[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

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Chapter II
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES

Section II.
Railway construction in relation to the campaign as a whole


1. - Initial Stages - East Italy.

The first railway construction unit to go to work in Italy, was 160 Railway Construction Coy. R.E., whose advance party landed at Reggio di Calabria on 5 September, 1943 in operation «Baytown». Following as quickly as they could behind the rapid Eighth Army Advance, the Company opened the whole route from Reggio to Taranto by the end of September, moved forward to Barletta, and with R.E. assistance, opened the East coast route right through to San Severo by the middle of October. This work included repairs to ten large steel viaducts on the Reggio-Taranto section, and the erection of two bridges of considerable size to replace demolished masonry viaducts between Barletta and Foggia.

It was done with no Tn. stores whatever, with no mechanical equipment other than that which could be borowed from nearby R.E. units, and with the direction of no R.C.E., and with little assistance from the staff, who were very few in number and hard pressed. The work was of a purely temporary nature - the crippled girders in the steel viaducts were used again, by packing up and cribbing, and Bailey Bridging was used in the new bridging between Barletta and Foggia. It is believed that this is the first and only time Bailey Bridging was put into use by British units to carry rail traffic. Nevertheless, the repairs sufficed to get traffic through to the Eighth Army and relieved their extended M.T. supply link.

As an example of opportunism and initiative on the part of an isolated unit, this effort was probably never surpassed throughout the whole campaign. The Bailey Bridges remained, carrying the heavy maintenance traffic from the Heel ports to the railheads for eighteen months, when they were replaced by permanent structures.

Meanwhile, following operation «Elstree», the remaining construction units in Sicily were being moved to Taranto. By mid-October, R.C.E. 1212 and 10th and 159th Railway Construction Companies and ancillary Companies had arrived, and were first employed on base development in the Bari and Brindisi areas. 10th Company was very soon sent forward to join with 160 Company in opening the East Coast route (Line 86) North of San Severo.


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[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

Alessandro Tuzza