Download or read book Steaming to Victory written by Michael Williams and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-05-16 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seven decades since the darkest moments of the Second World War it seems every tenebrous corner of the conflict has been laid bare, prodded and examined from every perspective of military and social history. But there is a story that has hitherto been largely overlooked. It is a tale of quiet heroism, a story of ordinary people who fought, with enormous self-sacrifice, not with tanks and guns, but with elbow grease and determination. It is the story of the British railways and, above all, the extraordinary men and women who kept them running from 1939 to 1945. Churchill himself certainly did not underestimate their importance to the wartime story when, in 1943, he praised ‘the unwavering courage and constant resourcefulness of railwaymen of all ranks in contributing so largely towards the final victory.’ And what a story it is. The railway system during the Second World War was the lifeline of the nation, replacing vulnerable road transport and merchant shipping. The railways mobilised troops, transported munitions, evacuated children from cities and kept vital food supplies moving where other forms of transport failed. Railwaymen and women performed outstanding acts of heroism. Nearly 400 workers were killed at their posts and another 2,400 injured in the line of duty. Another 3,500 railwaymen and women died in action. The trains themselves played just as vital a role. The famous Flying Scotsman train delivered its passengers to safety after being pounded by German bombers and strafed with gunfire from the air. There were astonishing feats of engineering restoring tracks within hours and bridges and viaducts within days. Trains transported millions to and from work each day and sheltered them on underground platforms at night, a refuge from the bombs above. Without the railways, there would have been no Dunkirk evacuation and no D-Day. Michael Williams, author of the celebrated book On the Slow Train, has written an important and timely book using original research and over a hundred new personal interviews. This is their story.
Download or read book War Administration of the Railways in the United States and Great Britain written by Frank Haigh Dixon and published by New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1918 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Britain s Railways at War 1939 1945 written by Oswald Stevens Nock and published by Shepperton : Allan. This book was released on 1971 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beskriver de britiske jernbaner under 2. Verdenskrig; krigstidsaktiviteter, troppe- og materieltransport, specielle transporter, mørklægningsproblemer, fjendtlige luftangreb og de hurtige reparationer efter air-raid damage, bombning, m.m.
Download or read book British Railways in Peace and War written by British Railways Press Office and published by . This book was released on 1944 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book British Railways and the Great War written by Edwin A. Pratt and published by London : Selwyn and Blount. This book was released on 1921 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book British Railways in the 1960s written by Geoff Plumb and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “profusely illustrated” and “impressively informative” look at the end of the steam locomotive era on one of UK’s Big Four railway lines (Midwest Book Review). After the Second War, Britain’s railways were rundown and worn out, requiring massive investment and modernization. The Big Four railway companies were nationalized from 1948, and the newly formed British Railways embarked on a program of building new Standard steam locomotives to replace older types. These started to come on stream from 1951. This program was superseded by the 1955 scheme to dieselize and electrify many lines and so the last loco of the Standard types was built in 1960 and the steam locomotives had been swept entirely from the BR network by 1968. This series of books, The Geoff Plumb Collection, is a photographic account of those last few years of the steam locomotives, their decline and replacement during the transition years. Each book covers one of the former Big Four, the Southern Railway, London Midland & Scottish Railway, Great Western Railway and London & North Eastern Railway, including some pictures of the Scottish lines of the LMS and LNER. Though not a complete history of the railways, the books bring a sense of occasion to the last run of a locomotive type or a stretch of line about to be closed down. Pictures are of the highest quality that could be produced with the equipment then available, but they do reflect real life and real times. In simple terms, a look at a period not so long ago but now gone forever. “An evocative collection of views of the twilight of BR steam.” —Railway Modeller
Download or read book Britain s Railways in Wartime written by Anthony Lambert and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long and absorbing history of Britain's railways, the most challenging years were those of the two World Wars, when they were needed the most. Transportation of everything that was grown, made, or mined, as well as soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilians largely fell to the nation's trains. Yet the indispensable role of railways in wartime has been largely overlooked. This book pays tribute to the way railway workers responded to the demand that they do more with less resources, called upon as they were to cope with an extraordinary change in the character and volume of passenger and goods traffic, to endure dangerously long hours, and to overcome the fear of moving in and through war zones. Small wayside stations could be transformed into a frenzy of activity by the arrival of a camp or supply depot on its doorstep, while disruption through bomb damage could turn the shift of the locomotive crew into an indefinite wait for relief. Featuring a gazetteer of the monuments and memorials created to honor fallen railway workers, this book pays tribute to their heroic responses to the demands of war.
