0:00:02 > 0:00:04World War I was a railway war.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08I'm going to find out
0:00:08 > 0:00:13how the railways helped to precipitate a mechanised war,
0:00:13 > 0:00:16defined how it was fought,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19conveyed millions to the trenches,
0:00:19 > 0:00:21and bore witness to its end.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25I've taken to historic tracks,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27to rediscover the locomotives and wagons
0:00:27 > 0:00:30of the war that was supposed to end all war.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35And to hear the stories of the gallant men and women
0:00:35 > 0:00:38who used them in life and in death.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00I'm travelling through Britain and Northern Europe,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04tracing the railway's role at every stage of the First World War.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08By the middle years of the fighting,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12the railways serving the 80 or so miles of the Western Front under British command
0:01:12 > 0:01:14were creaking.
0:01:14 > 0:01:15Back in Blighty,
0:01:15 > 0:01:20the home network was struggling to cope with the demands of total war.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24To sustain morale and to stand a chance of victory,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Britain had to get its railways on track.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Today, I'm getting hands-on experience
0:01:33 > 0:01:35of the narrow tracks and trains
0:01:35 > 0:01:37that kept supplies flowing to the front line...
0:01:37 > 0:01:39- Ready, lift.- Whoa!
0:01:39 > 0:01:43..uncovering the story of the war's forgotten railway poet...
0:01:43 > 0:01:46"Blasphemer, braggart and coward all..."
0:01:46 > 0:01:48..It's quite strong stuff, isn't it?
0:01:48 > 0:01:50..and commemorating the many soldiers' lives
0:01:50 > 0:01:54lost in a horrific railway accident on British soil.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56It was a disaster almost waiting to happen,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00and it happened here on that fateful Saturday morning.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06I'll pay homage at the site of the tragic Quintinshill disaster,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09visit North Eastern Railway Headquarters,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12and take to narrow-gauge tracks in Staffordshire.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15I'll hear the story of the Bath Railway Poet
0:02:15 > 0:02:17before crossing the Channel
0:02:17 > 0:02:20to discover how the railways fed millions of men in the trenches.
0:02:32 > 0:02:33So far on my journey,
0:02:33 > 0:02:38I've learned how Britain faced up to a munitions crisis in 1915.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40But no sooner was one problem solved,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42than another reared its head.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48It wasn't just that too few shells were leaving the factories,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51many of those that did were slow to reach the Front,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54tied up in logistical bottlenecks.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56Britain might have lost the war
0:02:56 > 0:02:59had it not recruited practical men of business.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01The biggest problem-solver of all
0:03:01 > 0:03:04came from the railways, from his office in York.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12I'm on the trail of one of the First World War's forgotten leaders.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15His name was Eric Geddes, and in 1914,
0:03:15 > 0:03:20he was the Deputy General Manager of the North Eastern Railway.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Chris Phillips from the University of Leeds has researched
0:03:23 > 0:03:26how the war took his glittering railway career
0:03:26 > 0:03:29in an unexpected direction.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32What kind of man was Eric Geddes?
0:03:32 > 0:03:34He was a man with a lot of drive, a lot of energy.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36He was a self-made man, really,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40he chose to actually go to America to make his fortune
0:03:40 > 0:03:42and he actually got his first introduction to the railway business
0:03:42 > 0:03:46working as a hand on one of the big four railroads in America
0:03:47 > 0:03:50After gaining further railway experience in India,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53in 1904, Geddes returned to Britain.
0:03:55 > 0:03:56He joins the North Eastern Railway,
0:03:56 > 0:03:58he's put on a traffic apprenticeship scheme
0:03:58 > 0:04:00and he rises through the ranks at a rapid rate.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03By 1911, he's the deputy general manager,
0:04:03 > 0:04:05he's the highest paid railway official in Britain,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08and his office is in this building here.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Britain's railway companies were huge and successful businesses.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17By the time Geddes joined the NER,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20it was pioneering modern management techniques,
0:04:20 > 0:04:25gathering statistics to find ways to slash costs and boost profits.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31And this is the historic boardroom of the North Eastern Railway.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35- Gives you an idea of the grandeur of those companies in those days. - Absolutely.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39The Liberal politician, David Lloyd George,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43believed that men of industry could be an asset to the war effort.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46In 1915, he invited Geddes
0:04:46 > 0:04:50to join the newly-created Ministry of Munitions.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Is Geddes a success in his munitions role?
