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The
contribution to the war effort, especially on the Western
Front, of the designated
Railway Companies of the Royal Engineers is largely
overlooked and/or not researched in most accounts of
the conflict.
Given the fact that the earliest troop movements gave
rise to the phrase ‘war by timetable’,
the important role of rail transport cannot be underestimated. After the realisation that the war would
not be over by Christmas, the British Army set in motion
plans to expand upon the remaining rail network still
in Allied hands in France and Flanders. This was designed
to improve the flow of men and materials to and from
the front line. In August 1914, there
were two Regular and three Special Reserve Railway Companies.
Their establishments were as follows:-
| Companies |
Officers
|
Other
ranks
|
| 8th
Rly Coy |
3
|
106
|
| 10th
Rly Coy |
3
|
106
|
| Depot |
2
|
4
|
| Royal
Anglesey (1 Coy) |
5
|
145
|
| Royal
Monmouth (2 Coy) |
10
|
290
|
| Total |
23
|
651
|
The 8th Rly Coy landed in France in August
1914 and the 10th and two Special Reserve Coys in November
of that year. The third Special Reserve Coy landed
in February 1915. It was soon seen that the above units
would not suffice for probable requirements and the
Director of Railway Transport was instructed to organise
additional Railway Construction units. In October 1914,
the Railway Executive Committee in England formed a
Sub-Committee for Recruiting. Very large numbers of
the employees of British railway companies were then
volunteering for military service and the men for RE
Railway units were selected from them. By the end of
1917, out of 180,000 enlistments from English railway
companies, about 40,000 men were serving in RE Railway
units.
The HQ of the Regular railway troops
before the war was at Longmoor, Hampshire and the Special
Reserve Companies came there annually for training
using the specialised Woolmer Instructional Military
Railway. During the war, Longmoor, and subsequently
part of Bordon, became the centre for all railway and
road personnel and at one time also for Inland Water
Transport personnel. From the outbreak of the war until
the armistice, nearly 1,700 officers and 66,000 other
ranks were sent overseas from this centre.
Approximately half the officers for
the new units were provided by the British railway
companies on the recommendation of the Railway Executive
Committee and the other half were mainly men from overseas
who had been employed on colonial and foreign railways.
Some of the Companies formed in 1915 drew upon a large
contingent of local men, forming the kind of unit seen
in the Infantry as ‘Pal’s Battalions’.
However, as time wore on and with the major transport
logistical re-structuring of 1917, the ‘local’ content
would become diluted as men were swapped around and
men from other army units were combed out to swell
the ranks of the Railway Companies.
Once in France, the sappers would be
assigned to a Construction Train, of which there were
eight in operation in mid-1915. Each Construction Train
would have a complement of up to two complete Railway
Companies, with a Captain as O.C. and would enable
the sappers to carry both themselves and all their
necessary tools and equipment to and from wherever
the next work was required. The Company would pitch
their tents for accommodation, as required. Large-scale
work would include the construction of the major stores
and ammunition dump at Audruicq, ten miles from Calais.
Here, and at numerous other locations such as the nearby
major ammunition dump at Zeneghem Yard, there was great
use of Chinese Labour and R.E. Labour Companies to
prepare the ground, ready for the platelaying sappers.
As
the various campaigns and battles unfolded, Railway
Companies were engaged in their work
all over the British sector, joined by Dominion R.E.
Railway Companies. Close examination of the period
trench maps and support areas bear testimony to miles
of what was to be temporary track that criss-crossed
the area. Howitzer Spurs, Ambulance Train Sidings,
Tank enablements and bridges were all constructed
in addition to the constant maintenance and line doubling.
Work in progress was always a potential target for
enemy artillery and also there were the attentions
of the German Air Force to contend with. Zeneghem
Yard,
for instance, was a natural target and sappers from
Railway Companies are recorded as having to help
extinguish serious fires resulting from air raids.
At
the front, the objective was always to take standard
gauge railways as close to the front as possible, to
lessen the demands on Light Railway systems, mules
and sheer manpower. Working could mean toiling around
the clock, especially where lines had been cut by shellfire
and inevitably there were casualties; analysis of the
records shows that 173 men from Railway Companies lost
their lives. From just the two Regular Companies in
1914, there would be a total of forty-five Companies
engaged in Standard Gauge Railway Construction, including
other theatres such as Egypt and Salonica, by the end
of hostilities. Most of the men in the Railway Companies
had enlisted for the duration of the war and were naturally
keen to return home as soon as possible. However, there
was still much line repair work to be done in order
to restore the lines of communication now extending
deeper into the areas formerly held by the Germans.
The Railway Companies gradually began to be de-mobbed
and by August 1919 the last Company had laid its last
sleeper.
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