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The War Department quickly responded to the Anglo-Frenchrequest, and in May 1917 it directed that nine railway engineer regiments beorganized in major cities from Boston to San Francisco. COL Curtis R. Townsend,a Regular Army engineer officer stationed in St. Louis, was tasked to organizeand command one of these regiments, which began as the 2d Reserve Engineersbefore being redesignated the 12th Engineers (Light Railway).
The regiment comprised 1,000 officers and men in aheadquarters and two battalions, each with three companies (lettered from A toF). The officers were mainly civilian engineers from the Officers’ ReserveCorps, and the men were recruited from the railroads entering St. Louis fromthe south and southwest. They were distributed among the six companies basedupon their skills, so that each unit had roughly the same capabilities.
The 12th established its headquarters at Montigny Farm, nearthe Somme River in northern France. The engineers were amazed at the tremendousdevastation produced by three years of war, and some had trouble sleepingbecause of the sounds of battle coming from the front lines, less than fivemiles away. Until February 1918, the regiment operated and maintained lightrailways of the British military railway system in the area behind the ThirdArmy’s front. Its work began at standard-gauge railheads, where munitions andsupplies were transferred to light railways, with a gauge of about two feet.
The 12th began supporting the British Fifth Army in March.When the Germans began their long-awaited Somme offensive on 21 March, theBritish Army retreated, and the 12th was barely able to save its personnel andequipment. Company D’s PVT Joseph B. Fraher earned the British Military Medalfor continuing to maintain communications after a shell blew him off atelephone pole.
After supporting the British for just over eleven months,the 12th transferred back to American control on 25 July 1918. One veteranlater recalled the contrast of joining “a new army where the lack of experiencewas everywhere apparent. For a while the cry was ‘I want to go back to work forKing George V, but I want American rations.’”
Includes a complete roster the men and officers, who died and killed, and promoted to officer during the war. One of the very few units who arrived very early in France.
This is a reprint of the original in an 8 ½ x 11 staplebound format with 344 Pages.
