D Day and the railways: How they helped to win the war. There comes a time when locomotives are more important than guns General Erich Ludendorff – 1918 I am confident I can rely upon you continuing to give your utmost cooperation in providing the necessary transport for the forces so that when the final blow is struck against the enemy, it will be of the utmost possibly intensity and lead to complete victory. Montgomery address to 400 key railway staff on 22 February 1944 --- Just three and half months before D Day! The importance of the railways during war The period between the two world wars saw a massive growth in the numbers of cars and lorries in use. Most people assumed that roads were the future of transport, and investment in railways declined as a result. This all changed when the Second World War started:

suddenly the raw materials of road transport (petrol and rubber for tyres) became very scarce and difficult to import. By contrast, the steel and coal the railways needed was readily available from domestic sources;

in any event, the massive amounts of material and men that needed to be moved for the war effort would have swamped the pre-war, pre-motorway road network;

before the war, many goods were moved by coastal shipping. When this became too dangerous, people again looked to the railways;

thanks to the railway building mania of the nineteenth century, Britain still had a dense network of railways, with a vast capacity for carrying goods (one double-track railway line could replace up to 1,600 lorries). The cut-backs in the network did not start in earnest until after the war;

the railways also excelled at moving huge numbers of people. 158,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force were despatched to France in short order in 1939. 338,000 evacuees were collected from south coast ports and distributed around the country after Dunkirk in May 1940. And the railways carried most of the 1.5 million civilians evacuated from our major cities in September 1940. Added to this, vast numbers of war workers had to be moved to the new munitions factories and military installations that were springing up around the country.

over on the continent, it was the availability (or otherwise) of an adequate working railway network that decided the success or failure of many of the major military campaigns. Road- or air-based solutions simply could not keep the invading troops supplied.

D Day – some facts and figures About 130,000 troops landed in the first wave in Normandy on June 6 1944. Throughout 1944 hordes of American and other Allied troops poured into Britain, mostly via the Clyde and the Mersey, and most of them taken by rail southwards. During April, more than 2,000 loaded coaches were despatched from Scotland southwards in a single week (and 75 trains of empty vehicles sent in the opposite direction). Between D Day and VE Day 2,840,346 personnel (civilian and military) embarked or disembarked through the Southern Railway’s Southampton docks.

The build-up of equipment by rail for D Day started on 10th May 1944

Strangely the troop movement started 6 weeks earlier on 26th March 1944 Hundreds of thousands of troops were moved around the country but not just preparing for D Day also throughout the war years. Troop trains had the highest priority which caused serious delays to other trains to ensure the troops arrived at their destination on time

The railways – workshops of war The heavy engineering facilities and expertise to be found in the nation’s railway workshops made them ideal candidates for taking on munitions work. They turned their hands to a remarkable range of manufactures. Let us look at one example, Swindon works made 171,000 parts for Hurricanes at very short notice during the Battle of Britain, as well as parts for tanks and other military vehicles, 150 landing craft and 50 midget submarine superstructures. Some of these, such as the landing craft, were too big to be transported from the works by rail, and had to be delivered by road. Swindon also turned out over 60,000 shells and bombs. To maintain secrecy, the 2,000 lb and 4,000 lb bombs built at Swindon were code-named Goebbels and Goering by the staff. Planning for war In October 1939 an emergency war timetable was introduced for the duration, with reduced passenger services. One way of reducing services was to combine them, and in consequence some trains became very long. One, the 10.05 from Waterloo, consisted of 16 coaches and was so long that it obstructed the other platforms while waiting at the station. From the outset, the railways planned how to respond to the damage that was expected from enemy air raids. Spare track assemblies, complete with points and crossovers, were manufactured, ready to be transported to wherever they were needed. The railways at war From the start of war, the nation’s railways came under the direct control of the Government. The years that followed would be some of the most testing in the railways’ history. First, Britain had to reinforce the railways supporting the allied armies in Europe. Ten thousand wagons and three hundred heavy locomotives were ordered from British manufacturers. After the fall of France, some of these found their way back to this country, or to war zones in North Africa or the Middle East. The locomotive stocks back at home were redistributed between the different companies’ areas. Southern Railway, for example, was a largely passenger service, many of whose customers had enlisted, and so was felt able to lend some of its locomotives to harder-pressed regions. Air raids and bomb damage Parts of the railway suffered severe damage from German bombing and repairing this to keep the network going (or bomb-proofing the most vulnerable parts of it) took top priority. The railways suffered some ten thousand raids, with a loss of 14,000 carriages and 24,000 goods wagons. The most bombed station was Poplar, near the docks in East London, which received 1,200 high-explosive bombs, 50,000 incendiary devices and 52 rocket attacks. The very first V2 rocket struck the railway line at London’s Bethnal Green. Trains were initially stopped during air raids, but this caused chaos and eventually they let the trains keep running, at reduced speed, during raids. But unexploded bombs, up to 400 yards from the track, could result in all rail traffic being stopped.

