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Books > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
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Steaming to Victory - How Britain's Railways Won the War (Paperback)
Loot Price: R254
Discovery Miles 2 540
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Steaming to Victory - How Britain's Railways Won the War (Paperback)
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List price R293
Loot Price R254
Discovery Miles 2 540
You Save R39 (13%)
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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.
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