The Japanese railway soldiers, who built the notorious Burma-Thailand railway in 1942-43, earned an unenviable reputation for brutality, but they have not hitherto told their own story. This is the first book to bring to light the testimonies of the soldiers of the Emperor, who worked with 55,200 British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war in the construction of the 415 kilometre railway.
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.
During the Second World War, Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway, and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio. Left emotionally scarred, and unable to form relationships, Lomax suffered for years - until, with the help of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came to terms with what had happened. Almost 50 years after the war his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpreter, was still alive; their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.
A POW's account of war, brutality and forgiveness. Lomax was sent to Malaya in 1941, taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore, and put to work on the infamous Burma-Siam railway, which cost the lives of 250,000 men.
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.
The birth of the railway in the early 1830's revolutionized the way the world waged war. From armored engines with swiveling guns, to the practice of track sabotage, to the construction of tracks that crossed frozen Siberian lakes, the "iron road" facilitated conflict on a scale that was previously unimaginable. It not only made armies more mobile, but widened fighting fronts and increased the power and scale of available weaponry; a deadly combination. In Engines of War, Christian Wolmar examines all the engagements in which the railway played a part: the Crimean War; the American Civil War; both world wars; the Korean War; and the Cold War, with its mysterious missile trains; and illustrates how the railway became a deadly weapon exploited by governments across the world.
War is a brutal thing. Countries clash in a grand struggle for power, while belligerent nations mobilize their vast resources to tackle their opponents head-on. Both man and machine, and the supplies to support them, must be moved in mass quantity to have any hope of victory.World War I, or "The Great War" (as it was called at the time), was the first worldwide conflict of its kind, requiring mass mobilizations at unrivaled levels. The rail systems of nations across the globe were put to the test by the war effort. Tasked to move troops, equipment, ammunition, and supplies around the clock, railroads were pushed to the precipice of failure."The Great Railroad War," by Dr. Rudolph Daniels, delves into the often unrecognized and underappreciated history of United States rail operations during and immediately following World War I. Daniels' expertly-written academic history sheds light on the profound impact that American railroads and railroaders had on the war effort. The book covers the unpreparedness of the railroads for an unprecedented war, the 1918 government takeover to ensure operating efficiency, and the relinquishment of the railroads and groundbreaking Transportation Act of 1920.Covering more than just the history, Daniels discusses the operational details of United States rail shipments both at home and abroad, and how these operations interplayed and overlapped with military operations in France and Russia. Experience the unsung war of the twentieth century - The Great Railroad War.
The first Japanese army unit was established in 1896. The Japanese railway engineers was a unique branch of the army which specialized in the operation and construction of railways and the employees of the Japanese National Railways conscripted into the army. This book tells the stories of the railway soldiers and JNR men during their training, their working experience in Burma, their engagements with the allied armies and their life after the surrender through the memoirs and testaments of those soldiers.
World War I was the Golden Age of the railway gun. Even though at the start of the conflict none of the armies possessed any railway artillery pieces and the very idea was comparatively new, more railway guns were used during this war than in any other conflict. Designed to break the stalemate of trench warfare, the first railway guns were simple, improvised designs made by mounting surplus coastal defence, fortress, and naval guns onto existing commercial railway carriages. As the war dragged on, railway artillery development shifted to longer range guns that could shell targets deep behind enemy lines. This change of role brought much larger and more sophisticated guns often manufactured by mounting long-barrel naval guns to specially-designed railway carriages. This book details the design and development of railway guns during World War I from the very first basic designs to massive purpose built "monster" railway guns. Accompanying the text are many rare, never-before-published, photographs and colour illustrations depicting how these weapons were used during World War I.
