0:00:02 > 0:00:04World War I was a railway war.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09I'm going to find out how the railways
0:00:09 > 0:00:11helped to precipitate a mechanised war...
0:00:13 > 0:00:15..defined how it was fought...
0:00:16 > 0:00:18..conveyed millions to the trenches...
0:00:19 > 0:00:21..and bore witness to it's end.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26I've taken to historic tracks to rediscover the locomotives
0:00:26 > 0:00:30and wagons of the war that was supposed to end all war.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37And to hear the stories of the gallant men and women who used them
0:00:37 > 0:00:38in life and in death.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03By 1914, almost a century had passed
0:01:03 > 0:01:06since the world's first locomotives ran in Britain.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09Railways had unfurled across Europe
0:01:09 > 0:01:14and the continent had enjoyed four decades of peace and prosperity.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17But the industrial and technological advances that marked
0:01:17 > 0:01:21the railway age had also brought deadly new weapons.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25In August 1914 a mechanised war was unleashed.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32I'm going to be travelling through Britain and Northern Europe,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35uncovering railway stories from the Great War.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40In wartime, British railways carried munitions,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43supplies and millions of men.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45Goodbye.
0:01:45 > 0:01:46Evacuated the wounded.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49I'm quite impressed by this.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51And kept the home front moving.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Whilst on the Western Front, rail technology shaped the war's
0:01:57 > 0:02:03weapons, railway spies informed its strategy,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07and British railwaymen gave their all to the war effort.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Today I'll see how Britain's railways coped with
0:02:13 > 0:02:17the challenge of sending thousands of men into the unknown.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20It is said that in that first 24 hours, only one train was late
0:02:20 > 0:02:23and only by 15 minutes.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Visit a small station that played a big role in world history.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30This is the place where the German Army came
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and started World War I on the wrong day.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35And discover how desperate times
0:02:35 > 0:02:37called for desperate measures in Belgium.
0:02:37 > 0:02:43- You have the sabotage of the viaduct in Namur.- Colossal damage.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49I'm starting my quest on European tracks, built with battle in mind,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52to chart the birth of the railway war,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55before tracing the route of the first British troops to join
0:02:55 > 0:02:56the conflict.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Finally, I'll return to France to learn how the early war of movement
0:03:01 > 0:03:03gave way to the stalemate of the trenches.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18In the early 1900s, Europe's balance of power was looking fragile.
0:03:23 > 0:03:24From London,
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Britain's leaders were nervously watching a recently unified Germany,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32which had become a military power of formidable strength.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38This is the War Office.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Here at the heart of the British Empire,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44at the start of the 20th century, ministers, admirals and generals
0:03:44 > 0:03:49were obliged to plan, to anticipate that, in a mechanised age,
0:03:49 > 0:03:53war would bring slaughter on an unprecedented scale.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56One indicator that they foresaw its nature
0:03:56 > 0:04:02is this handbook issued in 1911, the Railway Manual (War).
0:04:02 > 0:04:03Written for the military,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08this volume sets out how railways should be used in wartime.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12"The efficient operation of a railway system can be ensured only
0:04:12 > 0:04:16"when the cordial cooperation of the railwaymen is combined with
0:04:16 > 0:04:20"the strictest obedience of regulations by the troops."
0:04:20 > 0:04:25In war, the trains were to be run on lines of iron discipline.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31Across the Channel,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35two rival power blocs were making their own railway plans.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39The German Empire had teamed up with its neighbour,
0:04:39 > 0:04:40Austria-Hungary,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44whilst the giant Russia had allied itself with France.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Faced with potential enemies to the east and west,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Germany feared a war on two fronts.
0:04:52 > 0:04:53At the beginning of the 20th century,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55Germany asked itself how can it
0:04:55 > 0:04:58possibly win a war with hostile Russia to the east
0:04:58 > 0:05:01and its old enemy France to the west?
