The Liberation Line by Christian Wolmar

Author:Christian Wolmar [WOLMAR, CHRISTIAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2024-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

While the Americans were pushing toward Paris, progress by the British, who were opening lines farther north that ran parallel to the Channel, was steady but slower. To speed up rail services from Cherbourg, the main line from Bayeux was rebuilt, relieving the slow coastal route from Courseulles that had been the first line restored by the British. Clearing these tracks required the use of a huge 45-ton diesel-powered crane, brought over on a landing craft in early August. When a collapsed bridge was successfully replaced, a wrecked German ammunition train had to be cleared, and again, concerns about booby traps required testing the line with a locomotive pushing two railcars weighed down with ballast to ensure any mines would be safely detonated. And this was not the only precautionary measure the engineers used. They were concerned that rusty unused rails would become shiny when trains started running over them and might consequently attract air attacks on moonlit nights. Therefore, they limited shunting movements as much as possible and tried to use tracks that were the least visible from the air, even though these fears were largely unfounded as a result of the Allies’ air dominance.

The British 181st Railway Operating Company’s task of reinstating the tracks and other railway facilities at Caen was daunting. Though they were able to quickly restore water and electricity supplies, overall damage to the railway facilities—much of it carried out by the Resistance—was extensive. Both the depot and the workshops were completely destroyed by explosions, and the French saboteurs had toppled the coal hopper used to refill tenders. They also had run a large main-line locomotive into the turntable well, a widely used tactic that prevented the Germans from using the railway for escape. However, it wasn’t all bad news. Among the dozen or so wrecked locomotives that were unrepairable, the Germans had, surprisingly, left a couple of undamaged freight engines. Other main-line locomotives also had not been efficiently sabotaged and were soon put to work.

But work to restore Caen was disrupted on August 6 when the sappers of the 181st were ordered to spend the night in slit trenches because of a major assault launched in nearby Falaise. Guns were placed behind a railway embankment to shell the Germans, but this resulted in a tragic mistake when, the following morning, a squadron of USAF Flying Fortresses bombed the steelworks at the nearby Fabrique de Normandie, killing a group of the 181st sappers who were in the factory seeking rail equipment. The attack ended only when an RAF Spitfire pilot shot down the squadron leader of the US flight.

It took until the end of August to open the docks at Caen. The port’s principal role would be for coal imports, and soon a major store was built up that required close guarding to prevent local people from pilfering the black gold. Mezidon, 21 miles southeast of Caen, which had suffered extensive damage from Allied bombing, was the next major railway center to come into operation,

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