A memoir by a Kingstonian, Major-General (ret) Don Gray, RMC’56, Queen’s ’57, over 42 years after the fact.
“There are strange things done in the land of the midnight sun but the strangest I ever did see was a long truss bridge, heading north, yet still very far from the sea…….!”
My apologies to poet Robert Service and Sam McGee from Tennessee.
The Canadian government was committed to the construction of a highway in the Yukon from Dawson City to Inuvik NWT on the Mackenzie River delta, very close to the Arctic Ocean. The highway (later named the Dempster Hwy after a Mounted Policeman) was well under construction and several hundred miles of a gravel road had been completed on both sides of the river to be crossed by this bridge. About 122 miles north of Dawson City (of Gold Rush fame 1898) the proposed highway intersected the Ogilvie River. It was over 360 feet wide at the crossing point.
One of the fascinating points about this bridge site is that it almost straddles the Arctic Circle (Lat. 66° 33¢ 44² N) and it is located at 66° 12¢ 18.33² N with an elevation 638 feet above sea level.
The federal department of public works (DPW) had already designed the bridge and a contract had been awarded to a Vancouver firm to manufacture the bridge components. It would be composed of three identical spans of 120 feet configured as pony trusses. Surprisingly, it was fabricated of high strength steel which was to be galvanized and, when one considers the cold Yukon climate, should keep the rusting of this bridge to an absolute minimum and it should last for at least a hundred years and probably much more.
As I understand it, some questions by politicians in Ottawa, raised the idea that military engineers might be employed to build this structure. To cut to the quick it eventually became a project assigned to 3 Field Squadron (3 Fd Sqn) RMC located in Chilliwack, B.C.
It would be my job as the Commanding Officer 3 Fd Sqn, Canadian Military Engineers to make the plan to accept the bridge, organize the shipment of the components to the bridge site and build it. Easier said than done I later found out. While my unit had a complement of over 325 personnel at the time, the project would only need about 30 personnel at any time. It would be a pretty big collateral duty for the squadron in a remote location with a very long supply tail.
I should interject here that when I was at 1 CEU (Winnipeg), a military technical unit, as Chief Engineer I had actually been to the bridge site, as a consultant to 3 Fd Sqn, and had I traveled with Major Ian Ballantyne (my predecessor as CO 3 Fd Sqn) and Major Gerry Zypchen who was an engineer staff officer at Mobile Command HQ in Montreal. The trip to, and the return from, the site was in itself exciting and turned out to be quite an adventure.
We three engineer majors actually met in Vancouver to fly CP to Whitehorse and on to Dawson where we would meet with the senior DPW engineer working on the Dempster. He drove us up the highway to a flat area where a helicopter could land a take us up to look at the selected crossing. Here is where it gets interesting. The contracted civilian chopper could only carry one passenger at a time and for some forgotten reason I was selected to go in first. The flight over the Ogilvie mountains was worth the price of admission by itself. We were flying very close to the mountainside and I asked the young pilot why we were so close to it? He explained that the chopper really didn’t have enough power to get over the very high crest without using the wind up-draught, caused by the mountain, to literally blow us over the top. Sorry I asked! We were thousands of feet up. When we actually crested the top of the mountain the view was breathtaking. There was Canada’s Yukon spread out in front of me in all of her majesty. I’ll never forget that feeling or that stunning view of Canada.
When we got to the crossing site, I jumped out of the chopper and it took off to get the next passenger. I suddenly realized that all of my Boy Scout training had been forgotten.
Ogilvie River Bridge, Highway 5 (once Hwy 11) Near the Arctic Circle, Yukon 1971
The finished product!
Here I was, all alone, literally hundreds of miles from anywhere, I was not armed, was in summer combat clothing and I had no food. If anything happened to that chopper I’d probably end up as a footnote in some boring report!
When I stood at the crossing there was a steady breeze, but as I nosed about checking for a tree I could climb if a hungry bear saw me, I realized that in the woods the breeze was light and almost still, but the mosquitoes surely weren’t. I was attacked by hundreds of them. Bears be damned I went back out on the beach where the brisk wind kept the mosquitoes at bay. Incidentally the trees were very old and short as we were almost above the tree line, so they offered little protection anyway.
It seemed an eternity before the chopper got back with my two companions, one-by-one. We did our reconnaissance, kicked the sand, made our notes and reversed the process to get out of there. This time I went out first!
