difficulty in manhandling all but the smallest sized barrels full of water. Other than occasional movement of a few barrels, wagon transportation of water was not a practical proposition. Even a barrel so large as to utilise the wagon payload would be as difficult to make as it would to deploy. However carts lent themselves to water transportation. The Cart, Water Barrel was relatively light, easy to handle and had a turning circle only limited by the level of equitation. The weight of the water was evenly distributed by mounting this large barrel directly over the axle. The problem of a partially filled barrel was that the sway of the water gave instability, but above all it was unhygienic. A barrel can never be cleaned out satisfactorily. Given that clean and disease-free water was such an integral component of fighting efficiency, the barrel became outmoded.

The big step forward was the Cart, Water Tank, Mark I that was introduced in 1891 that could hold 118 gallons. The galvanised iron tank was 3ft 6in by 4ft. Two internal partitions broke the sway of the water, which helped maintain stability, and gave a constant load for the horses to pull on. Water could be drawn from five taps at the rear and one on each side. There was a range of shafts available to accommodate horse, pony, bullock or mule power. There was a brake that could be operated from the rear and a 3-lb tin of grease strapped to the axletree bed for regular applications to the axles. The next model was the Mark I* which had a lighter brake and a rear cross bar removed to allow easier access to the taps

The Mark II was manufactured with the Mark I* modifications as standard and incorporated fluted nozzles on the taps for water bottle filling. A major omission was that there was no way to completely drain the tank for cleaning, so the equivalent of an EMER was issued. This required a drain plug to be fitted to the bottom of the tank when these carts were next serviced in the Ordnance Workshops. Eventually all three models were fitted with drinking cups.

 The assumption made was that the water is already fit to drink. This may be due a certain confidence based on its origin or because it has already gone through a process of purification. The most important aspect of having a good water source is to not just identify it but maintain its integrity. With that in mind towards the end of a march a staff officer, provost with an engineer and medical officer were sent ahead. The engineer had to assess the practicality of extracting the water; the medical officer determined whether the water was safe to drink or whether it can be purified to become so.

The provost was responsible for guarding the water point to prevent contamination. Permanent water guards, of which there would be two per company, were trained to deal with water purification and distribution. The role of the provost then became one of controlling traffic around the water point.The purification of water in its most basic form is a two-stage process. Removal of solid matter with some of the bacteria and sterilization to remove the remaining harmful bacteria.

Removal of solid material can be achieved by:

Sedimentation

Letting the water to stand for some time allows the heavier particles to sink with some of the bacteria and surprisinglymany harmful bacteria will die out. This method is neither quick nor very reliable.

 Precipitation.

Adding certain chemicals will speed up the rate at which suspended matter is deposited. The most popular chemical was alum, when added to the water a cloudy liquid was produced. This settles out after several hours and brings down most of the suspended matter with many of the bacteria. Potassium permanganate (one of the versions of Condy’s fluid) can be used to remove offensive smells and helps oxidise organic material. Although it does give a residual, but “not disagreeable” taste.

Clarification

         This is a passive filtration method of removing particles. The filter can be sand, cloth, canvas etc. A simple filter could be made placing gravel in a barrel, then on top of that a much smaller barrel with a perforated base, then placing sand in the space between the two barrels. The untreated water is fed between the barrels; gradually filtered water will rise to the same height as the incoming water. To ensure the sand is free of contamination it should be roasted.

 Filtration

This is forced clarification through spaces that are very small with the expectation of removing bacteria as well as particles. On this basis the method was regarded in 1909 as a Sterilization process, but by modern standards this is not correct. The only materials than could be relied on were unglazed porcelain or earthenware. The finer the texture of the filter the better the quality of the filtered water. But the finer the pores, the slower will be the rate of filtration and the greater the force needed to propel the water through the filter, the usual pressure needed was at least 20 psi. The construction of the filter was usually a cylinder of unglazed porcelain known as a ‘candle’ that was sealed by metal caps at each end. The incoming water was forced inwards through the candle which collected filtered water that then passed into a perforated tube that exited through a hole in one of the caps. A removable end could be released to allow maintenance of the filters. The candles had to be inspected to ensure no flaws or cracks were present and every fourth day they had to be brushed clean then boiled for one minute to kill remaining bacteria. This was the basis of filtration; we now need to see how this was applied in practice.