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Very much so, in the year before the Battle of the Somme,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00the munitions supply is increased exponentially,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and Geddes is one of the main reasons for that.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05He's actually knighted for the work that he does
0:05:05 > 0:05:08with the Ministry of Munitions prior to the Battle of the Somme.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11In preparation for the "big push" on the Somme,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14shells were produced in phenomenal numbers.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18But as the battle got under way, the transport system began to buckle.
0:05:18 > 0:05:19Let's have some tea.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Outside the key town of Amiens,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27there's a tailback of around 18 miles of trains,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30awaiting railheads to unload their ammunition.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32The problem is lack of coordination.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35The supply networks have been completely decentralised,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38so all of the different modes of transport that the British are using
0:05:38 > 0:05:40don't actually talk to each other.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42They need to get one man in to take control over the entire network,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46from the docks to the front line.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49To put this right, Geddes himself was given sweeping powers,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53unprecedented for a civilian on the battlefield.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Effectively, he becomes Haig's personal transport adviser
0:05:57 > 0:06:00and he joins the senior command at GHQ.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02He's given the honorary rank of Major-General
0:06:02 > 0:06:05to reflect his position within the hierarchy,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07and he sets about effectively coordinating
0:06:07 > 0:06:10the entire transport network.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Geddes drew on all his railway expertise.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17He collected data, demanded desperately-needed railway equipment
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and hundreds more skilled operators
0:06:19 > 0:06:26and improved communication between docks, roads, railways and canals.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29How would you assess his success at the Western Front?
0:06:29 > 0:06:32In 1916, the British struggled to supply one battle,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34which was the Battle of the Somme.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37In 1917, they managed to supply four,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40all of them consuming ammunition on a scale that simply dwarfed
0:06:40 > 0:06:43what was available at the Battle of the Somme.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Sir Douglas Haig said that the First World War was about three things,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49it was men, munitions and movement - they were his "Three Ms".
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Kitchener provided the men, Lloyd George provided the munitions,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56but it was Sir Eric Geddes that provided the movement
0:07:03 > 0:07:06After the war, Geddes was made the first head
0:07:06 > 0:07:08of the newly-created Ministry of Transport
0:07:08 > 0:07:11the government department where some 70 years later,
0:07:11 > 0:07:13I was a junior minister.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20By my time in the 1980s,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22diesel and electric locomotives
0:07:22 > 0:07:25had conquered steam on Britain's railways.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29And that development could trace its roots back to the First World War.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Massive locomotives belching fire and smoke
0:07:36 > 0:07:41did an excellent job transporting men and guns to the Continent,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44but they were too big, noisy and visible
0:07:44 > 0:07:47to work across the muddy plains close to the Front.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52What the army needed was something quieter, lighter and slimmer.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57As part of his 1916 transport revolution,
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Sir Eric Geddes recommended that lightweight, portable narrow-gauge railways
0:08:02 > 0:08:05be adopted across the Western Front.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Today, these scaled-down trains and tracks
0:08:08 > 0:08:11can be seen at the Apedale Valley Light Railway in Staffordshire,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15where they've been preserved by the Moseley Railway Trust.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Phil Robinson is its chairman.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Phil, we're surrounded by the trappings of narrow-gauge railway.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24- Narrow gauge was used extensively in World War I?- Absolutely.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26The main advantage is it's fairly lightweight
0:08:26 > 0:08:29and it can supply individual guns
0:08:29 > 0:08:31which is not something you could do for example
0:08:31 > 0:08:33with the standard-gauge stuff.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36It'll go around sharp corners, it'll dodge between buildings, you know,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40in a shelled village for example, and, not only that,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43the gradients that the narrow-gauge locomotives can cope with
0:08:43 > 0:08:45are also much better than what you could do
0:08:45 > 0:08:47with the standard-gauge system.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52From the start of the war,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55French and German troops used these nippy little trains
0:08:55 > 0:08:59to bridge the gap between main line and the front line.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03But British military planners had put their faith in motor vehicles.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06The big problem with the lorries is
0:09:06 > 0:09:09the weight of the lorry on the road was tearing the road surface up.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13So the classical view of the First World War is lorries
0:09:13 > 0:09:17up to their axles in mud. Men, horses struggling through the mud...
