Hi Gregory;
Yes, this story comes from the book: "WAIT FOR THE WAGGON, THE STORY OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN ARMY SERVICE CORPS", by Arnold Warren.
This is the full account from the book:
"Maintaining the Armour presented a particularly difficult problem. When they were pursuing, they used petrol in terrific quantities. And when they were fighting, they used much ammunition and little petrol. At that time they were doing more pursuing and less fighting, and it was a task of major proportions to keep fuel available for their tanks. An Armoured Division on the move might use about 90,000 gallons of petrol a day.
Major-General M.L. Brennan (retired) who was, at that time, CRCASC of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel talked about those hectic days:
"I'll never forget one night, We'd been running across France for five or six days. They'd had battles here and there - small things, but nothing to stop them - and we were having a terrific time to supply them with petrol. The source was getting farther behind us every day. It got behind, if I remember correctly, about one hundred miles. That means a drag of two hundred, and with all the
cul de sacs, one-way bridges, darkness, weather, running without lights, and so on, that's a hell of a pull.
I used to try to be at the source of supply, just so the men could see me there, then try to be at the point of delivery. I did this for about six days and I was pretty well beaten, and so were the Drivers. I'd flogged them to death.
This particular day I arrived at my Headquarters about four o'clock in the afternoon. My Senior Supply Officer was there. "I've just been up front," he reported, "and we're all right. If all goes well - the enemy seems to be digging in and the Armour are pulling to a halt - we'll deliver tonight and end up with about 30,000 gallons on hand."
That meant we'd have 30,000 gallons with tomorrow's draw home free, whereas we'd been ending up some days with about two gallons. It sounded wonderful, so I decided to go to bed. I went to my caravan and had started to undress when I saw a Jeep and one of those panel trucks draw up in front. I wasn't paying too much attention, taking off my tunic and one thing and another, when the Adjutant came in and said, "There's a Polish officer here, sir, and he wants some petrol."
Well, I was very tired. I looked out the window at them and said to the Adjutant to give them a chit to the Petrol Point, and to tell them to draw what they wanted.
I went to bed and I slept - oh, I guess I slept fifteen or sixteen hours. Next morning I got up feeling good. The sun was shining. I dressed, had a shave, went outside, and there stood my Senior Supply Officer. He was pretty nearly in tears. He said, "Do you know what happened, sir?"
I said, "No, for Christ's sake, don't tell me something happened last night."
"It certainly did," he said. "Some stupid son-of-a-bitch in this Headquarters gave the Poles a chit to the Petrol Point and they refuelled the Armoured Brigade - 28,000 gallons."
Cheers