While we were in the Yukon doing our reconnaissance there were forest fires all over the Yukon. We had taken little notice of this fact, but when we got back to our DPW vehicle we were advised that the road to Dawson had been closed because of the fire danger and we were unable to get back to the Dawson airport. Since our DPW engineer guide lived in Whitehorse and was heading home we decided to hitch a ride with him and fly south from Whitehorse. It was an 8 hour drive I recall. At one point the Mounties waved us down to advise us of the danger of going on because a shift in the wind might cause the fire to jump over the road and we’d be “cooked” as it were. Well we, three military engineer majors, thought that were we invincible so we pressed on. The term ‘impetuous’ would not be out of place here.
Back to the bridge. I had seen the site. I had seen the plans. The bridge was to be a three span pony truss, each span 120 feet for a total length of 360 feet, that would require two abutments on each side of the river and two piers at the third points in the river. My plan was to assemble one side of the span at the bridge manufacturers plant so that our soldiers could see how it went together. I requested that each span be colour-coded and all of the bolts, nuts, and members be colour-marked to ensure that everything got to site. The closest Canadian Tire or military supply depot was hundreds of miles away and there were no quick remedies for mistakes.
The plan was to have the bridge components shipped to Skagway, in Alaska, and loaded on the White Pass and Yukon (a narrow gauge railway) and transported to Dawson, where it would be shipped up the Dempster Highway, by trucks, and off loaded at the bridge site.
Since Lt. Barr (later Major), who had been working with me, was being posted to the squadron, at the same time I was, and was up-to-speed on the bridge plans, I intended to make him site commander when the time arrived. He was clearly the right choice.
I had the planning pretty well sketched out, I thought that we would deploy our sappers by air, our equipment by road from Chilliwack as soon after 1 May as we could to firstly build our camp, prepare the site and get ready. I figured that we would finish this bridge about Labour Day (1971) or after about 4 months of work. I was shocked when the senior engineer of DPW in Vancouver opined that, based on his experience, it was likely that a bridge of this size, in that location, would be finished in the summer of 1972. Nevertheless I still went ahead with my plan.
The construction method that we used probably would not be acceptable today in light of environmental concerns. We actually built a dyke out into the river so that we could install two cofferdams, for the mid-stream piers and erect the first two spans, from dry land. When that was completed we opened the dykes to accommodate the river flow then put a dyke under the third span so that it could be erected from dry land too. I’m sure we may have temporarily bothered the spawning of some fish species and I, now, regret that possibility. Of course the two abutments were slightly easier to handle from the river banks with no environmental concerns.
Any bridge that I have ever been involved with, whether expedient or permanent, usually has technical problems. In this one, I was astonished to discover that the soil investigation was misleading. It indicated that bedrock was about eight feet below the river bed. In fact it was merely inches below the bottom. The need for piling was therefore obviated so we improvised and used heavy dowels concreted into drilled holes to anchor the piers to bottom of the river working in the cofferdams. Another huge problem was the fact that all of the aggregate, within miles of the site, which was needed for the designed concrete bridge deck was deleterious and could not used. The easy way out of this “pickle” was to order up an expanded-metal-lattice deck. Surprisingly we were able to get this designed, purchased and shipped to the site just as we needed it. A miracle? Perhaps.
I have extracted the bridge portion of my memoir of 3 Fd Sqn because it would have greatly complicated my “real” (perhaps normal is more appropriate) duty commanding this marvellous unit. I only want to add that while the bridge was under construction, I periodically flew north to the site from Vancouver or Calgary (depending where my squadron was deployed) on Fridays and returned on Monday. The squadron was well-trained for this job and once they got going I think I was just a nuisance. But I loved it. Almost every engineer wants to build a permanent bridge.
As it turned out I was posted out of 3 Fd Sqn in August 1971, just as the bridge was finishing, to attend Staff College in Toronto, a one year course, but the “powers that be” actually sent me plane tickets (Toronto to the Dawson return) to attend the ribbon cutting at the bridge site just around Labour Day as I had predicted. At the “Opening Ceremony” I restrained myself from smugly smiling at the DPW Chief Engineer who told me months before that it would take us a year or more to build a bridge of this size in the far north. He was almost right!
I understand that this bridge has been heavily used since 1971. I’ve been retired for over 25 years and I have only met one couple who has crossed this bridge. About 15 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise in the Baltic and we shared a lunch table with an adventurous American couple who loved travelling in northern Canada. I nearly fell off my seat when he told me he had crossed this bridge several times while vacationing.
