North country lessons sometimes came to the Corps the hard way. In May the North Country taught the Corps that what they didn’t know posed difficult problems. What they didn’t know they didn’t know could lead to catastrophe. Link to another story “Muskeg Flats” On April 31 the 341st had been together less than two …
Tag Archives: Charlie Lake
Charlie Lake
Charlie Lake saw the deadly consequences of an enormous gamble. In March General Hoge had ordered Colonel Robert Ingalls to race his 35th Engineers over the ice road to Fort Nelson. The road thawed to rivers and gumbo right behind them. The General had gambled that Colonel Joe Lane’s 341st Engineers could build an …
Bodies Populated Charlie Lake
Bodies, corpses, populated Charlie Lake after Colonel Lane’s raft capsized. The Colonel, determined to bypass the bottomless mud north of Fort St John, had dispatched the raft. Now, horrified, he rushed to the scene. He found Gus, the old trapper who had tried to rescue them, and the two men rowed Gus’ skiff out to …
Drowned in Charlie Lake
Men drowned in Charlie Lake. Lead up to Charlie Lake I posted about Colonel Lane of the 341st and his problem—getting a supply road up to Ft Nelson to support the 35th. At mid-May he thought he had found a solution—rafts up Charlie Lake would bypass the 12 most difficult miles of sucking muskeg. The …
341st, Much Too Slow
The 341st moved much too slowly. In March, when he ordered the 35th to rush to Fort Nelson before the winter road thawed to impassable, General Hoge bet that Colonel Joe Lane’s 341st Engineers could create a road across the rivers and through the gumbo to Fort Nelson before the 35th’s supplies ran out. No …