From the News

Dated: December 29, 1917

Tank As Bridge Pier

Canadian Railwaymen’s Fine Work Under Fire.

Mr. Roland Hill, special correspondent with the Canadian Forces behind the British lines in France, writes:–

Several bodies of Canadian railway troops and expert pioneers from the Dominion have been doing almost superhuman work in front of Ypres since the August attack, grading and building light and heavy lines.

There is no mixture of earth that can stick like that mud west and north-west of Ypres, and waist deep in it these construction men have miraculously built their lines. First of all it has been nothing but a floating pathway of timber and ties strung along like a miniature suspension bridge, held together by the thin strips of rails, winding in and out of shell holes, following up so close to the battle that it lines up with the most advanced dressing station. Sometimes under the stress of an ammunition train a hundred yards or so would disappear into the ooze. There was always a gang there ready to salvo it with chunks of cement from wrecked German "pill-boxes" or whatever of the debris of war happened to be handy.

At one place somewhere behind the former German lines I found a Tank–it had gloriously done its duty before an unlucky shell had caught it–in use as a bridge for the light railway. A swirling stream had been shelled out of its old bed, and had taken the easiest course, that of an old trench. That Tank was made the centre pier of a bridge which a Vancouver railway officer was more proud of than if he had built the middle span of the great Quebec structure. He put a tremendous amount of engineering skill and a very small amount of material into it, and it grew into a thing of wonder. When the line was graded it safely carried the heavy tractors and cars laden with tons of ammunition. He brought up some road planks, bolted them to the top of it, and then sat down contentedly in two inches of mud on the slimy parapet when his final triumph came and three other Tanks successfully crossed to the fighting line ahead.

These things only happen right up behind a first attack. It doesn’t take the railwaymen long to make the real line. In a couple of days, perhaps three, there is generally a comfortable working system. Bit by bit the ballast comes up, sandwiched between the ammunition trains, which always have right of way. The lines run over trestles and through, instead of around, the big shell craters. Loops are constructed so that the volume of traffic can be doubled.

Emergency dumps are kept out there in the mud, and when the line is smashed by a shell there are crews and "civilized" material to build it up again. One vital section was broken nearly fifty times on the night of a "push," yet each and every gun in that great circle that pounded the enemy always had all the ammunition that could be used.