In the summer of 1918, 81 military vehicles and 297 soldiers embarked on a monumental 3,251-m journey to test the potential of mechanized transportation. This massive US Army convoy traveled from Washington DC to San Francisco, California, traversing the vast and often unforgiving terrain of the American West.

Over 64 grueling days, the convoy slogged through mud, sand, and primitive roads. One of the officers with the convoy was a young Lieutenant Colonel and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the journey ultimately demonstrated both the potential of motorized transportation and the urgent need for a transcontinental highway system.

Hello, this is Russell and welcome to Anything History. Fresh from the battlefields of Europe, the US Army returned in 1919 with a newfound appreciation for motorized transportation. But a critical question remained. Were these vehicles rugged enough to tackle the vast undeveloped stretches of the American West? This was a challenge that the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy was willing to take on.

Before we get too far into the video, I wanted to comment that one of the great sources of this video is Dwight D. Eisenhower himself as an observer with a convoy. He provided an outstanding afteraction report on the convoy to the US Army. His observations have been preserved and I’ll post a link in the description if you’d like to go see them and learn more.

I also wanted to acknowledge the amazing footage available from the US National Archives. At the time, this convoy was considered an important event and the US Army went through the trouble and expense of filming it. The original silent film is on three reels and runs about 24 minutes. The United States Army’s motor transport corps described the transcontinental convoy as a sort of truck train.

Their goal was to test the feasibility of delivering cargo and personnel across the vast distances of the United States. After a ceremony in Washington DC, the transcontinental convoy departed Camp Migs near Boston on July 7th, 1919. However, they were off to a rough start. The next day, July 8th, they ran into their first major obstacle, bridges.

In Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the heavy trucks encountered difficulties passing through covered bridges on the Wanita River. This was only the first of many difficulties the heavy cargo trucks encountered on the journey. Soldiers laid boards to help the vehicles cross one bridge and later dismantle part of another covered bridge to allow the trucks to squeeze through.

In a memorandum written after the completion of the trip, Eisenhower criticized the reliability and unsuitability of heavy cargo trucks on sand, rough, uneven terrain, and steep grades. This combined with inexperienced crews led to a lot of difficulties even at the start of the trip where the roads were good.

This transcontinental motor convoy was a real test for the US Army. It outlined four goals they had wanted to accomplish. To encourage the construction of through routes and transcontinental highways, to procure recruits for the motor transport corps, to exhibit the military motor vehicles at the nation’s disposal, and to observe the terrain and standard army vehicles performance.

The convoy comprised of two truck companies with 81 vehicles and trailers, including 34 heavy cargo trucks, four light delivery trucks, two mobile machine shops, a blacksmith shop, and a wrecking truck. In addition to the cargo trucks, it had four kitchen trailers, eight touring cars, one reconnaissance car, two staff observation cars, nine motorcycles, including five with side cars.

The convoys personnel endured conditions similar to battlefield operations. Constant strenuous labor, chronic sleep deprivation, and real physical hardships. With inadequate shelter, inconsistent rations, limited potable water, and a hostile environment, they relied upon their military training and discipline to persevere and succeed.

As the convoy crossed into Nebraska and Wyoming, it was here the real challenge began. The nice roads gave way to dirt, sand, and mud, and it was a real struggle from here on out. As the roads turned bad, an unsung hero emerged from the journey, a miltor artillery tractor. The little tractor was loaded on the back of one of the cargo trucks, and time and time again, it was called upon to pull vehicles out of the mud, sand pits, and up hills.

Eisenhower wrote that the tractor did wonderful work and at one point came into camp at night towing four trucks at once. On the road, the convoy would use scouts on motorcycles to ride ahead and wreck and order the roads and identify any problems. An engineering unit would then be deployed to work on making the roads, bridges, culverts passable.

During the later part of the trip, an engineering truck was kept 24 hours ahead of the convoy to perform this type of work, which helped avoid any unnecessary delays. On August 11th, the convoy crossed the Continental Divide at an elevation of 8,020 ft. At Echo Canyon near Evston, Wyoming, the convoy began their descent into Utah.

They had to traverse a rough road which in truth was little more than a trail with dangerous turns, deep ruts, and steep cliffs. On August 20th, 1919, they reached the dry deserts of western Utah. Although that did not make the going much easier. Crossing from Our Ranch in Utah to Carson City, Nevada, Eisenhower called it almost impassible.

The road is one succession of dust, ruts, pits, and holes. On September 1st, the convoy began another grueling ascent, this time into the Sierra Nevada. The route climbed to 7,630 ft along a narrow winding road of sand, broken stone, cut into, and in places built up along the mountain side. The 14-mi climb took 6 hours with grades between 18 and 14%.

Amazingly, they crossed the Sierra Neadas without a single accident. As the convoy descended into Placerville, California, they passed alongside the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe and down to what they described as California’s perfect roads. Arriving at Oakland, California on September 6th, 1919, the convoy was loaded onto ferry boats for the trip across San Francisco Bay.

After 64 days of travel, the convoy finally reached San Francisco, where a well-earned parade was celebrated at the end of their long journey. The 1919 transcontinental convoy demonstrated the promise and difficulties with motorized transportation at the time. For the army, the expedition tested the feasibility of getting men and equipment across the country.

It also illustrated the need for better roads with Eisenhower noting that extended trips by trucks through the middle of the western part of the United States are impracticable until the roads are improved. It was a realization that ultimately drew the support for the creation of the interstate highway system in the United States.

Thank you for watching. If you made it this far in the video, I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please click that notification button, like the video, and subscribe. It really does help the channel out.