0:05:01 > 0:05:04In 1905, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Alfred von Schlieffen,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09comes up with his plan, to use the railways
0:05:09 > 0:05:12in neutral Luxembourg and Belgium
0:05:12 > 0:05:16to sweep into France, surrounding Paris
0:05:16 > 0:05:20and outflanking the French Army, which is behind its fortifications
0:05:20 > 0:05:24on the German border, knocking France out within a few weeks so
0:05:24 > 0:05:28that Germany can turn all its attention to Russia.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Even before Schlieffen, his predecessor, Von Moltke, said,
0:05:32 > 0:05:37"To win a war, don't build fortifications, build railways."
0:05:41 > 0:05:45In preparation for the Schlieffen Plan, new lines were constructed
0:05:45 > 0:05:48and elaborate mobilisation timetables were written.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53And here in Metz, on the Franco-German border, a new station
0:05:53 > 0:05:57was built, capable of accommodating thousands of troops on the move.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02The station is half church, half palace.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05The clock tower was designed by the Kaiser himself,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Wilhelm II, and he had within the station an apartment
0:06:09 > 0:06:14but the fortified city of Metz was not a place for sleeping easily.
0:06:14 > 0:06:20It stands on the fault line of the bitter enmity of Germany and France.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30Metz is now in France but in 1914 it was part of Germany, annexed after
0:06:30 > 0:06:36the German state of Prussia won a war against France in 1871.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38This grand station, opened in 1908,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42was a monumental reminder of German strength.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45But it was also a design of deadly practicality.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51On avait le possibilite de faire entre 60 et 90 trains de
0:06:51 > 0:06:53militaire par jour.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56And with 11 platforms, you were therefore able to
0:06:56 > 0:07:01handle between 60 and 80 military trains a day.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Et une particuliarite de la Gare de Messe
0:07:03 > 0:07:04qui est la seule en
0:07:04 > 0:07:10France a avoir ce dispositif, cest que la pour chaque voie, deux quais.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13And a very unusual feature of the station is that every single
0:07:13 > 0:07:15track has two platforms.
0:07:15 > 0:07:20Une plateforme haute pour decharger les voyageurs et
0:07:20 > 0:07:24une plateforme basse pour decharger le materiel.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26One is a high platform, that's to get the passengers off
0:07:26 > 0:07:31and the other is a lower platform, very suitable for military trains.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33It meant you could unload the soldiers
0:07:33 > 0:07:35and the material at the same time.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Et donc c'etait cette guerre qui a imaginer l'empereur dans un
0:07:39 > 0:07:40premier temps.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43C'etait surtout dans un but strategique et militaire.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48And so, from the very outset, the emperor, the Kaiser,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52foresaw that this station had a strategic and military function.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04One of the key lines serving Metz runs north towards Luxembourg.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07And it was in this tiny, neutral state that the Germans
0:08:07 > 0:08:10launched their railway attack plan.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13On the 28th of June 1914,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18in faraway Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28The diplomatic fallout brought Europe to the brink.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34I'm in Troisvierges, where the talk finally tipped into action
0:08:34 > 0:08:39in August 1914, to meet amateur historian and guide David Heal.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42So, it's a broadish station here at Troisvierges and then
0:08:42 > 0:08:44into a single track, through the tunnel.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48What was the strategic significance of this to the Germans?
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Well, the Germans were totally dependent on the railway
0:08:51 > 0:08:56and they were aiming to bring an entire army corps through Luxembourg
0:08:56 > 0:09:00and this was one of the main rails that they were going to use.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The plans foresaw that there would be a troop train every ten
0:09:04 > 0:09:06minutes coming down this line.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Luxembourg was a railway hub, connected to Germany, Belgium
0:09:14 > 0:09:15and France.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18The first objective of the Schlieffen Plan was to seize
0:09:18 > 0:09:20these vital lines.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22But, according to David,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25a small detachment of German soldiers invaded Troisvierges
0:09:25 > 0:09:29a day before their comrades took the rest of the country.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34The German Army came and started World War I on the wrong day.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38They arrived on the evening of the 1st of August,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42when they should've come on the morning of the 2nd of August.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45David's pieced together this extraordinary story using
0:09:45 > 0:09:47contemporary accounts.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49The first the locals knew of the invasion was
0:09:49 > 0:09:51when around 16 soldiers
0:09:51 > 0:09:53turned up at the station.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56They demanded that the station master hand over the telegraph,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58which of course is essential for running the railway.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00He refused.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03The officer in charge said, "If you don't give it to me you'll be shot."