0:09:17 > 0:09:19And the beauty of the narrow-gauge railway is
0:09:19 > 0:09:22that it spreads the load across the rails
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Something like this, you could drive a ten-tonne locomotive on this track
0:09:25 > 0:09:28over the muddy part and it wouldn't sink in.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32By the time Eric Geddes took the reins,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35the churned up roads were causing major bottlenecks.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39On his recommendation, Britain began taking light rail seriously,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44ordering thousands of miles of 60-centimetre-gauge track.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47- Ready? Lift!- Whoa!
0:09:47 > 0:09:51So, it's not too bad to handle with enough people.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54- No, not bad at all. - Right, let's put it down here.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56'It came in prefabricated lengths...'
0:09:56 > 0:09:57Lift!
0:09:57 > 0:09:59'..meaning it could be put together
0:09:59 > 0:10:02'and taken apart again just like a train set.'
0:10:02 > 0:10:05And then you just have to bolt the track together.
0:10:05 > 0:10:06Yes, just bolt fish plates
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and then you can immediately drive a locomotive on this.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16By December 1917, 700 miles of these tracks were in use
0:10:16 > 0:10:18carrying shells,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21water supplies, wounded men
0:10:21 > 0:10:25even King George V on a battlefield tour.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30To haul these loads, specially-built small-scale locomotives were needed.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33This little loco here, although it doesn't look very big,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35it looks more like a toy,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38it'll actually pull 200 tonnes of goods along on the flat.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42So, compared with a modern truck, it's actually pretty powerful
0:10:42 > 0:10:44despite the fact it's such old technology.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48Now, that is remarkable. So, these were a great success?
0:10:48 > 0:10:49Absolutely they were.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52They probably had something in excess of 800 steam locomotives
0:10:52 > 0:10:55all of this same 60-centimetre gauge.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00But when steam locomotives got too close to the front line,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05the smoke and steam could be a deadly giveaway to the enemy.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07So, petrol engines, then in their infancy,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09were also brought into play.
0:11:09 > 0:11:15Lighter, cleaner and quieter, they also had other benefits.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Of course, the big disadvantage of the steam locomotive
0:11:18 > 0:11:20- is the length of time it takes to get ready.- Yeah.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22The beauty of the internal combustion engine is that
0:11:22 > 0:11:25it's ready almost instantaneously.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27- Shall we have a go at that?- Sure.
0:11:27 > 0:11:28- Ready?- Yep.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31Go.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Yeah! So, quite a bit faster than a steam engine.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41It was the first time that internal combustion
0:11:41 > 0:11:43had been used on any scale on the rails.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And all sorts of engines were soon available.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Now, this one is armoured.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50That means you can take it to more exposed areas
0:11:50 > 0:11:55where the armour plating will at least give you some protection
0:11:55 > 0:11:56against people shooting at you.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58And, happily for me,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01petrol engines are simpler to operate than steam.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03- Hello, Selwyn.- Hello.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05So, how does one drive this thing?
0:12:05 > 0:12:08What you've got up here is a brake on this wheel here,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10so you have to nurse the throttle a little bit,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13which that lever by your left hand.
0:12:13 > 0:12:14That's it, you've got it.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16So, the clutch like on a car.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Push the clutch down,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21select first gear which is that way,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and then very gently, release the clutch.
0:12:28 > 0:12:29And we're off.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34The First World War light rail experiment
0:12:34 > 0:12:39proved that internal combustion was a railway technology worth watching.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43After the war, more economical diesel versions were developed,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and were soon being used on the main railway network.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50A locomotive like this
0:12:50 > 0:12:52helped to supply the front line
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and helped Britain to win the War.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00But the move from steam to the internal combustion engine
0:13:00 > 0:13:03also pointed the way for the modern railway.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15At the outset of the war, the railways on the home front
0:13:15 > 0:13:19did their best to maintain normal service for civilian travellers.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26But it was impossible not to notice that things had changed.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Trains were packed with troops,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31stations were the scene of emotional farewells
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and railway staff witnessed it all first-hand.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43"Oh, Mr Porter, what shall I do?" The person who carried your suitcase
0:13:43 > 0:13:46could sometimes be a man to confide in,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48so that apart from baggage,
0:13:48 > 0:13:53porters also picked up stories, histories and emotions.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58I'm in Bath to meet Susan Sawyer,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00the descendant of a railway porter
0:14:00 > 0:14:03who found creative inspiration in the war.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Sue, your great grandfather, Henry Chappell,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10was a porter here at Bath station,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12but what was his main claim to fame?