The finished product!
Ogilvie River Bridge, Highway 5 (once Hwy 11) Near the Arctic Circle, Yukon 1971
This article was re-published with the permission of e-Veritas, the electronic newsletter of RMC Club http://www.rmcclub.ca
Paul Filteau
Oct 02, 2014 @ 06:42:20
I have two the biographies of three RCE Tunnellers that I would like to post on your website however need direstions as to how to do it?
Paul Filteau
Jan 18, 2016 @ 07:50:09
It was a real pleasure to meet with Mr & Mrs Whittle on August 03, 2007 and reminisce about the old days in the Federal (Federal Townsite is part of Kirkland Lake named after the Federal gold mine), Tom’s wartime experiences as a corporal with the Tunnelling Company, his police work and Barbara’s coming to Canada as a war bride. Likely Tom was the last living “sapper” from the No. 1 Tunnelling Company, Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE). He had enlisted in August 1940 in Kirkland Lake. A respected policeman from the days when policing was physically tough, Tom also used his mental astuteness as a police detective, ham operator, photographer and electronic repairman.
First, a little background on Toms’ World War II experience with the No. 1 Tunneling Company. Originally founded as the No. 1 and No 2 Drilling Companies in 1938, these companies came together to reform as the No. 1 and No. 2 Tunnelling Companies in 1940. The Kirkland Lakers jokingly referred to the No. 1 Tunneling Company as the Boyle’s Brothers Brigade, the name of a local diamond drilling company for whom many of them had worked in. Tom became Corporal of No. 2 section. As a rather irreverent group of 250 miners hailing from Kirkland Lake, Cobalt, Timmins and other mining communities in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, they didn’t fit the “Regimental” model of other military units such as infantry, armoured or artillery.
With the RCE, Tom had worked on the Shetland Islands where he recalled flying in a Lysander that had gullike wings. They mined in Cumberland, in the north of Scotland, for tungsten used to harden steel. Also in Scotland, they did a tunnel at Loch Logan to bring down water from a castle. Here the powderman had too much to drink and he accidentally blew up 21 cases of dynamite. The hotel guests were amazed to see to see the powderman running by with no clothes which were blown off by the explosion. More sadly, Two lads, Danny Chisolm and Roach were killed when defective pieces of metal flew off their drilling equipment. Another project in Britain included a bridge over the Thames River after the Germans had bombed the existing bridge with an antenna bomb.
Tom landed with the allied invasion of Italy at Anzio in January, 1944. He would go on to Ortona with the Americans where they built an underground headquarters for General Mark Clark. The Americans had better rations although they sure got sick of canned pineapple. Except for the Canadian Club in Florence, they saw very few other Canadians.
While the life as a sapper in the Tunnelling Company was relatively less dangerous, Tom described an interesting Canadian innovation done by other engineering units that included slushing or the removal of loose from the mountainside of Monte Casino. The Germans had blown out the mountain roadways. At first artillery was used to scale the loose off the walls. Then to re-establish the roads the specialized engineers with climbing experience scaled the walls with small drills and rock bolt supports. The drillers had to work under German fire. Other dangerous work went to those boys designated as bomb disposers.
One night, he was awakened by a loud bang and found himself covered with sandbags. A shell known as an “Anzio Express” with 200 litres of high explosive had hit nearby. His partner, Hugh Quigley quickly threw the sandbags off and saved his life. Tom had blood in his ears and eyes and suffered a concussion. After a later barrage, Tom was successful in getting his men out from under fire when German artillery zeroed in on a compressor behind a castle at Anzio. Shells began exploding in the trees where Tom and his section were. Tom had heard he was to have received a medal but the American, Captain Hamilton of the unit had apparently already grabbed it despite not having been part of the action. Later, Field Marshall Montgomery told them, “if you boys want to go home there was only one way to get there”; he pointed to the German lines.
In another incident, Tom was ripped from chin to ear by shrapnel. One inch lower and his jugular would have been cut. When being brought in for medical attention he was wearing a Canadian uniform which the Ghurka Doctor hadn’t seen before. The Doctor asked the Canadian accompanying, if Tom was one of ours or one of the theirs? The Canadian knowing that Tom was detached to the Americans, replied, “one of theirs”. Mistaking Tom for a German, the Ghurka doctor punched him, knocking Tom clean over the chair. Tom went back after the Ghurka who by this time had a curved cookerie knife which he held to Tom’s jugular. The situation was explained and the Ghurka Doctor then sewed Tom up, apologizing profusely. After the Italian Campaign Tom went by ship to Holland and across France to the Loire Valley and on to Germany.
