Railways In War

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30586, 31 October 1964, Page 4

Railways In War

Railways in Wartime. By E. F. Carter. Frederick Muller, 220 pp.

In the period between the rapid development of railways in the last century and the present reliance on nuclear aeroplanes and submarines for fluid attack and defence in depth, railways were obviously of vital importance in wartime both as part of the transport system and as vulnerable sitting targets for attack. Once their potentialities were realised, they were naturally exploited to the full; existing lines were loaded with a traffic density the builders had never envisaged, and near the battle fronts military railways of narrow gauge were laid down for supplies or for troop deployment. Mr Carter has given us a series of studies from the Crimean and American Civil wars down to British railways in the “blitz,” for which he has drawn on records of varying accuracy and some inadequate maps. The work provides some interesting sidelights for the railway! lover, but it is not a book fori the historian, who might be misled by the incomplete tabulation of statistics, and Mr Carter has even managed to scrap some locomotives and close a branch line 20 years before this reviewer saw them working. The 1914-18 war was certainly the last in which new railways were built for work on the battlefield and returned soldiers may enjoy the few photographs of this period. In the Second World War railways suffered from attack even though they were miles from the scene of fighting, and they have since been displaced as the prime basis of troop movements. Mr Carter ; is so dedicated a railway lover that he overrates the possible use of railways in 1 any future major outbreak; I he does not apparently want i to discuss the impact of Hiro- ’ shima on the Japanese rail- 1 way network. ;