The Bridging Train which existed as a small but highly effective unit of the RAN operated essentially on dry land as field engineers between 1915 and 1917. They served with distinction during and after the British landings at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli Peninsula and later in Egypt. It is unfortunate that their service as members of the RAN was little known both in the Services and community at the time and even today. Formation of the Bridging Train was a direct Navy response to demands for more and more manpower for the war in France. The unit’s initial employment was to be engineering operations with the Royal Naval Division then operating in Flanders. That is, to build pontoon bridges across rivers and canals to assist in the movements of troops on the Western Front.
The unit was formed in Melbourne in February 1915. It was then manned, equipped and trained in just three months. It deployed on 3 June in the troopship Port Macquarie for the UK complete with personnel (9 Officers, 348 Other Ranks), equipment, vehicles and horses.
The Naval Officer selected to command this unit was one Lieutenant (later Lieutenant Commander) Leighton Bracegirdle, who had previously served with the NSW Contingent in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and who had only recently returned from New Guinea where he had served in the ANMEF.
On route to the UK orders for the Bridging Train were changed. They were to stand by to take part in the British landings at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Here the main task would be construction of wharves and piers. The Suvla landing took place on 5 August 1915 as an attempt to relieve pressure on the Allied positions southward along the Peninsula. Ingenuity and adaptation were to be the key words for the Train in their task of building wharves and piers, which continued for the next five months under Turkish fire.
Other key duties allotted to the unit included: water supply, maintenance of landing-piers, the discharge of stores and munitions from store-ships and transports, lighterage operations, salvaging wrecked lighters and steamboats and beach management. An additional task for a short period was the control and issue of all engineer and trench stores and materials, care and issue of trench bombs and demolition stores (for some weeks after landing, and until proper ordnance dumps were established), erection of high-explosive magazines, dug-outs, cookhouses, and galleys, assembly of hospital huts, construction of iron frames for front-line wire entanglements; and the manning and control of the steam-tug Daphne.
Fifty members of the Bridging Train were last out when Suvla Bay was evacuated on 20 December 2015. Their role was to destroy the pontoon bridge from which the last men were evacuated. The evacuation was executed perfectly.
During operations at Suvla Bay the unit suffered casualties; four were killed or died of disease and over 60 were wounded. Dozens were afflicted with illness. In a congratulatory message the British Brigadier to whom the Bridging Train reported, said.
They have rendered most valuable services in connection with the construction and maintenance of landing piers, beach water supply and the landing, charge and distribution of engineering material at Suvla and have most willingly given their help in many other directions. Their work has been continuously heavy, and they have done it well.
Australian Naval Bridging Train (RANBT), had a red anchor sewn in the centre. It was worn as a distinguishing unit indication at the head of each sleeve from 1916 to 1917. The design of the anchor on this patch differs from the official description of a dreadnought anchor (stockless, with a heavy base and flukes rising up from the base) and shows an anchor with a stock (the upper cross bar) and no base. The illustration of the anchor in Volume III of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, is different again, and is based on the recollection of the officer commanding the RANBT, Lieutenant Commander Bracegirdle. It shows a stockless anchor without the heavy base.Following Gallipoli, the Bridging Train was deployed on 17 January 1916 with their equipment to Egypt. Here they were to operate floating bridges over the Suez Canal. Members of the unit also participated in other operations during 1916. One such activity in December 1916 was support to an operation against El Arish on the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula to which 50 men were allocated. The objective was to erect piers in heavily mined waters to support the troops’ advance. They arrived off the objective at 0300 hrs on 21 December in two lighters carrying prefabricated pier sections towed by a tug. Thirteen hours later 35 metres of pier had been built and the lighters had been unloaded, refloated, and sent back to Port Said. Although under occasional Turkish artillery and air attack, the Bridging Train suffered no casualties.
With the rapid advance of the Allied forces into Palestine, there was less work for the Bridging Train with the Royal Australian Engineers now doing most of the required engineering work. In addition, many members of the Train were keen to be released for front line service.
Following a decision by the War Office to disband the RANBT on 22 March 1917 the men were mustered and presented with essentially two choices: either to transfer to the Army or to return to Australia for further naval service or for discharge. Those who did not join the RAN or AIF returned to Australia in May 1917 and subsequently demobilised. The Bridging Train, which had established for itself a glowing record of service and achievement in excess beyond all expectations, simply ceased to exist.
It is unfortunate that the RAN Bridging Train was barely known in 1917, let alone today. The Train was attached to the AIF, and Lieutenant Commander Bracegirdle later stated that; ‘the army never failed to render every assistance, in regard to pay, clothing, equipment, hospital treatment and other matters’, yet most of the army did not even know of the existence of the Train; possibly assuming the unit was attached to the Light Horse as they wore Light Horse uniforms.
Even at Gallipoli, the soldiers at Anzac Cove had no idea that there was an Australian unit a short distance away at Suvla Bay. It is also unlikely that many RAN personnel knew of the Train either.
References
Swinden, Greg, A short history of the RAN Bridging Train (1915-1917), Naval Historical Society of Australia, published in the Naval Historical Review in September 2017, available at: https://navyhistory.au/a-short-history-of-the-ran-bridging-train-1915-1917/
Perryman John & Swinden Greg, RAN The 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, published by the Sea Power Centre Australia, available at; 25 Sep 2023 – www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/1st-royal-australian-naval-bridging-train – Trove (nla.gov.au)
Swinden, Greg and Frame, Thomas, First In, Last Out: The Navy at Gallipoli, published by Kangaroo Press in 1990.
Pfennigwerth Ian, Bravo Zulu Honours and Awards to Australia Naval People Volume 1, 1900-1974, published by Echo Books in 2016
“RANBT Nominal Roll at Embarkation 4 June 1915”. AIF Project. Australian Defence Force Academy. Accessed 30 March 2024.