0:10:03 > 0:10:06So he took it out of the drawer that it was kept in,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09dropped it over and it smashed on the floor, breaking it.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15David has uncovered more details in a report filed by the local
0:10:15 > 0:10:19police sergeant, who sent one of his gendarmes to the scene.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25The gendarme got here, followed the officer commanding around saying,
0:10:25 > 0:10:26"Why have you come here?
0:10:26 > 0:10:30"We're a neutral country", with Germany one of the guarantors,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32to which the officer replied,
0:10:32 > 0:10:35"If you don't go away we'll have you shot",
0:10:35 > 0:10:40which is the first example I think of what the Germans call
0:10:40 > 0:10:42"Schrecklichkeit" or "frightfulness",
0:10:42 > 0:10:47the war of terror, to just totally cow the civilian population.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49The gendarme then went back to the station
0:10:49 > 0:10:55and the sergeant then says that he formed the opinion that he
0:10:55 > 0:10:59ought to make a telephone report to the head of the gendarmerie
0:10:59 > 0:11:00which I think is wonderful.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02The country is being invaded,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05he forms the opinion he ought to tell someone.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08But then the people of Troisvierges were perplexed to see
0:11:08 > 0:11:13the invasion end - almost as rapidly as it had begun.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14Then about an hour later,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19a German officer turned up from the same detachment bearing a telegram.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23He showed this to the officer in charge here and then they went away.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26What an extraordinary incident.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29The explanation for the apparent bungle lies in the fast-moving
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and delicate diplomacy of the summer of 1914.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Thanks to a complex web of alliances, the assassination
0:11:37 > 0:11:41of Franz Ferdinand had set off a diplomatic chain reaction.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45And by the 1st of August, Germany had declared war on Russia.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Following the logic of their war plans,
0:11:49 > 0:11:53German troops began gearing up to invade Luxembourg and Belgium.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58Meanwhile, back in Britain, bound by loose ties of friendship
0:11:58 > 0:12:01to France and Russia, the authorities were trying to
0:12:01 > 0:12:04decide whether British troops should enter the fray.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09During the day on the 1st August the German Ambassador in London
0:12:09 > 0:12:13spoke to some Foreign Office official who gave
0:12:13 > 0:12:16the impression that Britain might well stand aside in the war.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21This was reported to the Kaiser who of course was interested
0:12:21 > 0:12:26and gave orders that everything was to be put back 12 hours
0:12:26 > 0:12:28while they explored what this might mean.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32But this poor little detachment that arrived here,
0:12:32 > 0:12:36they were so isolated that they didn't get the telegram
0:12:36 > 0:12:39saying delay for 12 hours until they'd been here for an hour.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45The Kaiser soon learned that Britain had no intention of staying
0:12:45 > 0:12:48aloof, and pressed on with his plan.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51The next day, the Germans returned to take Troisvierges
0:12:51 > 0:12:53and to seize the rest of Luxembourg's railway network.
0:12:54 > 0:12:55And meanwhile,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59German troop trains were beginning to roll towards Belgium.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04In 1914 Belgium was an uncomfortable wedge of neutral territory
0:13:04 > 0:13:09between France and Germany, two countries mobilising for war.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14Exploiting Belgian railways was fundamental to the German war plan.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19Belgium is a nation, not a road, its King told the invaders.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Perhaps, at least, little Belgium could offer a road block.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27In fact, to derail the Schlieffen Plan,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30the Belgians were ready to go to extreme lengths.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32To sabotage their own railways.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37I've come to the city of Liege, an important railway
0:13:37 > 0:13:41junction near the German border, and vital to the German war plan.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48According to Historian Christophe Bechet, by 1914 the Belgians had
0:13:48 > 0:13:52prepared a scheme to put the brakes on a potential railway invasion.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57- The plan is to slow down the first aggressor.- Yes.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59How do you slow down the aggressor?
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Two possibilities.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04First possibility, with army operations.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09And a second one, because the railways were very important
0:14:09 > 0:14:12in the strategy at that time, to
0:14:12 > 0:14:19destroy some railways to slow down the supplies of the aggressor.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22The Belgians to destroy their own railways?
