The Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train was a unique unit of the Royal Australian Navy. It was active only during the First World War, where it served in the Gallipoli and the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns. The Train was formed in February 1915 and stood down in May 1917. Throughout its existence, it was composed of Royal Australian Naval Reservists under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leighton Bracegirdle. Normally under the command of the British IX Corps, the Train also supported the I ANZAC Corps and Imperial Camel Corps in the defence of the Suez Canal. The Train was Australia's most decorated naval unit of the First World War, with more than 20 decorations awarded to its sailors.
Formation and recruitment By 1915, with the prompt seizure of Germany's Pacific possessions, it was becoming apparent that there would be very little for the Royal Australian Naval Brigade to do beyond securing Australia's ports. It was also becoming obvious that trench warfare was going to be the main feature of the Western Front, and that engineering units were in strong demand. Reports reached Australia that even a Naval contingent would be acceptable, as the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, consisting of Royal Marines and Naval Reservists, was preparing to join the Western Front.
The Naval Board was quick to move on these reports, making this recommendation to the Minister for Defence:
On 12 February, the Government made the offer to the Imperial Government to provide one Bridging Train, in accordance with "Imperial War Establishments." Within a week, the offer was accepted.
Command of the Train was given to Lieutenant Commander Bracegirdle, with Lieutenant (later, Commander) Thomas Bond as his First Lieutenant. Both officers had been involved in the surrender of German New Guinea, Bond had led the attack on the wireless station, and Bracegirdle had been left in command of the garrison when Commander Beresford was evacuated for medical treatment. The two officers were appointed on 24 February 1915.
The Train grew to 115 men by 12 March and was encamped on Kings Domain, Melbourne. Bracegirdle and Bond had also discovered that no one left in Australian in either the Army or the Navy had any useful knowledge on the subject of bridging trains, they would have to wait for their pontoons and vehicles to be built – meaning a wait of at least six weeks before they would be able to begin training, and that almost all of their unit would need to be taught to ride, on very few horses.
The Train embarked upon HMAT A39 Port MacQuarie on 3 June with, according to the Train's Medical Officer, Dr E.W. Morris, 5 officers, 3 warrant officers, 267 Petty Officers and other ranks, 26 reinforcements, 412 horses, 5 6-horse pontoons and tressle waggons, and 8 other vehicles. They were headed to Chatham, England to be trained in the construction of pontoons. Of course, this was the First World War. The Train reached Port Said, Egypt on 17 July 1915, and was issued orders to continue on to England. The next day, the 18th, they received orders to the Dardanelles. Arriving at the Greek isle of Imbros, yet more new orders were received, transferring control of the Train from the British Admiralty, which had been given operational control of the Royal Australian Navy by the Federal Government on 10 August 1914, to the British Army and attaching it to IX Army Corps under Lt. General Stopford which was to land at Suvla Bay on 7 August.
While at Imbros, the Train received a grand total of five days of instruction on the use of their pontoons, a task which needed six days worth of unloading and reloading the equipment. After this minimal training, they were considered ready to land under enemy fire.
Suvla Bay
At 5am on 6 August 1915, the Train, embarked upon HMAT A53 Itria, reached its designated anchorage, and the landing was well underway. A party was sent ashore to find the best place to continue the landing, and where to later build the infrastructure to reinforce the Corps. Mid-morning, when Bracegirdle attempted to confer with the IX Corps Chief Engineer, Brigadier-General E.H. Bland , as ordered, but was unable to be found. This forced the Train to sit idle until late afternoon when they were tasked with putting together a temporary pier at A Landing, which had been left without a party to construct it. It was the second day at Suvla when the Train began to come into its own, constructing two piers and rowing the second into place at A Beach, a trip of approximately , for use by the lifeboats evacuating injured soldiers. The Train assembled the 110-metre-long structure in 20 minutes. The next few days were occupied with constructing further piers as well as landing troops and supplies to assist the landing and shifting their base from their landing point to Kangaroo Beach.
Soon, the Train was put in charge of the landing's water supply, something that had been neglected during the early stage of the campaign. As there was no supply available, water had to be brought by sea, often in petrol tins. This responsibility was given to the Train on 12 August, they were able to source three fire engines and some hoses, which, with the Train's pontoons were used to pump supplies brought from transport ships to tanks on the beach. The fire hoses were kept under guard, and eventually replaced with metal pipe as soldiers would constantly make holes in it to get at the water inside. This was just some of the work that saw the Train removed from the 11th Division and directly attached to the IX Corps Engineers, becoming responsible for all work afloat or on the beach up to the high-water mark that the Navy might require.
Other jobs that fell to the Train were to act as wireless operators and draughtsmen for the Army Corps and Lt Commander Bracegirdle was the "Beachmaster" of Kangaroo Beach.
