WITH tomorrow being Anzac Day, our photo today shows a young and fit Private Henry William Charles Smith with his unit in the Middle East during the First World War.
Many of the young lads who volunteered had never been out of Australia and looked at undertaking to enlist as an opportunity to see the world, though large numbers would never return. Patriotism played a big factor in enlisting to fight for the Commonwealth.
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Young Henry enlisted on September 21, 1914 in Bathurst, where he was a railway fireman working for the NSW Government Railways. He lived with his parents at 153 Rocket Street. I would say his parents, Mr and Mrs George Smith, would have been proud but would not have been optimistic.
Basic training began immediately and Henry realised the authorities were after his “railway skills”. He soon became part of the 1st Railway Supply Detachment, part of the 11th Australian Army Service Corps.
With 64 other volunteers, almost all of whom had worked for the railway, the men would learn that they would be required to operate and maintain foreign railways.
At the outbreak of World War One, the NSW Railways and Tramways Department was the biggest undertaking in our state. It had 45,000 employees, of which 8447 volunteered and enlisted. Of the volunteers, 1210 were to die serving their country.
The army wasted little time in sending the men overseas. Henry and his mates boarded the troopship H.M.A.T. A35 Berrima in Sydney Harbour on Saturday, December 19, 1914, less than a week before Christmas, bound for Colombo and then Egypt.
As horses and donkeys were initially used during the First World War to do all the hauling and road transport, it was logical that railways and tramways would also be needed to transport ammunition, men and supplies.
The Allies were fighting the troops of the Ottoman Empire, who were being supported by the German Empire, becoming part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
After their experience during the Gallipoli Campaign, Henry and his mates were shipped back to Egypt. The conflict had begun in Egypt in January 1915, after Ottoman troops, led by their German instructors, tried to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, which was at the time a British Protectorate.
Initially, many British people thought the fighting in Egypt and Palestine was a small campaign with little relevance to the overall war, but how wrong they were.
Supplies would come in via Port Said on the Mediterranean, through to Kantara and on to the first railway line if required. Other tracks were laid depending where the fighting was going.
The railway was essential for war supplies, shelter, food and ammunition, however, the Turks and their local militia often tried to blow up the railway to disrupt supplies.
Where no railway was available, supplies were carried to the required location by the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps.
Our troops survived on canned bully beef and hard biscuits, though if they were lucky, fresh meat and vegetables would be served. They primarily lived in tents. Henry also had to do patrols despite an inferior diet, harsh weather conditions, including dust storms, little shelter from the searing sun and insufficient rest periods.
The 1st Australian Railway Supply Detachment found that water was almost always a problem and often everything would be planned around water wells, water pipelines or an oasis. Army authorities even built water pipelines, such as to the Pelusium Station and Romani, along with a railway line.
The Allies captured various railways, after which they were used by the Railway Supply Detachment. One was the Hejaz Railway, which ran north to south, from Istanbul to Damascus, and on to Amman, Maan, Medina and to Mecca.
The Germans had assisted with the original railway before the war, intending it to carry pilgrims.