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Yes, own railways.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28All along the Belgian border,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31military engineers built special cavities into tunnels,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35ready to be loaded with explosives and detonated at short notice.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Then, on the 2nd of August 1914,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Germany demanded free passage along Belgian roads and railways.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51King Albert refused, and gave the saboteurs the green light.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55First of all, the crucial sabotage of tunnels.
0:14:55 > 0:14:56Yeah.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Here is the reparation of the tunnel.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03- Here you have the sabotage of the viaduct in Namur.- Yes.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06A very huge sabotage.
0:15:06 > 0:15:07Yes. Colossal damage.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Dozens of smaller acts of defiance further disrupted the invasion.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Railway workers and troops derailed trains, hid equipment,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23and emptied locomotive water tanks.
0:15:23 > 0:15:31Here, it's a typical derailment made by Belgian troops.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36This devastation held up the Germans for weeks on some
0:15:36 > 0:15:40parts of the border, such as in the Belgian province of Luxembourg.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44But here in Liege, with its vitally important strategic railways,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46it was a different story.
0:15:46 > 0:15:53Of the four tunnels in the province of Liege, only one sabotage
0:15:53 > 0:15:56completely worked.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58It was in Trois-Ponts.
0:15:58 > 0:16:05Of the eight explosive charges, seven blew up,
0:16:05 > 0:16:10and it takes four months to repair the tunnel.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13But, catastrophically, most charges laid in the provinces
0:16:13 > 0:16:16key tunnels failed to detonate.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22For the other tunnels, the German special troops devoted to the
0:16:22 > 0:16:29reparation of the railways repaired the tunnels in a couple of days.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35This fiasco was blamed on explosives stored in damp conditions,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38and on troops unused to laying them.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41So, it's a very mixed picture,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45some of the Belgian sabotage works well, some of it doesn't work well,
0:16:45 > 0:16:50but the German war plan depended on knocking out France very quickly.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55Was the Belgian roadblock effective in delaying the Germans at all?
0:16:55 > 0:17:00Yes, I think that they succeeded in the Belgian province of Luxembourg.
0:17:00 > 0:17:06But if the sabotage in the Liege province would have been as
0:17:06 > 0:17:10effective as in the province of Luxembourg,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14I think the Belgian Army would have stopped the Schifflien Plan
0:17:14 > 0:17:16in its own territory.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24It's interesting to speculate how different the course of the war
0:17:24 > 0:17:27might have been had the Belgian railway saboteurs succeeded.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34As it was, the Belgian people could only hope that their allies
0:17:34 > 0:17:37would come to their aid.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40And soon, help was on its way from across the Channel.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45On the fourth of August 1914,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48the British Government declared war on Germany.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57At the start of 1914, few in Britain expected a war
0:17:57 > 0:18:00but the Army had a plan for mobilisation, defined here
0:18:00 > 0:18:05in its Field Service Regulations of 1909 as being the process by which
0:18:05 > 0:18:09an armed force passes from a peace to a war footing, that is to say
0:18:09 > 0:18:16its completion to war establishment in personnel, transport and animals.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19The British Army was small but professional.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21If it could be moved quickly enough across Britain
0:18:21 > 0:18:24and across the Channel it could make a difference.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29But first,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32the British railways would need to deliver some 80,000 men
0:18:32 > 0:18:36to the designated embarkation port, here in Southampton.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Historian Ian Beckett has researched how the port was
0:18:42 > 0:18:45prepared for that daunting task.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48So give me the lie of the land here in Southampton.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Well, over there, that's the old terminus building of the
0:18:51 > 0:18:53London South Western Railway Company.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57The lines came in from there to what was the old ocean quay.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00They had got double railway track
0:19:00 > 0:19:05that ran into the port entrance and they had laid that before the war.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09And then in four days, in August of 1914, they decided they needed
0:19:09 > 0:19:12a third railway line running from the terminus into the port,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15and so that's an extraordinary engineering effort
0:19:15 > 0:19:17to get that done so quickly.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Prior to the conflict, the War Office had consulted with
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Britain's powerful railway companies to draw up secret timetables