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Well, he wrote a poem in August 1914.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20That poem would became very famous, was published,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22put into several languages,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and was posted in many stations throughout England.
0:14:25 > 0:14:26Do you think there was a connection
0:14:26 > 0:14:28between the two things he chose to do in his life?
0:14:28 > 0:14:35I think so. He always said it gave him his inspiration to write.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42By August 1914, from his vantage point in Bath, Henry Chappell
0:14:42 > 0:14:46would have sensed a change in the national mood.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49As the first troop trains jolted along the tracks,
0:14:49 > 0:14:51waved on by the crowds,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53the newspapers were full of shocking stories
0:14:53 > 0:14:56of German atrocities in Belgium.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Amid this fevered atmosphere,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Henry Chappell picked up his pen to write The Day.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05"You boasted the Day, and you toasted the Day
0:15:05 > 0:15:07"And now the Day has come
0:15:07 > 0:15:09"Blasphemer, braggart and coward all..."
0:15:09 > 0:15:12- It's quite strong stuff, isn't it?- It is, yes.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14"..You spied for the Day, you lied for the Day
0:15:14 > 0:15:16"And woke the Day's red spleen
0:15:16 > 0:15:18"Monster, who asked God's aid Divine
0:15:18 > 0:15:21"Not all the waters of the Rhine
0:15:21 > 0:15:23"Can wash your foul hands clean."
0:15:23 > 0:15:25Who's this is directed against?
0:15:25 > 0:15:28- The Kaiser. - And did the Kaiser know about it?
0:15:28 > 0:15:30He did read it, apparently.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32- And?- He was furious.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Do you think that this is part of that movement
0:15:36 > 0:15:38at the early stage of the war,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42stirring people up against the enemy, lifting the national morale?
0:15:42 > 0:15:47Quite possibly. It was what he saw on a daily basis,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49from talking to people on the station,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53listening to what their conversations were, and so on.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57The poem was printed in the Daily Express
0:15:57 > 0:16:00and became an overnight sensation.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03In 1918, Chappell's collected works were published
0:16:03 > 0:16:04by which time he was mixing
0:16:04 > 0:16:07with some of Britain's most eminent writers.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12He knew Kipling, that's for sure,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16and I know that Kipling came on the train up to Bath to meet him
0:16:16 > 0:16:20and shake hands with him after he'd written the poem The Day.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24So, if The Day was really rather well known in its day,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27why is it that we don't know about him today?
0:16:28 > 0:16:31Well, I think he was a very self-effacing man,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35he was offered the job of station master here
0:16:35 > 0:16:39and he turned it down, because he wanted to stay in contact
0:16:39 > 0:16:42with what he saw as his source material for his poetry.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51The railway's own war poet
0:16:51 > 0:16:55illuminates how many people felt at the outbreak of war.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01Our view today has been conditioned by the harrowing verse
0:17:01 > 0:17:03written by other poets,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08by soldiers on the front line, like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14By spring 1915, British morale was flagging.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19In Turkey, the Gallipoli campaign had got off to a bad start.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Then on the 7th May, the cruise liner the Lusitania
0:17:23 > 0:17:26was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29killing 1,198 people.
0:17:32 > 0:17:33And then, a fortnight later,
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Scotland's railways were the scene of another tragedy.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42By 1915, the railways carried an enormous burden,
0:17:42 > 0:17:43not least at home.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48With unprecedented demand from civilians, soldiers and casualties,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50fuel, freight and munitions,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54and with the trains so overcrowded, it's perhaps not surprising
0:17:54 > 0:17:56that at that time, Britain suffered
0:17:56 > 0:17:59its most devastating railway accident,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02when the nation was reeling from the death toll at the Front.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10Men boarding troop trains to join the action,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14must have felt a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17But when the 7th Royal Scots Territorial Battalion
0:18:17 > 0:18:19entrained for Liverpool en route to Gallipoli,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22they could have no idea how their journey
0:18:22 > 0:18:25on the West Coast Main Line would end.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30I'm retracing their route with author Adrian Searle.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32What sort of train were the troops travelling on?
