{"id":10701,"date":"2015-02-17T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=10701"},"modified":"2015-02-17T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T11:00:20","slug":"rmr-riding-the-rails-to-the-front-in-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/rmr-riding-the-rails-to-the-front-in-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"RMR Riding the Rails to the Front in 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Wednesday, February 17, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>On board train proceeding to front<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day:<em> \u201cDiscipline on train excellent, though conditions were anything but comfortable for the men<\/em>.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cAll day on February 16<sup>th<\/sup>, that night, and again on February 17<sup>th<\/sup>, the train trundled slowly forward, through Nantes, Rouen, Calais, Boulogne, and other towns of but slightly less importance.\u00a0 Stops were frequent, these being welcome to the troops, who appreciated any opportunity to stretch their cramped legs.\u00a0 At nearly every halt the French-Canadians of No. 4 Company surprised and delighted the townspeople, who kindly supplied refreshments, by singing those old French songs so beloved and so well known in the Province of Quebec. \u201cTipperary\u201d and \u201cAnnie Laurie\u201d the wayside Frenchman associated with the travelling British Army.\u00a0 \u201cAlouette\u201d and \u201cEn Roulant ma Boule\u201d sung by men in khaki, touched his emotions and aroused his sympathies.\u00a0 Good wishes and blessings, therefore, showered on the Royal Montrealers as the train crept towards the front.\u201d <strong>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[2]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10637\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 956px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/17-Feb-15.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10637 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/17-Feb-15.png\" alt=\"17 Feb 15\" width=\"956\" height=\"393\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">THE FRENCH RAIL BOX-CARS &#8211; \u201c40 and 8\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>\u201c\u2026servicemen in France were transported to the battle front on narrow gauge French railroads (Chemin de Fer) inside boxcars (Voitures) that were half the size of American boxcars. Each French boxcar was stenciled with a \u201c40\/8\u201d, denoting its capacity to hold either forty men or eight horses. This ignominious and uncomfortable mode of transportation was familiar to all who traveled from the coast to the war;\u2026\u201d <a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[4]<\/a><\/p>\n<pre>[1]\u00a0\u00a0 <em>War Diary, 14<sup>th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, Feb 17, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089694.jpg\">http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089694.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n<pre>[2]\u00a0\u00a0 R.C. Featherstonhaugh, <em>The Royal Montreal Regiment 14<sup>th<\/sup> Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925<\/em>, Montreal, The Gazette, Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg. 27.<\/pre>\n<pre>[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/don.genemcguire.com\/40_8.htm\">http:\/\/don.genemcguire.com\/40_8.htm<\/a><\/pre>\n<pre>[4]\u00a0 \u00a0Ibid<\/pre>\n<pre>[5]\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday, February 17, 1915 On board train proceeding to front The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cDiscipline on train excellent, though conditions were anything but comfortable for the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}