Sample third part
Heroic Railroad Men Put Lifeline Across Continent Under Nazi Fire
(Third of a series of four stories outlining some of the highlights of railway operating battalions sponsored by lines directly serving Birmingham.)
In the witching hours of May 26th, 1945, a locomotive hauling 38 cars brim full of coal, puffed into the railroad receiving yards at Bremen, Germany. The crew manning that train was personnel from Co. C, 722nd Railway Operating Battalion.
For the Germans, this pre-dawn arrival was proof that the Americans had moved to stay. To tired, grimy Military Railway Service people, it meant that the whole scheme, no matter how costly in men and materiel, to get supply which began at Cherbourg soon after D-Day had ended in a glorious achievement. The fact is that—to the Germans, was proof that the Americans had moved to stay. To tired, grimy Military Railway Service people, it meant that the whole scheme, no matter how costly in men and materiel to get supply which began at Cherbourg soon after D-Day had ended in a glorious achievement. The fact is that—
The railway warriors knew that the locomotives the Yanks wished to operate for them were not made in Germany. Some of them were born at Cherbourg. The big S-160 Consolidations assembled in the States were loaded at Bristol, England, were unloaded from liberty-hull type LSTs.
Once on the ground, this rail unit, which included Americans from all the southeast area, reached Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. Arrived at the German frontier, the smoke and cinder GIs promptly punched their way on into Central Germany to begin their job: Perform, how much artery of supply for our Army of Occupation in Southern Germany.
IT IS SINGULARLY APPROPRIATE that the Ardennes-sponsored 722nd of the Seaboard Air Line Railway should have run the first train to the shell-torn area at Bremen. Co. C of the 722nd is recruited from men of Watskinville, Ga., and former superintendent C. C. Shook of the Seaboard was largely instrumental in getting the 722nd activated in January, 1943. After receiving training at Camp Forrest, Tenn., the outfit was sent for more training. Not until the pre-invasion day of May 6th, 1944, at which time the battalion shipped as a unit.
The whole outfit had headquartered itself at Liege, Belgium, under its own steam; but moving into France as the Germans continued their retreat, the Yanks halted at the “Battle of the Bulge” sector. In the now famous St. Vith district, Fronten, as a matter of fact, the 722nd boys had to erect signs all of one night to keep from getting lost. A short while later the unit again got a crash order. The Nazis were on retreat and the Army of Von Rundstedt was pushed back.
Across the Rhine and the 722nd doggedly worked its way to Warburg.
That first train into Bremen was a major accomplishment. The locomotives and rolling stock made possible a new operations yard. American and German tramp engines fanned out to find the tracks to the Kiel Bay.
The first train itself was in charge of C Company commander, Lt. Hart C. Barnett, of Rochester, N.Y. Barnett is former road foreman of engines for the New York New Haven & Hartford Railroad and his iron horse was driven into Bremen in civilian life by the N.Y., N. H. & H. He is employed by the N.Y., N. H. & H. in civilian life (C Company has recently been stationed in Bremen at the former German luxury liner Europa.)
ONLY AFTER ORDERS WERE RECEIVED to transfer kit and caboodle from Warburg to Bremen, was Bremen’s railroad center, recently pulverized by plane bombing, dug out, put in ship shape, cooking facilities were put back in shape, almost as soon as the depot powerhouse switches and automatic signals and switches.
A thoroughly modern yard with three roundhouses, eight receiving tracks, 44 classification tracks and 12 platform tracks, complete with power switches and locomotive–handling facilities represents the present layout; already the work was started by the Germans that restoration to full capacity was realized in minimum time.
Steel highways needed to meet the heavy demands of a city that is feeder for all freight going to our army in Southern Germany have already been rebuilt and worked with renewed vigor and additional tracks.
On June 11 of this year, the 722nd inaugurated passenger service from Bremerhaven to Hanover, named the “Seaboard Express;” this train still performing its tasks. It operates on a fast schedule and is staffed by personnel and mail.
So it is that the Seaboard Battalion, first and only military railroad unit to reach full operations at a German seaport, is now in position to establish passenger service just as you might like it.
Joking aside, however, the 722nd is the lifeline of food and supplies to our Army of Occupation. And so far as anybody has known, two “Seaboard Expresses” will run between here and Hanover “till the boys come home.”
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