The Germans considered the tracks a target as they understood how important they were to the military machine.

The trains were also a target but the railway repair system went into Action and was extremely effective at repairing the damage quickly.

Civilian rail travel in wartime “Is your journey really necessary?” wartime rail travellers were asked. They certainly were not travelling for pleasure, since civilian transport came bottom of the priority list. Their journeys were slow, uncertain (subject to frequent delays and cancellations), overcrowded and, in the blackout, often hazardous. Compartments were only dimly-lit and the windows were covered with protective netting. Official posters tried to stop the passengers removing the netting: I trust you’ll pardon my correction, That stuff is there for your protection To which many passengers added: Thank you for your information But I can’t see the b***** station. Carriages and stations were all subject to the blackout, making it not only difficult to see when you had reached your destination, but also whether or not your train had actually stopped in a station. With station signs removed or obliterated and station lighting almost entirely blacked out, it became increasingly difficult for passengers to work out where they were. This applied in particular to the many overseas troops stationed here, who were unfamiliar with both the country and its railways. Some people got out at what they thought was their darkened station, only to fall off bridges and embankments. Restaurant cars were withdrawn completely from May 1942 and the toilets on trains often lacked the most basic facilities. Routine maintenance Routine maintenance of both track and rolling stock was kept to a minimum, at a time when the railways were being made to work harder than ever before. From 1943 special “Austerity” locomotives were built for home and overseas use, designed to be both powerful and easy to maintain in wartime conditions. American-built Austerity locos also found their way onto Britain’s railways. By the end of the war, every part of the rail network was severely worn out.

Trains needed their own protection from enemy fighters and bombers

From branch line to main line As part of the war preparations, alternative routes for strategic journeys were worked out, lest one was put out of action. One such journey was that between the port of Southampton and the Midlands and north of England. This had three options but one, via Basingstoke, Reading and Didcot, was circuitous, was already running at full capacity and was also vulnerable to air attack. One of the alternatives, the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway, had a different problem – it was a single-track rural branch line, and its passing loops were short and unevenly spaced. It could not carry heavy (i.e. long) trains. In 1942 it was decided to make the northern part twin-track and to put longer passing loops on the southern part. Its capacity would be dramatically increased. The first the public knew of all this was on 12 August, when notices appeared at all the stations, cancelling passenger services for the duration, due to ‘engineering works’, and putting on an alternative bus service. Almost all non-military freight services were also cancelled. Traffic on this rural branch line grew and grew as the war progressed. In the year leading up to D Day, it carried some 16.000 southbound military trains. So much traffic was heading south that it became difficult to fit in northbound trains along the single-track section. From country halt to marshalling yard Facilities at stations were expanded: one small (un-named) station on the Southern Railway had one small siding for a weekly freight delivery. It was expanded into adjoining fields, requiring its own signal box and so many sidings that four shunting engines were needed. By D Day it had 14 miles of siding and could take 2,500 wagons. Another new depot was at Lockerley, on the line from Salisbury to Andover, buried in the woods just a few miles from Southampton. There were 15 miles of siding and 134 big covered sheds there, partly hidden among the trees. In June 1938, the station handled 182 wagons, but this increased by June 1944 to 5,246. New facilities could be set up with amazing speed. On Saturday 2 October 1943, Southern Railway got a call from the American military, asking for a new siding for 150 wagons on the Exmouth branch. By the following Wednesday a new embankment linked the railway to neighbouring fields, where the sidings, complete with signalling, were in place. Micheldever Small country stations suddenly became hives of activity. Before the war, Micheldever had the dubious distinction of being the most remote station in Hampshire. In 1939 it became a fuel depot. Tanks, containing some 18,000 gallons of fuel, were sunk into the railway cutting. It was said (though never officially confirmed) that after D Day these tanks were directly linked to Normandy via PLUTO (the cross-channel Pipe Line Under The Ocean). During the war, it acquired 14 miles of new sidings, capable of taking over 2,500 wagons, and a shed, over 2,000 feet long, crammed with every spare part an invading army could need. It acquired the nickname of Woolworths, such was the variety of goods to be found there. It also gained a reputation for rapid delivery. An item ordered late one afternoon could be delivered to the user in Normandy the following day.