Tom closest comrades in the Tunnellers overseas were also his friends from Kirkland Lake from before the war, including: Russ Croxall, Hugh Quigley and Sergeant Ralph Freitag as well as Jack Murray from Cobalt. Russ Croxall drove a truck into a restaurant. Ralph Freitag would survive the war only to drown later in Kenogami Lake. Hugh Quigley would giggle from nervousness when shells hit close. Sandy Cowan, the quartermaster was also from Kirkland Lake. Jack Murray came from Cobalt. Tom had refused promotion to stay with his buddies. The company had great respect for their major from Nova Scotia, Collie Chisolm who later was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and after the war became a member of parliament. Until their discharge on May 21, 1946 they had spent 5 years and 5 months together and were like a family. It was quite an adjustment to return to civilian life after the end of the war. After retirement, meeting former comrades at Branch 87, Royal Canadian Legion was always welcome.
While on leave in England, Tom met his wife to be, Barbara. Following discharge, Tom began work at the Macassa Gold Mine in Kirkland Lake until he got on with the police force. Barabara joined him in February 1947 and later they moved into a new wartime house at 69 Tweedsmuir Ave where they raised 3 children, Tom, Ted and Cindy. Tom lived in his wartime house through retirement until his death on February 12, 2007 in his 93rd year. A rare longevity for a former “sapper” in a mining town where life could be hard.
I asked Tom about his longevity. Due to his police work he kept way from the hotels and drinking (except when necessitated by duty). To keep himself occupied after hours he pursued hobbies such police photography, electronic repair and as a ham operator. This led to an interesting revelation where another ham in remote Labrador found a cave with German operators still there. Hearing the armistice was signed the ham moved in and grabbed the equipment. He sent Tom a picture of a German General that was found in the cave.
Tom progressed as a policeman from flatfoot 1 to flatfoot 3 and then on to detective and retired as a Sergeant. His colleagues included Jim Webster, Tom Chase, Larry Liscombe, Alec Lee, Inspector Diament, Detective Aussie Wright, Jack O’Connor and Narcisse Danis. He first worked under Chief Johnstone and then Chief Pinnegar.
Work as a policeman was physically tough. Miners settled arguments with their fists and didn’t believe in talking too much. In the early policing years, Barbara recounts that Tom would often come home with bloody clothes. Tom noted that more than once he was caught off gaurd. Thinking he was safe in picking up a drunk off a bed, he ended up receiving a near knock out punch to the head. In another scuffle they thought they had the drunk subdued when Tom took another blow to the head. Certainly police work in those days was not for the meek. Eventually, after enough fights he won the respect of the miners and gaining cooperation became easier.
Paul Filteau
Jan 18, 2016 @ 07:55:00
Military biography of Leo Michael Hartling
Leo Michael Hartling was born Feb. 26 1913 at Giroulx Lake,a small mining camp at Cobalt On. He moved to Kirkland Lake at a very young age. When the war broke out he was employed at the Sylvanite mine as a blacksmith. He like many Kirkland Lake men volunteered for service and was placed in a R.C.E. Company service# B39783. He earned the following service medals……The 1939-1945 Star
The France-Germany Star
The Defence Medal
Canadian Volunteer Service Medal
The 1939-1945 War Medal
He served with the R.C.E. as a blacksmith and amoung his several postings he was stationed in Gibralter with the No. 2 Tunnelling Company (1941-1942)
For his service in Gibralter he was presented with a silver watch fob on March 27 1943 at a special parade by General McNaughton.The fob designed by Sapper R.J. Cunningham and was struck by the Wartime Mining Association in Canada.
Hartling himself a sapper at the time and his name rank and service number appear on the reverse of the fob.
Leo Michael Hartling served out the war years in Europe and was eventually honourably discharged at the rank of sargeant.
His family remembers him returning to civilian life where he returned to the Sylvanite mine in Kirkland Lake as a blacksmith.
He wore the fob with pride on a Westclox pocket watch in the blacksmith shop for many years.Sargeant Hartling passed away March 31 1966.
