Railway to Vimy Ridge

Canadian Railway Troops at the Front

The story of the Canadian Railway Troops is one of the romances of the war recording how one Battalion of Canadian Railwaymen grew into a Corps of nearly 16,000 strong, which from the Spring of 1917, took a major part in the construction and maintenance of railways of all gauges to within easy reach of the Front Line. After the Battle of the Somme, it was clearly proven that road and animal transport could not alone bring forward in the fighting zone over shell-torn terrain, the weight of war material (as much as 2,000 tons per mile of active front per day) required to stage a modern battle. While part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Canadian Railway Troops organization was separate from the Canadian Corps. Their  administrative HQ was at General Headquarters of the British Armies in France in March 1917, to enable Major-General Stewart to fill the dual capacity of General Officer Commanding the Canadian Railway Troops, and Deputy Director of General Transportation (Construction).

The Railway Troops arrived in France just in time to prove their worth. During the German retreat on the Somme, in February and March 1917, the first of the Battalions to arrive quickly pushed forward standard gauge and light railway lines despite the obstacles and difficulties imposed by atrocious weather and the thoroughness of the destruction left by the enemy in the wake of his retreat. On the 9th of April 1917, the Battle of Arras began and the Canadians attacked and captured Vimy Ridge, the strongest German fortress on the Western Front. For several weeks prior to the opening of the attack, the weather had been extremely bad and the ground in the battle area was like a quagmire.Notwithstanding the conditions, the Railwaymen were able to lay steel to within a short distance of the front line, but now without cost. In the week before the attack, 17 men from various battalions were lost. The 5th Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops experienced the biggest loss on one single day. The battalion had been operating east of Maroeuil. It was far too dangerous to work in daylight, so they worked through the nights to push rail lines closer to Vimy Ridge in support of the attack scheduled for 9 April. They returned to their huts at dawn. On April 4, a shell burst in a hut they were using, wounding many and killing eleven. Fifty more sappers and pioneers were killed in the same period.

The eleven railwaymen were:

  • Sapper Reginald Phillip Adshead of North Bay, ON, age 18;
  • Sapper Arthur Donald Brown of Gault, ON, age 21;
  • Sapper John Fitzhenry of Liverpool, England;
  • Sapper Frank Cochrane Hermeston of Timiskaming Co., ON
  • Sapper Frederick Hilton of Creston, BC, age 25;
  • Sapper John Marshall Mason of Leeds, England, age 36;
  • Sapper Martin McCurdy of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA;
  • Sapper RB McKenzie of Owen Sound, ON, age 27;
  • Corporal  Andrew Nicol of Fergus, Scotland, age 31;
  • Lance Corporal Arthur Richards of Yale, BC, age 24; 
  • Sapper John Rushford of Haileybury, ON, age 19; and
  • Sapper James Tappenden of Charlton, ON, age 24.

Sapper Hermeson's body was never found.  His name is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial. The other soldiers are buried together in row 2 C of the Highland Cemetery, Roclincourt, France. 

Then, as soon as the Infantry advanced on that memorable Easter Monday, the Railway Battalions constructed new lines on the heels of the fighting men. Supplies and ammunition were carried forward on standard and light gauge lines, and the wounded were evacuated over them to the very doors of the Field Ambulance Dressing Stations and the Casualty Clearing Hospitals. It was the first time that such work had been accomplished during the War.

Lest We Forget

 

From the records of Gary Silliker and open sources. For more on the history of the Canadian Railway Troops, see: Canadian Railway Troops - A Brief History