World War II Extensions and Operations
During the Second World War traffic on PR increased dramatically from 1940 to 1945. The PR main line was a supply route for the North African Campaign that lasted from the Italian attack on Egypt in 1940 until the German surrender in Tunisia in May 1943. In April – May 1941 the Italian air force and German Luftwaffe used Vichy French air bases in the mandated territories of Syria and Lebanon as staging posts to support Rashid Ali's coup d'état against Iraq's pro-British government. British and Empire forces landed in southern Iraq and overthrew the coup in the brief Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941. Then in June and July 1941 PR served as a supply route for the British and Empire invasion of Vichy Syria and Lebanon.
PR suffered relatively few enemy air attacks. In 1941 Haifa suffered several air raids, one of which left an unexploded bomb within a few yards of the line. The last significant air attack on the railway was late in 1942, damaging the rail link to Haifa port. The attacks killed one railway worker and wonded ten more.
In June 1941 Australian Royal Engineers started building a line alongside the Suez Canal southwards from PR's terminus at El Kantara. In July 1941 they connected the new line with Egyptian State Railways (ESR) by a swing bridge at El Ferdan across the canal. In August 1941 PR started operating a through service between Haifa and Cairo. Construction of the line beside the canal continued until July 1942 when it reached El Shatt. ESR then took over operation of the completed route.
South African Army engineers built the first section of a new Haifa – Beirut – Tripoli (HBT) railway, branching off the 1050 mm gauge Haifa – Acre line and running along the rocky coast and through two tunnels to Beirut. For its construction the HBT initially used 1050 mm gauge track throughout the Haifa – Beirut section for through running of traffic carrying railway construction materials. The South Africans were transferred to other duties and the Haifa – Beirut section was completed by the New Zealand Railway Group. The New Zealand Railway Group also operated the 1050 mm gauge Jezreel Valley railway between Haifa and Daraa on the Syrian border, the Daraa – Damascus section of the 1050 mm gauge Hejaz Railway main line and 60 miles (97 km) of branch lines including the 1050 mm line between Afula on the Jezreel Valley railway and Tulkarm on the main line between Haifa and Lydda.
Once the route was complete the track was converted to standard gauge, in which form it started carrying through military traffic between Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon in August 1942. By then Australian Royal Engineers were already building the Beirut – Tripoli section, which they completed in December 1942. PR operated the HBT between Haifa and Az-Zeeb just south of the Lebanese border and the British military Middle East Command operated the HBT between Az-Zeeb and Tripoli.
Completion of the Ferdan bridge and HBT hugely enhanced PR's strategic role. PR's annual freight traffic grew from 858,995 tons in 1940-41 to 2,194,848 tons in 1943-44. The huge growth in the number of trains increased the potential for accidents. There were three head-on collisions and in 1942 six H class 4-6-0s were written off in accidents. The war effort both increased wear on equipment and reduced resources for maintenance. In November 1944 a downpour derailed an El Kantara – Haifa train, killing seven people and injuring 40.
Read more about this topic: Palestine Railways
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