https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064592983689

This unit has a facebook page with more great photos here: https://www.facebook.com/745th-Railway-Operating-Battalion-256938764352845/

 

Chris writes..... Here is the Company B photo. It looks to me like the photo was taken after they returned from overseas. My father, Leo Clark Williams Jr. is in the top row, 3rd from the right. Thanks Chris and he's sending more photos.

Cheryl writes about her dad .... Private First Class Ralph LeRoy Jones was a patrolman with the 745th Railway Battalion in India. Eddie was Private First Class Edward C. Craig with the same unit.

745trob.pdf by Nancy

Running on Time by Nancy

Burma by Nancy

** Locomotive Engineers Journal September 1945

The biggest and most important job they tackled was running most of the Bengal & Assam Railway in northeast India, operating generally from Parbat-ipur northeast. The meter-gauge line east from Parbatipur was mainly single-track, powered by an assortment of locomotives made in Germany, England, Belgium, France and Czechoslovakia.

The Indian method of operation was often protracted. There were schedules, of course; but the Indians observed them in the manner of a timeless land. If a train arrived hours late, and the schedule called for a 15-minute stop, the Indians observed it, even though loading and unloading took only two minutes.

The war supplies over the railroad under Indian operation totaled only 15,000 long tons in May 1943. In June the Bengal & Assam didn't move enough tonnage to fill the planes flying the Hump to China.

Maj. Gen. W. E. R. Covell, chief of CBI Services of Supply, gave orders Christmas Day 1943 establishing the Military Railway Service, with headquarters at Gauhati, Assam, halfway between Parbatipur and Tinsukia. It was to operate 752 miles of meter-gauge track, headed by Headquarters, Military Railway Service, and Headquarters, 705th Railway Grand Division. Operating under this authority would be five railway battalions, the 721st, 725th, 726th, 745th and 748th, and one shop battalion, the 758th.

This grand division of about 4,600 officers and men arrived at Gauhati in late-January 1944 and set up offices and quarters in a weaving school. It assumed operation March 1, and by that time, CBI Theater had reached agreement with India to operate 804 miles of track.

Thanks to Sandy Duffy ( son of Lt. George Duffy)for sharing these great photos and he'd like to talk to anyone else connected to this unit.

In his email he says .... 
I think that the story of how 5 ROB's and 1 shop battalion got diverted from assignment in France to the steamy jungles of India only to face an impending Japanese invasion is good stuff. ..
Again, if anyone from any of these India ROB's wants to contact me, maybe we can enlarge this effort.

Thanks to son Mark... Mark writes ....Harold Shaughnessy was born in Huntington, Indiana, in 1914 and died suddenly in 1976 in Hornell, NY. His father was Chief Trainmaster in Hornell in the 1930s and 40s. In his early 20s, Harold started working for the Erie Railroad in Hornell as a brakeman, then conductor, and after attending Cornell University, on to their Cleveland, OH, offices as their safety engineer. (The Erie became the Erie-Lackawanna, then Con-Rail)
In 1941-42 he served in the US Naval Reserves aboard the USS Wichita and was in the North Atlantic. He then served in the US Army with the 745th Railway Operating Battalion as a conductor and was stationed in India for all of 1943 and most of 1944. His job was handling trains full of military equipment, supplies and troops.
After arriving home from India he developed complications from the malaria and dysentery he had while stationed there and was placed in an Army hospital in NY State. While there, he met a kind Army nurse and married her 6 months later. They then had seven kids from 1947 until 1963 of which I am one.

The 745th Railway Operating Battalion was formed in May of 1943 by the U.S. Army Transportation Corps. Although it was sponsored by the CB & Q (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad), it was composed of men from 63 different railroads who worked in 42 different states. The 745th went to Camp Harahan, Louisiana, for basic training and completed their technical training in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On or about December 6, 1943, they departed from San Francisco on the USS Mariposa, which was once a luxury liner but was converted for wartime use. They made a stop in Wilmington/Long Beach, California, and then headed for India. On board were the 721st, 725th, 726th, 745th, 748th and 758th railroad and shop battalions. They reached Bombay, India, on or about January 10, 1944, after stops at Hobart, Tasmania....Wellington, New Zealand....and Melbourne, Australia. Once in India, the 745th operated a 110 mile stretch of the Bengal & Assam Railway from Lumding to Mariani carrying troops, equipment and supplies. There was a U.S. military base in Jorhat which was about 10 miles N-W of Mariani. On October, 2, 1945, the 745th departed Calcutta, India, on the USS General Hugh L. Scott. On board were an odd mix of military personnel including the First Tactical Air Communications Squadron, the 23rd Fighter Control Squadron, the 725th Railway Operating Battalion, the 427th Night Fighter Squadron, the Army Airways Communications System, and intelligence agents from five OSS units (Office of Strategic Services). The USS Hugh L. Scott refueled at Colombo, Ceylon, on Oct. 6th. Entered Gulf of Aden on Oct. 10th. Entered Red Sea on Oct. 11th. And then through the Suez Canal, across the Mediterranean sea, across the Atlantic Ocean to Pier 88, NY City. Then to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. (This is where and when the 745th group photo on this blog was taken. My dad is 5th from the right and looks ragged from bouts of malaria.)

Rail Birds Issue 1

Rail Birds Issue 1 - Copy


Rail Birds 7
Rail Birds 7 - Copy

Thanks to Mark for these great newsletters -other ROBs are mentioned.

Mark writes ....My dad was a conductor in the 745th ROB and I have some bits of info and a few wartime pics. I also attended the 55th reunion of the 745th in 2001.

Your site is great! I did all of my research in 2000-01 and many links were dead and few were interested, especially in the 'forgotten theater of war'.....China-Burma-India.

For starters, I have info on the ships & routes the 745th took to get to India and when they left. In storage I have newsletters they self-published while en route.

Thank you, Mark Shaughnessy

Rail Birds Issue 3

Rail Birds 3 - Copy

Rail Birds 8

Rail Birds 8 - Copy

Rail Bird 10

Rail Birds 10 by Nancy Cunningham

From Michael about his Dad, Gerald Brady

My father Gerald J Brady served in the 745th RR group as an engineer. In the group photo he is the 5th person from the left in the front row. I have been looking for the history timeline of the 745th during their tour of duty during WWII. I have included a couple of photo’s that he had while serving. My understanding is that his unit was in India during the time of these photo’s, according to my Aunt. My father died in 1955 when I was 5/old and left very little information about his service. Thanks again.

Michael Brady