 In 1906 the Cart, Water Tank, Mark II was available fitted with filtering apparatus and was designated Mark II*. The water cart carried the normal water tank but also a clarifying filter made of compressed sponges and a “sterilizing” filter, which supplied a cistern and then the taps. Two three-way cocks allowed the filtering system to be operated in two ways. The water in the pond, river etc could be drawn up by the hand pump forced through the clarifying filter to remove the worst of the contaminants and the on to the “sterilizing” filter to hopefully remove the remaining bacteria and then to the cistern to be dispensed. Alternatively the water could be drawn up and passed through the clarifying filter to be stored in the tank. When the stored water was required the cocks were switched to allow this water to be pumped through the clarifying filter again then through the “sterilizing” filter to the cistern and then the taps.

This mechanism of filtration was known as the Slack and Brownlow pattern and was also available as a separate unit and carried by field ambulances wagons at the rate of two per cavalry ambulance and six per field ambulance. The Cart, Water Tank, Mark II* was equipped with two Slack and Brownlow  filters, one on each side of the trailer. They could be operated independently or simultaneously. It was important to have at least half of the system functioning whilst the filters on one side were being cleaned. The porcelain became clogged up readily and needed frequent cleaning. A storage box was mounted at the front and strapped to this was a kettle for sterilizing the filter elements (candles). 

The main tank held 113 gallons and the cistern 7 gallons; given an adequate supply of water the cart could process 160 gallons of drinking water per hour. The weight of the cart itself was just over 12 cwt, with full tanks this added another 1 ton to the load. The Mark VI cart was developed in time for the 1914-18 war and variations of this type of cart continued in service for another 20 years that evolved into the Regimental Water Cart (RWC). The RWC had a number of improvements in the water processing. Rather than filtering through a thick sponge, cloth filters were formed by wrapping a filter cloth over a tubular wire frame. The filtration was enhanced by the addition of  clarifying powder.

The technique was to use a calculated amount of Clarifying Powder. This was two parts of aluminium sulphate to one part anhydrous sodium carbonate, which when mixed with the water in the clarifying filter caused a precipitate of aluminium hydroxide. The jelly that formed around the filter cloths rendered them much less permeable and was able to filter the water to a far higher degree. This clarification was physical rather than chemical and was not to be seen as a sterilizing process as such. There were two filters mounted horizontally in front of the water tank. The filtering system of the water cart was available in a smaller version for pack animal transport and an even smaller version for coolie-transport. Sterilization can be achieved by the release of chlorine from Water Sterilizing Powder (WSP). This is a mixture of four parts bleaching powder (calcium oxychloride) to one part quicklime (calcium oxide). Despite the improved quality of clarification, there would still be an unpredictable amount of organic matter that would absorb the chlorine before the chlorine could exert a sterilizing effect. So it was impossible to know whether sterilization had been achieved. The Horrock’s Test was devised to test the amount of WSP that would be needed by testing a small sample of the untreated but clarified water.

  The equipment used in the field was the Case, Water Testing, Sterilization or sometimes called the Horrock’s Box. It included six white enamelled cups, six pipettes, a black calibrated enamel cup, two metal scoops, four glass stirring rods, pipe cleaners for the pipettes and some chemicals which used at different strengths could indicate the amount of WSP needed. It was tedious to use and took about half an hour, as time was needed for the test chemicals to react. Water for drinking and cooking needs to be sterilized, but water for washing need only undergo sedimentation. Clear water without suspended material may be used without treatment for animals, vehicle washing and radiators. These distribution points were originally identified by flags, white flags for drinking water, blue flags for watering animals and red flags for washing purposes. By the 1930s the water points were marked either “DRINKING WATER” or “NOT FOR DRINKING”.

The volumes required per day for non-human purposes:

Horse 10 gallons (min 3 gallons)

Mule or ox 6-8 gallons

Camel 10 gallons

Elephant 25 gallons

Sheep, goat or pig 1 gallon

Vehicle washing 10 gallons

Light vehicle radiator 1 pint (desert ½ gallon)