Millions of gallons of petrol was moved in this country to support the forces Including following the army and air force through France to Germany In addition airfields had to be kept supplied to allow bombing missions to be undertaken. Wartime rail traffic For much of the war, many allied troops were based at home, waiting for the chance to return to mainland Europe. Moving them, and the materials of war, around was given top priority by the Government and, by May 1945, the railways had laid on 451,765 special trains for the armed forces. Wartime staffing on the railways The railways were a reserved occupation, one that exempted staff from military service, but many railway staff were still lost as the war progressed. Some went to the Army’s own railway service, the Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers. Many of these did vital work overseas, keeping the railways working that supported the allies in their various campaigns. By the end of the war, about 110,000 former railwaymen were serving in the armed forces or civil defence (out of a total pre-war staff of around 600,000). Even if new employees could be found, it took years to replace the skills lost when experienced staff were conscripted. It reached a point where the army had to return some of their conscripted railwaymen from overseas duties, to keep the domestic services running. In addition to their day jobs, some 170,000 railway staff had to be trained for Air Raid Precautions (ARP) duties.

Women and the war railways Women played an important part in filling the labour gap. Before the war, around 26,000 women worked on Britain’s railways. By the end of the war, the number had risen to about 124,000, and the range of duties they undertook had expanded from clerical, catering and cleaning jobs to include porters, ticket collectors, permanent way staff, crane operators and carriage and locomotive cleaners. The railway workshops also had many women employees, which included some doing the heaviest and dirtiest jobs. However, jobs on the footplate and managerial posts remained a strictly male preserve. By 1943, women were a sixth of the total workforce.

Bombs were also moved by rail in their thousands

The soldiers’ train-set - Longmoor Military Railway The importance of railways to the army was recognised early on, as early as 1903, the Royal Engineers started building their own private railway, for soldiers to practice railway construction and maintenance. It ran between Bordon and Liss in Hampshire and, while its layout and length constantly varied, as trainees dismantled, redesigned and re-assembled it, at its peak it was over 70 miles in length. During the Second World War they offered a wide range of training (not all of it familiar to a peacetime railwayman – courses included the detection of mines under the track and an army system of flag signalling – the latter vital for front-line railways on the continent, where there had not yet been time to install conventional signals). Their equipment was equally diverse, and by the end of the war included a machine that could lay 1,500 metres of track in a day, and a captured German schienenwolf – a machine used by retreating German forces to rip up sleepers with a giant hook, making the railway unusable by the Allies. (Such devices ensured that there was virtually no railway network in France for the allies to use after their D-Day landings). Many wartime military personnel learned about the working of railways at Longmoor before its closure in the 1960s. It also became a favourite with film companies, and its credits include:

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Bhowani Junction (1956)