0:19:27 > 0:19:31in order to move the vast quantities of men and material
0:19:31 > 0:19:34required for a 20th century war.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39On the 18th of August we know that something over 20,000 men went out,
0:19:39 > 0:19:44just over 1,200 horses, I think there were 210 bicycles,
0:19:44 > 0:19:4920 motor cars and about 600 other vehicles, and that's just one day.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Amazingly, despite the scale of the challenge,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57mobilisation exceeded all expectations.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00They had originally planned to have 70 trains a day coming in,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04they were actually getting 90 trains running in. It's said that in that
0:20:04 > 0:20:08first 24 hours only one train was late and only by 15 minutes.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12- We'd settle for that now, wouldn't we?- Certainly would. Absolutely.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16By the 26th of August 1914, just three weeks after
0:20:16 > 0:20:17the outbreak of war,
0:20:17 > 0:20:23the railways had helped to send nearly 66,000 men to France.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Kitchener, who became Secretary of State for War in August 1914,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28immediately praised the railways
0:20:28 > 0:20:32and, in effect, the British Expeditionary Force gets to France
0:20:32 > 0:20:36just in time to play a major role in the first battles of the war.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Had it not got there in time,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42the course of that first campaign may well have been very different.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52From Southampton, the British Expeditionary Force crossed
0:20:52 > 0:20:57to Le Havre, before boarding French trains bound for Belgium.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04During August 1914 the German advance was slower
0:21:04 > 0:21:06than envisaged in the Schlieffen Plan.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10Meanwhile, trains had swept up the British Expeditionary Force
0:21:10 > 0:21:12from the corners of the United Kingdom
0:21:12 > 0:21:16and taken it to Channel ports and then across to the Continent.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20The Germans were astonished, within a few days of the outbreak of the war,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23to encounter Tommies ready to fight them on Belgian soil.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32This confrontation took place on August the 23rd at Mons,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35where an outnumbered British force bravely held off the German
0:21:35 > 0:21:38advance before being forced to withdraw.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42Meanwhile, further south,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45French troops had suffered a series of punishing defeats.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Overwhelmed, the Allies commenced a long and exhausting retreat,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53relentlessly pursued by the Germans.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58By the end of the month both sides were approaching Paris,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02the nerve centre of the French railway network.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Like the Germans,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07the French had made extensive preparations for a railway war.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12This is Paris's Gare de l'Est,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15for France the traditional enemy lay to the east.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20This painting exudes the sorrow of partings, perhaps for ever,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23as the troops board trains for the battle.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26But these soldiers, dressed in the colours of their national flag,
0:22:26 > 0:22:30would have felt patriotic determination to defend their
0:22:30 > 0:22:33motherland from another German invasion.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44France's answer to the Schlieffen Plan was known as Plan 17.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49It was a flexible scheme to deploy troops rapidly to meet
0:22:49 > 0:22:53the German threat, and it made full use of the adaptable French
0:22:53 > 0:22:55railway system, centred on Paris.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Lines radiating out from the capital were linked within
0:23:00 > 0:23:04the city by a kind of railway ring road.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Between 1870 and the eve of World War I,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12the French quadrupled the number of lines leading to the German border.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Two beltways of tracks encircling Paris provided
0:23:16 > 0:23:20a network of rims and spokes, like a bicycle wheel
0:23:20 > 0:23:22with two circumferences.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Here was the means of concentrating troops rapidly.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The British Railway Gazette commented that Paris was the best
0:23:29 > 0:23:34example in the world of a big city properly organised for harmonious
0:23:34 > 0:23:36cooperation in war time.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44At the end of August 1914, this web of tracks was poised to play
0:23:44 > 0:23:46a game-changing role in the conflict.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50I've come to the banks of the River Marne,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52which gave its name to a pivotal battle.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57According to Ian Senior, who has been researching the first
0:23:57 > 0:23:59phase of the war, it came at a moment
0:23:59 > 0:24:03when the Germans were fast becoming victims of their own success.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08The Germans by now advancing through Belgium and into France
0:24:08 > 0:24:11are a long way from home, are they suffering logistical difficulties?
