Armoured Trains

The railway war was considered to be first and foremost defensive in nature, involving the destruction or blocking of numerous tunnels, and the cutting of bridges in the provinces directly menaced by an enemy attack, while at the same time seeking to avoid obstructing the movement of one’s own troops. ‘Phantom’ (or ‘ram’) trains would be sent to crash into enemy trains or crucial elements of infrastructure such as turntables, in order to block the free circulation of enemy traffic.

The Siege of Antwerp

In September 1914, the decision was taken to link together the different forts around Antwerp by a single track circular rail line. The construction of the line took from 7 September to 1 October. In particular it would allow the movement of armoured trains during the final days of the siege.

Four Light Armoured Trains, for patrol and protection duties, were ordered by the Army High Command, and were constructed out of metal sheets meant for ship construction in the Antwerp North workshops with the aid of the Engineers’ Railway Company (CFG²). They were to be followed by three Heavy Armoured Trains, to be armed with naval guns provided by the British, to act as mobile artillery in advance of the line of forts.

The first Light Armoured Train was completed in ten days, the second in eight days and the third in just six days. The fourth train, however, was captured incomplete when Antwerp fell to the German Army.

The first train (No 1, Light, commanded by Lieutenant Michel then, when he was wounded, by Sub-Lieutenant Goutière) became operational on 5 September and was in action³ continuously right up to 8 October, in particular on 25 and 26 September 1914 when it supported the operation to block the Brussels-Tournoi line, by means of ‘phantom trains’ launched in the direction of Enghien and Hal. This operation was repeated on 7 and 8 October, when the target was Duffel. In addition to their normal ammunition load of 12,000 rifle cartridges, 240 shrapnel shells and 120 57mm HE rounds, the armoured trains also carried 25kg (55lbs) of explosives for blowing up key installations.

The only known plan of the Light Armoured Trains. Although schematic, it gives a good idea of the overall dimensions on the one hand, and of the layout of the armament (a 57mm chase gun firing straight ahead and three machine guns, including one firing to the rear). We have never seen a photo of the four-wheel van.

The Heavy Armoured Trains

From 8 September 1914 the construction of these three trains in Antwerp was entrusted to Lieutenant-Commander⁵ A. Scott Littlejohns, who was acting as attaché to General Deguise, the Military Governor of Antwerp. This co-operation resulted in the trains often being referred to as ‘Anglo-Belgian Armoured Trains’, notably in the newspapers of the day. Some days earlier, it had been agreed to cede to the Belgian Army several British naval guns, which were the only ones capable of counter-battery fire against the German artillery.

Of the three trains planned,⁶ two were constructed in the Hoboken workshops (by the British Engineering Company) and the third in the North Antwerp workshop. The first two were armed with three 4.7in (120mm) naval guns and armoured from the outset. Each train was composed of three Class 32 or 32S Etat Belgian engines (of which one could be detached for track reconnaissance), three 40-tonne artillery platform wagons 18m (59ft) long, and three Bika Type vans. The mixed nationality crews comprised one Royal Navy officer and six senior gunnery ratings, seventy NCOs and gunners from the Belgian fortresses, and finally railway personnel of the CFG. The armament of the third train was to comprise two heavier 6in (152mm) naval guns without shields, which at first were simply bolted onto unarmoured platform wagons (one with girder chassis underpinnings and the other with bar-type chassis underpinnings).

The first armoured wagon was completed on 15 September⁷ and its firing trials were successfully carried out the same day. The next ten days were spent fixing the armour protection in place, training the crews and reconnoitring the railway lines and the Belgian positions. On the 23rd, the first train with one armoured wagon left Antwerp at 11.00, carrying Lieutenant-Commander Littlejohns who was the overall commander of the Heavy Armoured Trains, Captain Servais, French and Belgian officers, and the British Military Attaché. An observation aircraft was to correct the fall of shot on the German batteries which were thought to be in Epperghem. In spite of the mist which interfered with observation, based on the interrogation of prisoners and refugees the shoot actually took place.

From their base in Antwerp, the first two trains went into action at Malines between 24 and 27 September, co-operating with spotting aircraft and balloons. One of the trains was even able to approach within 1800m of the German lines. On the 28th and 29th, they were in action in front of Forts Waelhem and Wavre-Sainte-Catherine (Sint-Katelijne-Waver), as the guns of the forts were unable to reach the German batteries. At one point, a German 42cm⁸ shell only just missed one of the trains, whose movements were followed by German Drachen balloons. In spite of the trains taking shrapnel fire which fortunately burst too high, the Allied fire was effective, and forced the Germans to pull back.

On 4 October, the trains were fired on by German artillery, and one balloon was shot down by a 4.7in gun, served by Gunner’s Mate T. Potter. On their withdrawal, still under fire, the trains were visited by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty,⁹ accompanied by Admirals Horace Hood and H F Oliver. On 5 and 6 October, they went into action around Kleine-Miel, supported by two French armoured trains. But on the evening of the 6th, near Buchout, the artillery wagon at the head of one of the trains derailed on a section of line which had been cut by artillery fire. The derailed wagon was detached from the train and left there until the rails could be repaired, which took several hours. In the meantime the remaining five guns of the two trains engaged the German positions and silenced three batteries. On the 7th, the trains were successfully evacuated with reduced crews towards Saint Nicolas, before the lines were cut.

A direct hit on the shield of a 4.7in gun of a Heavy Armoured Train, possibly that on 21 October when Lt Robinson’s train was hit.