——————————————————————————–
——————————————————————————–
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG – http://www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.3408 / Virus Database: 3222/6669 – Release Date: 09/15/13
Paul Filteau
Jan 18, 2016 @ 07:58:22
Military Biography of Charles Francis Filteau
Charles Francis Filteau
4 May 1913 – 3 November 1986
Born in Manilla, Philippines he came as a baby to Cobalt, Ontario where his father was mine manager at the King Edward Mine on the south shore of Cross Lake. Charlie grew up on the mine property eventually starting work: portaging, prospecting, sampler, underground, shaft sinking, surveying and mine mill in North Western Quebec in Val D’or, Burlamaque, Cadillac,Thetford and Malartic Gold Mines. Following WW 2, he again started working underground at the Wright Hargreaves Gold Mine in Kirkland Lake and then at Bicroft Uranium Mines near Bancroft (Cardiff, Ontario) followed by the Upper Canada Mine, Kirkland Lake (Dobie) as an assayer and finished his mining career in the mill at the Dome Mines in Timmins. Also, with a few partners, he started a weekend mine at Armour Lake, near Kirkland Lake. As well, in 1956, he built the first motel in the north, the Kirk Motel, Kirkland Lake but unfortunately went bankrupt.
His wartime service started with enlistment in Toronto, on the 26th of September, 1939 as a private with the 48th Highlanders Of Canada. He became a Lewis Gunner instructor with the rank of acting corporal. Charlie embarked from Halifax on the 18th of December 1939 for England. His service record indicates he next embarked at Plymouth, 13 June 1940 coming ashore at Brest, France the next day. They returned from St. Malo, France, 15 June 1940 to Southampton, England on 16 June 1940. The Battalion went to France as part of the abortive Second British Expeditionary Force. They reached Sablé-sur-Sarthe before being ordered back to Britain.
As part of the Allied Invasion Of Sicily, code named Operation Husky, Charlie embarked on the 16th of August 1943 with the No. 1 Tunnelling Company, 2nd detachment. There is a note, TOS Canadian Army (M) that I have to research. It is then indicated they disembarked in Sicily, the 27th of August 1943. Were they awaiting assignment at sea or did they go ashore and work the beaches from the ship? His record indicates he served in Italy until the embarking for France on the 17th of April 1945. His record indicates spoken languages include Italian (in school he had studied Greek, Latin and French) he would later recount his scrounging duties included securing wine for his section as they fought north through Italy.
His records indicate service in Germany however the lack of normal army documentation is a mystery? I had spoken with Tom Whittle, a fellow tunneller who said my father was transferred and it had something to do with pay. Apparently my father once told my sister he had been sent to photograph decommissioning underway in Birkenau, Auschwitz concentration camp. Our mother also didn’t know why he stayed so long in Berlin? He spoke enough German to communicate as I would later hear him speaking to German miners. He had developed a specialty while mining, in underground photography and geological specimens. Perhaps this was of use. Anyway, although he often recounted war stories he never spoke about this so we suspect he was sworn to secrecy. The Allies wanted to rebuild Germany after the war and suppressed information that would invite retaliation. After the war he suffered a nervous breakdown (fortunately recovered) and perhaps this was a contributing factor.
Effective 11th January 1941 Charlie was transferred to the No. 1 Tunnelling Company, Royal Canadian Engineers as an acting corporal and confirmed in the rank of corporal on the 18th of January 1941. His service record indicates he was qualified as a surveyors helper and later as a surveyor on the 20th of July, 1943. He also received trades pay as a miner. Other instruction included first aid, gas and sanitation. His record shows being in charge of a party at road block work and a shift boss on tunnel detachment in Scotland. On the 18th of October 1943 in remarks on his record, he was identified as being ambitious, studying mining texts in his spare time and as possible officer candidate.
He was granted permission to marry on the 18th of March 1941 to Elizabeth (Betty Rose) Shepherd where his address was listed as Foteham, Surrey, England.On the 24th of February 1942 his first son (Ronnie) Charles Ronald Francis Filteau was born. Their address listed is 8 Overdale, Reigate Road, Dorking Surrey. On the 8th of June 1944 His wife Betty Rose Filteau is living at Pineheurst Cottage, Broadmoor, Dorking, England. She then appears to have moved to Canada by the 22nd of September 1944 with their son Ronnie and resided with Kathryn Roarty Filteau (Charlie’s mother) at 38 Alvin Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
At the time of his discharge on the 11th Of Aug 1945 his campaign medals included:
1939-45 Star
Italy Star
France Germany Star
Defence Medal
CVSM & Clasp
War Medal 1939-45