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Yes, the railheads, by the time of the Battle of the Marne,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17were about 60 miles back from the front line.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Which is just at the crucial sort of limit for effective supply.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24So you're unloading your trains and then how are you getting your
0:24:24 > 0:24:26supplies and your men to the front line.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29They had a sort of shuttle service.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30They had lorries.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32The problem was that by now
0:24:32 > 0:24:34the lorries were breaking down in large numbers.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38I mean, one German Army at this period needed something
0:24:38 > 0:24:44like 1,500 tonnes of supplies each day, that's five train loads a day.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47They just about managed it, but only just.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Germans, the Allies were rallying.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56The French Commander in Chief, Joseph Joffre, had come up
0:24:56 > 0:25:01with a bold plan to regroup, creating a new army near Paris.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06How did Marshal Joffre assemble that army?
0:25:06 > 0:25:08It couldn't have been done without using railways.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13We're talking about 120,000 men in all, and most of them
0:25:13 > 0:25:17came from Alsace and Lorraine where they weren't needed any more.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20And then two other divisions were from north Africa,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24there was a Moroccan division, there was an Algerian division,
0:25:24 > 0:25:26and so they're also brought up by
0:25:26 > 0:25:28the railways all the way from Bordeaux.
0:25:30 > 0:25:35Amazingly, this new force was gathered within a matter of days.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38And, meanwhile, the leader of the German First Army,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41General von Kluck, was making a fateful decision.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45His troops had been on course to pass to the west of Paris,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48but he sent them to the east of the city instead.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52It was the chance Joffre had been waiting for.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57His newly-formed 6th Army was nearby and ready to pounce
0:25:57 > 0:26:00I think they would all have gone from Gare de l'Est,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03and they got to a place called Noisy-le-Sec, and Guyenne
0:26:03 > 0:26:04and then had to march
0:26:04 > 0:26:07the rest of the way which took them the best part of a day, really.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The 6th Army caught the Germans by surprise.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16Joined by the British, between the 5th and the 9th of September,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20Joffre's troops fought a series of battles along the Marne valley.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25And, for the first time, the Allies forced the Germans to retreat.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30It marked the end of the German advance.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32The Schlieffen Plan was dead.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37Looking back on the Battle of the Marne, how important a role do
0:26:37 > 0:26:38the railways play?
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Absolutely crucial, Joffre could not have assembled that new 6th Army
0:26:42 > 0:26:46without them, without that the French wouldn't have won the battle.
0:26:46 > 0:26:47I mean, you must remember,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Joffre is credited with saying that, above all,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52it was a war of railways
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Their superior rail resources had helped the Allies
0:26:58 > 0:27:01to triumph at the Marne, but the war was far from won.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04The Germans retreated 30 miles,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06as far as the Aisne river,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09digging defensive trenches to hold off further Allied attacks.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Using the railways, the two sides then began what's
0:27:13 > 0:27:17since become known as the Race to the Sea.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21The German attempt to race men and munitions by train
0:27:21 > 0:27:25towards the Channel coast, to sweep to the north of the allied forces,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29was halted here at Nieuwpoort, in Belgium.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32The railway battles of northern France had stalled.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36Both sides now dug in from here to the Alps.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39It was no longer a war of movement,
0:27:39 > 0:27:43but its outcome could hinge on which side could better deploy
0:27:43 > 0:27:48its railways to stock the Western Front with shells and soldiers.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Next time, I'll find out about the brave railwaymen who made
0:27:53 > 0:27:56the ultimate sacrifice...
0:27:56 > 0:27:58One of them in particular is a Private F Bays who had
0:27:58 > 0:28:01joined the 17th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03and was killed in action on July 1st.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05The first day of the Battle of the Somme.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08..how railways helped turn a munitions crisis into victory...
0:28:08 > 0:28:12In 1918, on the 29th of September,
0:28:12 > 0:28:17we fire just shy of one million shells in 24 hours in the assault
0:28:17 > 0:28:19on the Hindenburg line.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Terrifying.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26..and discover the railway guns that helped to turn the tide of war.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29My goodness, one shell, 400 casualties.