One of the 6in guns mounted on a Belgian platform wagon, seen here in Ostend on 9 October 1914.

A rare postcard, showing the armouring of a wagon of a Heavy Armoured Train. The vertical armour was 15mm thick compared to 10mm for the horizontal plates. Note however the chassis reinforcement system, which is different from that on the other Heavy and Light wagons. This is one of the two British 6in guns.

At Ostend from 12 October the armoured trains covered the withdrawal of troops from Gand. Then on the 15th, one leading and the other as rearguard, they protected the British troops marching on either side of the tracks between Roulers and Ypres. On entering the latter town, the lookouts posted on the engine fired on a scouting party of six German cavalrymen, killing an officer and a trooper. From 19 and 31 October, the trains were made available to General Rawlinson. Armoured Train No 3 (Lieutenant Robinson) went into action in the attack on Menin on the 19th and in the direction of Passchendale on the 20th. On the 21st, the train went into action on the Ypres-Roulers line, where it was fired on by German artillery, which failed to pierce its armour, but which prevented it from advancing further. From the 26th to the 31st, the trains were in action at various locations in support of the Belgian 3rd and 4th Divisions, fighting to the east of Dixmude and to the west of the bend of the Yser.

A photo dated with certainty to 13 November 1914, the square bearing the number ‘23’ is not painted on the train but is a kilometre marker.

The 6in guns which had been mounted on bogie platform wagons in Antwerp, were evacuated to Ostende on 7 October, and received their full armour protection in late October. They were formed into a new train which, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Ridler RN, rejoined the two other trains in the Ypres sector. From 1 to 7 November, the trains went into action against the German lines, and notably against an observation balloon on the 3rd. German prisoners even indicated that the 6in shells from the trains had killed eighty-seven soldiers in a trench on the 6th. Then HMAT Deguise left for Boulogne to be repaired. When it reached Oostkerke on the 11th, it was targeted by two salvoes which fell just 15m short of the train, forcing it to retreat 500m behind the station. But on the 13th, while the train was stationed at Km 23 on the Caeskerke line, a shell hit the second engine, killing the driver. From the 15th, HMAT Jellicoe came under the orders of I Corps, and went into action each day to the east of Ypres. It was also the target of German artillery on the 17th, and one man was wounded. The heavy rail traffic evacuating casualties had prevented the train from quickly manoeuvring out of range. On the 18th, a German shell damaged an engine and one of the 6in guns. The train pulled back towards Ypres Station but the German artillery succeeded in following it and ended up also firing on the station itself. The German bombardment was renewed on the 19th, but the tracks were undamaged.

The engine at the head of a Belgian Armoured Train was not usual. However, certain sources do indicate that each armoured train had one engine which could be used for reconnaissance.

Littlejohns, Commander A Scott, RN, Royal Naval Air Service: Armoured Trains, Report on Operations Sept. 1914 to March 1915, Air Department, June 1915 (MRA B.1.178.4).

Ministère des Chemins de Fer, Marine, Postes et Télégraphes: Compte-rendu des opérations 04/08/1914 - 04/08/1917.

Scarniet, Vincent, D’Anvers à l’Yser. La Compagnie de Chemin de fer du génie et les trains blindés (Jambes: ASBL Musée du Génie, 2014). Wauwermans Major H., Fortification et travaux du Génie aux armées (Brussels : Merzbach & Falk, 1875).

Harlepin, J., ‘Les Trains Blindés’, Newsletter of the Centre liégeois d’histoire et d’archéologie militaires Volume IV, No 7 (July– September 1990), pp 45–66.

‘Trains blindés et “trains fantômes” pendant l’investissement d’Anvers’, Belgian Bulletin of Military Sciences Volume II, No 1 (July 1932), pp 1–14.

^1. Wauermans, Major H, Fortification et travaux du Génie aux armées (Brussels: Merzbach & Falk, 1875).

^2. CFG = Compagnie de Chemins de Fer du Génie.

^3. On 5 September 1914, the region of Boom and Tisselt; on the 7th, the region of Puurs; the 8th, at Beveren-Waes and Lockeren; the 9th, at Zele and Termonde; from the 11th to the 14th (with Armoured Train No 2), destruction of the bridges at Denderleeuw and Alost on the River Dendre; from the 25th to the 26th, the region of Gand, Grammont, Lessines; the 27th, launching of phantom trains from Muizen towards Louvain; 2 and 3 October, protection of the engineers demolishing the Duffel railway bridge.

^4. No 17 MT (0-6-0) of the Compagnie Malines-Terneuzen, and No 3479, a Belgian Class 32 Etat.

^5. The equivalent of a Major in the Army (Commandant in French).

^6. From 9 November they were allocated the following names: HMAT (His Majesty’s Armoured Train) Deguise (after the Lieutenant-General who was the Military Governor of the Fortress of Antwerp, commanded by the Belgian Captain Servais; HMAT Jellicoe commanded by Lieutenant Lionel Robinson RN, and finally HMAT Churchill, commanded by Lieutenant Ridler RN. The train names were also painted on the wagons. Note that the Belgians serving on these trains wore British uniforms.

^7. The first two armoured trains were completed by 25 September.

^8. Evidently fired from an M-Gerät ‘Big Bertha’.

^9. Churchill was in Antwerp from the afternoon of 3 October to the evening of the 6th.

BELGIUM

ARMOURED TRAINS 1914–1915

The Siege of Antwerp

The Heavy Armoured Trains