Allied Railways of the British Sectors of the Western Front

Description

The Somme sector of the Western Front was held by French forces until early 1916, when the British and Dominions Third and Fourth Armies moved into the northern part, before the joint First Battle of the Somme from July to November 1916. By early 1918 the British Third and Fifth Armies were responsible as far south as east of Noyon. In Spring 1918 the German attack and advance from the Hindenburg Line came west almost to Amiens. However the British and French Armies finally stopped the advance, and from August 1918 drove the German Army back eastwards until the Armistice on 11 November 1918. In this book, the metre gauge networks established before the First World War are examined. Then the build up of light railways, initially mainly French but later British, in 1915 and 1916, is considered, with an assessment of the contribution of these and the metre gauge lines to the war effort.