0:18:32 > 0:18:36It was an antiquated train, to put it politely.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Formed of old Great Central railway coaches,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42they were wooden bodied, wooden framed
0:18:42 > 0:18:49and crucially they were illuminated by gas cylinders beneath the floors.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Pushed at any speed, they were a hazard.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59These outdated coaches had been pressed into service
0:18:59 > 0:19:02to meet the war's demands.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04And to get the troops to Liverpool on time,
0:19:04 > 0:19:06the driver was doing express train speeds
0:19:06 > 0:19:09as he approached the English border.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12The signals were clear ahead, but unbeknownst to him,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15at Quintinshill signal box,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18his path had just been blocked.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24The local train, coming from Carlisle was shunted across the tracks,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26onto what one might call the wrong line
0:19:26 > 0:19:29because there was no other room to put it,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32to make way for express trains coming up from the south
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and the troop train ran head-long into it.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38So, the train carrying the troops moving south,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42hits the local train. What happens?
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Well, because of the venerable state
0:19:44 > 0:19:46of the fast-moving troop train,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48it simply splinters.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52You have this terrible, sort of, storm of flying timbers
0:19:52 > 0:19:54and bits of steel flying about.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57You might say as deadly as anything an enemy force
0:19:57 > 0:20:00could throw at our forces on a foreign battlefield.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05And this disaster was about to become a catastrophe.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Because hurtling north, towards this carnage,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14was the London-to-Glasgow express, travelling at 50mph.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17An express from the south ploughs into the wreckage,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19what does that cause to happen?
0:20:20 > 0:20:25The troop train and the front of the express train burst into flames
0:20:25 > 0:20:28and before long the whole pile of wreckage is burning.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32These soldiers, those trapped inside the wreckage of their troop train,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34were now being burnt to death.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Their comrades who had not been seriously injured,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40and had not been killed, did heroically arise to the occasion
0:20:40 > 0:20:43and tried to get them out, but it is almost impossible.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51230 people were killed that day,
0:20:51 > 0:20:55214 of whom were men of the 7th Royal Scots.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01At the time, the tragedy was blamed
0:21:01 > 0:21:04on the negligence of the two signalmen on duty.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09It was found they'd broken various railway regulations,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11and they were jailed for culpable homicide.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16But Adrian has his own theory about what happened.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25So, here, we're looking down on the scene of the accident
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Yes, and it's pretty much as it would have looked 100 years ago,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30at the time of the crash.
0:21:30 > 0:21:31The signal box has gone,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34that was to the left-hand side of layout here,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36but apart from that, it's pretty much the same,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38the passing loops are still intact.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41And the passing loops are fundamental to understanding the accident.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43They are indeed, yes.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45They were both occupied by freight trains
0:21:45 > 0:21:47at the time the crash occurred.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50With this wartime traffic clogging the system,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53the local had to be left on the main line.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55But that doesn't explain why the troop train
0:21:55 > 0:21:57was given the signal to approach,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00while the local stood just yards from the box.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03It's too simple to say that the signalman simply forgot
0:22:03 > 0:22:07the train was there, he was an experienced, capable hand.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10The strong suggestion is that he was probably suffering
0:22:10 > 0:22:14from the effects of an epileptic seizure that morning,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17which both the Caledonian railway, his employers,
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and the government were not keen to broadcast at that time,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24it would have caused all sorts of questions to be asked.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28We'll never know for sure why the signalman made his fatal error.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32But Adrian believes that with wartime morale already low,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35the authorities were keen to pin the blame on him and his colleague,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38ignoring other factors.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40That troop train should not have been running at that speed
0:22:40 > 0:22:42given its venerable condition.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45You had the heavy wartime usage, the extra freight trains,
0:22:45 > 0:22:50the troop trains, but the passenger trains were still being operated
0:22:50 > 0:22:52to peacetime schedules. It was madness.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Too many trains, it was a disaster almost waiting to happen,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59and it happened here on that fateful Saturday morning.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07While Britain's railways struggled to adjust to the challenges of wartime,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10over in France, the pressures on the small web of lines
0:23:10 > 0:23:13serving the Front were almost unimaginable.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20And there was one cargo the Tommies anticipated with relish.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Napoleon once said that an army marches on its stomach.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31For the British Army, bogged down in the trenches,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35pounded by artillery, called upon to charge the barbed wire
0:23:35 > 0:23:38and the machine guns, good military order depended
0:23:38 > 0:23:41on a steady flow of nutritious food.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47From the ports on the French coast,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51the railways formed the backbone of a complex supply chain.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54One vital link was at Abancourt,
0:23:54 > 0:23:56a junction serving the Somme Valley
0:23:56 > 0:23:59and home to a vast British stores depot.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03At its peak, the place would have been buzzing
0:24:03 > 0:24:07with men unloading supplies and trains coming to and fro.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11But today, all that remains is this sleepy station.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Geoff Clarke, a war studies scholar,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17is going to help me to bring its history to life.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19So, what do we have here?