Steam locomotive 7,000 gallons

Stationary engine 2 gallons

In extreme conditions animals seem able to endure serious water shortages. In the relief of Khartoum in 1885 some of the horses of the 19th Hussars survived in the heat despite being deprived of water for seventy hours. The point of note was that these were Syrian horses and fully acclimatised. It was always considered preferable for arduous missions to use animals that were locally acclimatised. The Indian cavalry were only too aware of the needs to conserve water and watered their animals with a small amount at a time in shallow dishes, rather than the usual large amount in a bucket that gets wasted or knocked over. In India there were additional demands for water because a section of the Indian Army, for cultural reasons, would not use latrine paper. Instead the tradition was that latrine proceedings were followed by a splashing down with water. This increased water demand and posed health problems in the immediate vicinity of the latrines. In a hot climate the measure of success in providing adequate amounts of wholesome water for drinking, cooking and washing can be judged the reduced levels of dysentery, although in wartime this capacity can easily be compromised. Studying military hospital admissions in the Middle and Far East during WW1 to the start of WW2 show some fascinating trends. Broadly speaking in peacetime the incidence of venereal diseases was eight times greater than dysentery, but in wartime these figures were reversed. During wartime an additional burden was the increase in the incidence of malaria.

 In WW1 motor transport was not widely used for water transport or filtration, animal transport provided much better off-road performance. Even when vehicle performance improved there was the problem of maintenance and reliability, whereas a cart or trailer needed very little servicing. Added to this carts and trailers could be left to be used by small units of men without the loss of use of motor transport which was always at a premium. Where bulk water transport was provided, tanks were fitted with capacities of 350- 480 gallons, although this would always require dispensing into carts. There was a practical limit to the number of taps that could be fitted to any water dispenser, so having a large numbers of carts made more sense than a few large tankers. Exceptions to this might be relatively large equipment used for bulk processing that could only be vehicle mounted. All water on active service must be assumed to be contaminated. Where there was the possibility of deliberate poisoning or toxic contamination, testing was carried out by the Medical Officer using, Case, Water, Testing, Poison (Poisons Box). The testing kit could detect contamination by compounds of lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, antimony, cyanide, mustard gas and Lewisite.

 The two most effective blister gases are mustard gas and Lewisite, which are heavy oily liquids. Mustard gas sinks to the bottom, the water can then be filtered and after boiling for half an hour is fit to drink. Ethyldichorasine blister gas is fairly soluble in water and decomposes within several hours and becomes harmless. Tear and vomiting gases are best regarded as toxic in water but do impart an objectionable taste and odour. However nitrogen mustard gas takes several days to decompose in water although it is odourless and tasteless, it is highly toxic. Filters will not remove Lewisite, although it rapidly decomposes, it gives arsenical products which are very toxic. The choking gases phosgene and diphosgene are soluble in water and decompose into harmless products. Blood and nerve poisoning agents such as cyanogen chloride are highly toxic and decompose only slowly in water. Plant for decontamination in bulk needed to be vehicle mounted, not only because of the weight but to allow the vehicle engine to power the equipment.

These early vehicle mounted filtration systems used sand as the filtration medium. In the 1930s more sophisticated plant was available like the Elliott Mobile Water Purifier, which could deliver 1,200 gallons of filtered and sterilized water per hour. A self contained petrol engine drove a dynamo and pump, which drew in water that was treated by the electrolysis of a dilute salt solution and ammonium sulphate. The current was adjusted give the requirement level of chloramine to achieve sterilization. Curiously only after that process was the water then passed through a cloth filter. The plant was self-contained and weighing about 1 ton could be mounted on a 30-cwt 6-wheeled chassis.

Although during the 1930s horse transport was still in use, the greater deployment of motor transport saw the introduction of a Water Tanker Trailer with pneumatic tyres and was vehicle towed. The trailer had facilities almost identical to the Water Cart and was available with an 80-gallon tank for the 10-cwt G.S. Trailer and a 150-gallon tank for 15-cwt G.S. Trailer.

The decline in the use of horse transport did not immediately mean the demise of the Regimental Water Cart. The cart was retained in service as a back up until the start of WW2. By this time the Water Tank Truck built on a Morris Commercial CS8 and Bedford MW chassis had been introduced to supplement the role of the Water Tanker Trailers. This was a 4-wheeled 15-cwt truck fitted with a 200- gallon tank that could supply sufficient water to fill the water bottles for 800 men. The tanker truck differed from the water carts, in that there was an engine powered pump and sterilization was by using the latest standard method of superchlorination. This still required Water Sterilization Powder but for greater efficiency tablets of ammonium chloride were added. The required amounts of both additives were assessed beforehand using the Horrock’s Test. However this method required the addition of taste removing tablets. As these tablets were to remove excess chlorine, they were only added when the water was required for issue. If taste removing tablets were not available then, the original WSP only method was to be used.

Copyright RWK 2011