Royal Australian Navy Bridging Train - Suvla Bay

Suvla Bay

“

If you want to see their good works you have only to go to Kangaroo Beach, Suvla Bay and look around you. They have made a harbour.

”

At 5am on 6 August 1915, the Train, embarked upon HMAT A53 Itria, reached its designated anchorage, and the landing was well underway. A party was sent ashore to find the best place to continue the landing, and where to later build the infrastructure to reinforce the Corps. Mid-morning, when Bracegirdle attempted to confer with the IX Corps Chief Engineer, Brigadier-General E.H. Bland CB CMG RE, as ordered, but was unable to be found. This forced the Train to sit idle until late afternoon when they were tasked with putting together a temporary pier at A Landing, which had been left without a party to construct it. It was the second day at Suvla when the Train began to come into its own, constructing two piers and rowing the second into place at A Beach, a trip of approximately 2 miles (3.2 km), for use by the lifeboats evacuating injured soldiers. The Train assembled the 110 metre long structure in 20 minutes The next few days were occupied with constructing further piers as well as landing troops and supplies to assist the landing and shifting their base from their landing point to Kangaroo Beach.

Soon, the Train was put in charge of the landing's water supply, something that had been neglected during the early stage of the campaign. As there was no supply available, water had to be brought by sea, often in petrol tins. This responsibility was given to the Train on 12 August, they were able to source three fire engines and some hoses, which, with the Train's pontoons were used to pump supplies brought from transport ships to tanks on the beach. The fire hoses were kept under guard, and eventually replaced with metal pipe as soldiers would constantly make holes in it to get at the water inside. This was just some of the work that saw the Train removed from the 11th Division and directly attached to the IX Corps Engineers, becoming responsible for all work afloat or on the beach up to the high-water mark that the Navy might require.

The principal duties allotted to the unit by the Royal Navy were as follows: Water supply, care of landing-piers, discharging of stores from store-ships and transports, lighterage of same to the shore, salving of lighters and steamboats wrecked during gales, assisting in salving of T.B.D. Louis, disembarking of troops with their baggage on all beaches, and of munitions and stores. ...
The duties allotted to the unit by the GOC the IX Army Corps were briefly as follows : 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 huttings, construction of iron frames for front-line wire entanglements; and the manning and control of the steam-tug Daphne. —Lt Commander Bracegirdle, Officer Commanding, RAN Bridging Train

Other jobs that fell to the Train to were to act as wireless operators and draughtsmen for the Army Corps and Lt Commander Bracegirdle was the "Beachmaster" of Kangaroo Beach.

According to the Train's log, 30 September was a special day. It was the second day in a row that the base had not been shelled by Turkish artillery. Of course, they would make up for the oversight on 1 October, but for the sailors it was a welcome reprieve. While the Train wasn't itself involved in actual fighting, it was constantly shelled and bombed by Turkish forces. It was a common sight at Suvla to see 40 British soldiers under the direction of a RAN Petty Officer, working to bring supplies ashore during rough weather. The soldiers would openly look forward to returning to their trenches where they at least had the ability to shoot back at anyone who attacked them.

The AIF Official War Correspondent, Charles Bean came to Suvla Bay specifically to report on the Train, where he found that:

There they are to-day, in charge of the landing of a great part of the stores of a British army. They are quite cut off from their own force; they scarcely come into the category of the Australian Force, and scarcely into that of the British; they are scarcely army and scarcely navy. Who it is that looks after their special interests, and which is the authority that has the power of recognising any good work that they have done, I do not know. If you want to see the work, you have only to go to Kangaroo Beach, Suvla Bay, and look about you. They have made a harbour. —Charles Bean, The Hobart Mercury, December 28th 1915

The supplies landed and distributed by the Train were many and varied. This is a summary of munitions and stores discharged from the storeship Perdsto during the month of September.

Description	Quantity	Description	Quantity
Bombs (various)	372 cases	Corrugated Iron	670 sheets
Grenades (various)	25 cases	Sleepers	160
Gelignite	150 pounds (68 kg)	6" x 6" timber	75 lengths of 16 feet (4.9 m)
Ammonal	500 pounds (230 kg)	12" x 6" timber	50 lengths of 30 feet (9.1 m)
Picks and Helves	2,100	9" x 6" timber	49 lengths of 12 feet (3.7 m)
Shovels	3,050	6" x 4" timber	209 lengths of 16 feet (4.9 m)
Billhooks	160	4" x 4" timber	410 lengths of 12 feet (3.7 m)
Hand Axes	210	3" x 3" timber	625 lengths of 12 feet (3.7 m)
Felling Axes	349	9" x 1.5" timber	89 lengths of 16 feet (4.9 m)
Barbed Wire	320 coils	Nuts & Bolts (various)	6 cases
French Wire	110 coils	Nails (various)	14 cases
Staples for wire	20 boxes	Spikes (various)	2 cases
Spikes for wire	25 boxes	Loophole plates	50 cases