Download or read book Great War Railwaymen written by Jeremy Higgins and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The railways were intrinsic to fighting the First World War, whether at home or abroad. On the Western Front and beyond trains ferried men and supplies to and from the front on a staggering scale, ensuring that the war machine functioned without pause. Back in Britain, the railway network shipped millions of tonnes of war material from the factories to the ports, becoming the lifeblood of the war effort. Great War Railwaymen details this incredible achievement, exploring not only the vast infrastructure, but also those who operated it. Despite the importance of the railways, many of those involved in the industry went off to fight in the mud and trenches, on the world's oceans, or in the skies above war torn Europe. Between them, they were awarded 2500 Military medals, 44 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 27 Military Crosses and 6 Victoria Crosses. This is their story. Meticulously researched and lovingly produced, Jeremy Higgins narrates the fascinating stories of over a thousand of these men, vividly capturing their wartime experiences and pressing home the vital importance of the railways, and those that ran them, to the Allied victory in the First World War.
Download or read book Britain s Railways in the Second World War written by Michael Foley and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating account of the British Railways system’s vital role in the defense of the country and support of the Allied forces during WWII. The outbreak of the Second World War had an enormous effect on the railway system in Britain. The ‘Big Four’ companies put aside differences and worked together for the war effort. The logistics of transporting troops during the evacuation of Dunkirk and the preparations for D-Day were unprecedented. Meanwhile, they had to cope with the new and constant threat of aerial bombing. As a result, the railway system effectively served as another branch of the military. At the end of the war, Winston Churchill likened London to a large animal, declaring that what kept the animal alive was its transport system. The metaphor could have been applied to the whole of Britain, and its most vital transport system was the railway. This book brings to light the often-forgotten stories of the brave men and women who went to work on the railways and put their lives on the line.
Download or read book British Railways and the Great War written by Edwin A. Pratt and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Britain s Railways in World War I written by J. A. B. Hamilton and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Britain s Railways at War 1939 to 1945 written by Alan Earnshaw and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book British Railways and the War written by Fred Arthur McKenzie and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Blighty s Railways written by Alexander J Mullay and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2014-06-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander Mullay tells the story of Britain's Railways during the First World War. From troop and hospital trains to carrying munitions and freight, the railways were vital.
Download or read book British Railways in War Time written by British Railways and published by . This book was released on 1948 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Britain s Railways in the First World War written by Michael Foley and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is easy to believe that the only part that Britain’s railways played in the First World War was to carry the soldiers to the ships that would take them to France. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Without the help from the railways it is unlikely that the war would have been over as quickly as it was. In Britain’s Railways in the First World War Michael Foley examines how the railway system and its workers proved to be a vital part of the war effort, one contemporary writer even commenting that he thought they were as significant as the navy. The book describes how the enlistment of railway troops for the Royal Engineers to meet the increasing transport demands of the military was to bleed the civilian system dry as skilled railwaymen were sent to work at the front. In addition, the military commandeered thousands of Britain’s railway vehicles, sending them to each of the theatres of war, and turned the already stressed railway workshops away from maintaining what remained of the country’s railways and rolling stock so they could produce armaments for the forces instead. The book also reveals how the British were so far behind their enemies and allies in the use of railway support to the front lines that they had to plead for help from Canada.
Download or read book List of References on the Relation of British Railways to the European War written by Bureau of Railway Economics (Washington, D.C.). Library and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