According to the Train's log, 30 September was a special day. It was the second day in a row that the base had not been shelled by Turkish artillery. Of course, they would make up for the oversight on 1 October, but for the sailors it was a welcome reprieve. While the Train wasn't itself involved in actual fighting, it was constantly shelled and bombed by Turkish forces. It was a common sight at Suvla to see 40 British soldiers under the direction of a RAN Petty Officer, working to bring supplies ashore during rough weather. The soldiers would openly look forward to returning to their trenches where they at least had the ability to shoot back at anyone who attacked them.
The AIF Official War Correspondent, Charles Bean came to Suvla Bay specifically to report on the Train, where he found that:
The supplies landed and distributed by the Train were many and varied. This is a summary of munitions and stores discharged from the storeship Perdsto during the month of September. Description Quantity Description Quantity Bombs (various) 372 cases Corrugated Iron 670 sheets Grenades (various) 25 cases Sleepers 160 Gelignite 6" x 6" timber 75 lengths of Ammonal 12" x 6" timber 50 lengths of Picks and Helves 2,100 9" x 6" timber 49 lengths of Shovels 3,050 6" x 4" timber 209 lengths of Billhooks 160 4" x 4" timber 410 lengths of Hand Axes 210 3" x 3" timber 625 lengths of Felling Axes 349 9" x 1.5" timber 89 lengths of Barbed Wire 320 coils Nuts & Bolts (various) 6 cases French Wire 110 coils Nails (various) 14 cases Staples for wire 20 boxes Spikes (various) 2 cases Spikes for wire 25 boxes Loophole plates 50 cases
Evacuation
In November 1915, the British military hero Field Marshal Lord Kitchener toured the Dardanelles as part of his review of the Middle Eastern theatre of operations. After two hours at Anzac Cove, he instructed Lt General Birdwood, the Commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force to begin planning to evacuate the Peninsula. Winter was coming and already too many soldiers were being taken sick and even dying of hypothermia and frostbite, while the Turks had been stubbornly holding their ground. Retreat made sense, aside from just one problem: once the Turks figured out the troops were pulling back, the retreat would very quickly become a bloodbath.
Once the official decision was made by the War Cabinet, preparations were made, carefully disguised to make it seem as though units that could be would be withdrawn to Mudros safely would be, leaving enough troops to defend the ground taken for the winter, while the bulk of the troops would return in spring for a new offensive. Troops and equipment started slipping away from the front and aboard navy vessels from 8 December 1915.
During the time, the Train's log shows work parties completion construction of roads and buildings on the same day as other parties were disassembling other buildings and stocking supplies for transport, with shifts working around the clock. The sick list came down from 70 men before preparations began to a low of 7 on 12 December. The Chief Engineer of IX Corps, General Bland praised the Train for its work in preparing to depart Suvla, saying that
The Train was the last Australian unit to leave the Gallipoli Peninsula, a party of 50 men under Sub-Lieutenant Charles Hicks was left behind to oversee the evacuation of the British forces. They left at 4.30am, on 28 December – eight days after the evacuation of Anzac Cove. The Train sailed to the Greek isle of Mudros, along with the rest of IX Corps.
Suez Canal
On reaching Mudros, Lt Commander Bracegirdle was hospitalised for Malaria and Jaundice, while command of the Train was returned to the 11th Division from IX Corps. The Train was then temporarily transferred, on 26 December 1915, to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Disciplinary matters, though were handled by Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, the Royal Navy officer commanding the Port of Moudros. By 5 February 1916, the transfer to I ANZAC Corps was official.
After recuperating at Mudros, the Train set sail under command of Lt. Bond for Lake Timsah on the Suez Canal on 17 January, arriving there on the 21st. Here, at Suez Canal No. 2 Section, the Train was responsible for manning and controlling existing bridges, building new bridges, control of tugboats and lighters and the distribution of stores. On 11 February, the Train split into three sections, with Lt. Bond commanding 57 men at a Serapeum halfway between Lake Tismah and Bitter Lakes, Sub-Lieutenant Charles Hicks with 65 men at the northern approach to Lake Tismah, a place known as Ferry Point. Lt Commander Bracegirdle had joined up with the Train again on 30 January, and was in command at the main camp on Lake Tismah.
Duties at the main camp were light, mainly consisting of experimenting with new iron pontoons, and assisting at the Ismaïlia Canal Works. The two detachments on the other hand were used to operate the small vessels crossing the Canal at all hours of the day and night, and also forming and breaking the pontoon bridges several times each day.
Come March, the Train was in high demand. Admiral Wemyss, now in command of East Indies & Egyptian Squadron,Heathcote, p. 251 who wanted to use the Train to operate river transports and work as gun crews supporting the Mesopotamian campaign. General Sir Julian Byng, who had taken command of IX Corps at Suvla Bay when the elderly General Frederick Stopford was relieved for incompetence, wanted to bring the Train south to No. 4 Section, Suez Canal, which included all of the Canal south of Small Bitter Lake. Also in March, Lieutenant Bond was transferred to the Naval Intelligence detachment in Alexandria, with Lt Clarence Read taking his place as First Lieutenant.