0:24:19 > 0:24:23What we have here is the basics of a soldier's ration.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26So, bread, corned beef in this case,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31bacon, onion, potato, cheese, I take it, biscuits -
0:24:31 > 0:24:37quite a nice-looking biscuit that! - oatmeal and jam.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39How many calories was a soldier at the Front getting?
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Basically about 4,100.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44By comparison with what we're recommended to eat today
0:24:44 > 0:24:464,000 seems a lot.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Yeah, unless you're really doing heavy labour
0:24:49 > 0:24:51which is what these guys were doing.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55They were digging, they were building barbed-wire entanglements,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58they were just existing in wet, cold conditions.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03It's what the medics of the day and the scientists recommended
0:25:03 > 0:25:07as the kind of diet that you needed to actually survive
0:25:07 > 0:25:09in those kinds of conditions.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12But supplying all this to the men at the Front, day after day,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14was no mean feat.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17At the height of the British operation on the Continent,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22between '14 and '18, how many men were we trying to feed?
0:25:22 > 0:25:232.5 million?
0:25:23 > 0:25:252.5 million British men?
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Yep, and Canadian, and Australian, New Zealand and so on.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33- That is an amazing logistical challenge.- Absolutely.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35How was it met?
0:25:35 > 0:25:37The railway was absolutely critical.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42The depot here was feeding over 800,000 men on a regular basis.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46At its peak, it actually fed 1.2 million men daily.
0:25:46 > 0:25:4821, 22 trains of rations a day,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51these go forward to the railheads,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and at that point, it tends to go to road.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57There are places where it goes on the narrow-gauge railway to the divisional dump,
0:25:57 > 0:26:01from there, they issue it to battalion transport,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and that is horses. That goes forward to the battalion,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07and after that, it's carried forward to the men.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13The horses, too, needed vast quantities of food,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17around twice the bulk of the rations for the men.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Feeding the trenches was a British success.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21Unlike the Germans,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25whose supply chain crumbled in the final months of the war,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27British soldiers rarely went hungry.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31What else did the British Army do
0:26:31 > 0:26:33to help sustain the morale of the Tommy?
0:26:33 > 0:26:35They kept them in touch with folks at home.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37There was a very good postal system,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42it used the supply-train network to move the bags around,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Basically, you could get a letter from home to the Front
0:26:45 > 0:26:49somewhere between 24 and 72 hours.
0:26:49 > 0:26:50There were little things like food parcels,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53it was a great day if you received a cake
0:26:53 > 0:26:56and you'd share that with your mates.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Certainly, the more well connected
0:26:58 > 0:27:00were receiving pheasants and salmon
0:27:00 > 0:27:02from the family estates that were coming forward.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05Must have been extraordinary to be in such terrible conditions
0:27:05 > 0:27:07and yet, so in touch with their home?
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Oh, yes. But, of course, they were so close to home.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Certainly, if you lived in the south of England,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17you could be home within 24 hours of leaving the front line,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20and again, it was the leave trains that enabled that to happen.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31Keeping two and a half million men and hundreds of thousands of horses
0:27:31 > 0:27:33in France and Belgium fed,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37equipping the front line with shells and bullets,
0:27:37 > 0:27:38and getting men home on leave,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42all of these were challenges on an extraordinary scale.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Had the supply chain failed, no amount of gallantry
0:27:45 > 0:27:48in the trenches could have staved off defeat.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53The crisis required one who was a railwayman to his fingertips.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Eric Geddes is one of those who won the war.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Next time, I'll be learning how the war fundamentally changed British society...
0:28:05 > 0:28:08- Women wearing the trousers. - Yeah, quite.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12..about the extraordinary exploits of Belgian spies...
0:28:12 > 0:28:15They used several different methods.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19- You know the pole... - Pole vaulting?- Yes, pole vaulting.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22..and how the end of the war marked the beginning
0:28:22 > 0:28:23of the decline of the railways.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26In future, road transport would become more important
0:28:26 > 0:28:29than rail transport as a source of army logistics.