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966) and

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) Top people’s trains Rail travel was not just for the ordinary soldier. Swindon works fitted out a train for the use of the Allied command. General Eisenhower and his staff clocked up nearly 97,000 miles in it during the course of the war. Churchill also had use of a train, and was said to have made ‘a thorough nuisance’ of himself in the Portsmouth area around D Day, after his original wish, to follow D Day itself from a Royal Navy ship, was thwarted. One of these special coaches can be seen here at the Railway Centre. A railway carriage was also the scene of an important D Day planning meeting on 2 June 1944, involving Winston Churchill and members of the war cabinet, Eisenhower, De Gaulle and others. The unlikely venue for this meeting was the little railway station of Droxford, in Hampshire’s Meon Valley. It was chosen for its proximity to the troops, the station’s secluded siding and it was close to a deep cutting, in which the train could be hidden if an air raid was threatened.

Planning for D Day and beyond Pressure on the railways reached a peak as D Day approached. During the build-up, up to 7,000 extra trains were being run each week to put men and equipment in the right place. On one day alone (10 May), 800 specials made up of 30,000 wagons were moving war materials. More than 1,700 trains delivered almost 750,000 tons of blitz rubble from London, to provide the foundations for new runways at bomber aerodromes, which also required an additional 20 million tons of freight to make the airfields operational. Each thousand bomber air raid by the U.S. Air Force required 2,500,000 gallons of petrol from 28 special petrol trains. The original date for D Day was to have been 4 June 1944, but the final build-up of troops and materials began on 26 March. The railways had just two months to get troops and equipment to the invasion marshalling centres. 24,459 special trains were run over this period. Every item was coded for: Port of embarkation (A = Tilbury, X for Cardiff, etc.) Type of store (N =Naval, R = RAF, etc.) Destination beach (O = Omaha, S = Sword, etc.) The volume of special traffic grew as D Day got nearer. In the three weeks to 6 June 9,679 special trains ran, but with very little disruption to scheduled services. Some cargoes were very dangerous; 600 trains with 30,000 wagons carried 250,000 tons of bombs to three depots in East Anglia. From June to August 1944, 2 million jerry cans, each with 4 gallons of petrol or lubricants, were sent from Scotland in 4,000 wagons. From 10 May to 24 June 1944 GWR operated 3,036 special trains for troops and their equipment, and by August had run 167 trains for German POWs.

Thousands of tanks were moved by rail

D Day secrecy To maintain the cloak of secrecy, many routine railway services in the south of England were suspended, and tanks and other military equipment being transported on flat wagons were disguised with canvas covers to look like ordinary freight wagons. For the same reason, troops were discouraged from any form of fraternisation with the locals. This rule proved to be unworkable, since the locals insisted on treating the troops as heroes, and plying them with food and drink. When it became time for the troops to travel, none of them knew where they were going – warrants were marked “to unknown destination”. Just over two months before D Day there was a ban on accessing the coast for ten miles inland, from the Wash to Lands End. Scheduled train services were heavily cut back. The Southern electric passenger services were cut back to 60% of their 1938 level. The four weeks after D Day were said to have been the busiest in the railways’ history. In those four weeks 14,763 trains supported the invasion, including 113 just carrying troops’ mail. There was also a steady stream of some 300 ambulance trains, bringing casualties back, not to mention 167 prisoner-of-war trains. Then came the doodle bugs In the middle of all this, the first of Hitler’s vengeance weapons – the V1s or doodle bugs – began to fall on the south-east of England. The very first one hit a railway bridge near Stratford and the Southern Railway alone suffered 528 direct hits or near misses. This prompted a further round of evacuations (both official and unofficial) from London. By the end of September, it was estimated that the railways had carried over a million people out of the capital, in a second wave of evacuation.

Despite all of the challenges the railways faced every day the trains got through! Without the railways help the military would not have achieved the same end result during WWII. The country owes the thousands of unsung heroes who worked for the railways a huge debt of gratitude for their hard work and persistence.