DEEDS OF A GREAT RAILWAY
[Illustration: Portrait of C. J. Bowen-Cooke, Esq., C.B.E., followed by
his signature.
[_Frontispiece._
CHIEF MECHANICAL ENGINEER, LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.]
DEEDS OF A GREAT RAILWAY
A RECORD OF THE ENTERPRISE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
OF THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN
RAILWAY COMPANY DURING
THE GREAT WAR
BY G. R. S. DARROCH
(CROIX DE GUERRE)
ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF MECHANICAL ENGINEER L. & N.W.R.
WITH A PREFACE BY
L. J. MAXSE
_With Illustrations_
"The Railway Executive Committee have
been too modest, the public do not know
what they achieved."--_Engineering._
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1920
_All rights reserved_
ERRATA.
Page 120, footnote, _for_ said the Tsar, _read_ said of the Tsar.
" 149, line 22, _for_ Walschaerte valve appertaining, _read_
Walschaerte valve gear appertaining.
" 162, line 23, _for_ mileage of permanent available _read_ mileage of
permanent way available.
FOREWORD
"Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent," is a golden
and an olden precept, one moreover that may, or may not, impel the
aspiring rhetorician to beware the pitfalls which ever and anon
threaten to ensnare his footsteps; and in compiling this little work
the present Author has not been unmindful of at least two dilemmas with
which he has felt himself to be faced; one, the danger of toying with
that "little knowledge" which in the course of his professional duties
he has been at pains--in fact could hardly fail--to acquire; the other,
the debatable policy of presenting to a public, however indulgent, a
subject of which, at the moment of writing, and in common with the
majority of people, he is heartily tired, namely that of Munitions of
War.
Prompted, however, by an ardent and innate love, dating from his
earliest school-days, for railway-engines, trains, and everything
appertaining thereto--a love, moreover, so compelling that at
the romantic age of thirteen he applied for an engine-pass with
which joyously to ride home for the holidays, and without which,
owing to a polite but firm refusal, he suffered many a pang of
disappointment--feeling, too, that railway enthusiasts, whether amateur
or professional, cannot fail to evince a certain degree of interest
in the truly amazing rôle enacted during the war by the locomotive
departments of the great railway companies of the country, he has
ventured to touch upon what may best, perhaps, be termed the "war
effort" of the London and North-Western Railway, the premier British
line, of which the locomotive G.H.Q. are, as is well known, to be
found at Crewe.
In treating this subject, the Author has, as will be seen, refrained as
far as possible from wearying the reader with interminable statistics,
with technical dissertations descriptive of methods of manufacture,
and other tedious prosaics. His aim has been rather to recall the
hair-breadth escapes to which the nation was subjected; to show by
means of various and authentic extracts from public utterances recorded
in the Press of the day, and from recent publications, the necessities
which arose contingent upon the trend of military operations and upon
the arena of political pantomimes; and to illustrate the manner in
which the London and North-Western Railway, predominant amongst the
great railway and industrial enterprises of the British Isles, not only
was able, but did, rise to the occasion, providing those sorely needed
and essential "sinews" of war which were so largely instrumental in
extricating the country from an extremely awkward predicament, as well
as from a situation that was both ugly and menacing.
_Gratia gratiam parit_, but the Author regretfully feels that in the
present instance he is debarred from showing, in any practical manner,
his appreciation of the kindness of those who have assisted him in his
task. Ingratitude is not infrequently held to be the "worst of vices,"
and undoubtedly "words are but empty thanks"; nevertheless the Author
finds it a pleasure as well as a duty to acknowledge his deep sense of
indebtedness to those members of the staff at Crewe Works for their
spontaneous assistance in regard to information supplied.
He also takes this opportunity of tendering his sincere thanks to
the following Editors for their kind permission to reproduce various
extracts from the columns of their respective newspapers: The Editors
of the _Daily Mail_, of the _Morning Post_, of the _Pall Mall Gazette_,
of the _Times_, of _Engineering_, of the _Engineer_, of _Modern
Transport_.
His best thanks are also due to the Managers of the following firms
of Publishers, who have been good enough to allow reproductions of
extracts from well-known books which, respectively, they have produced:
Messrs. Blackwood, "An Airman's Outings," "Contact"; Messrs. Cassell,
"The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916," Lord Jellicoe; Messrs. Constable, "1914,"
Lord French; Messrs. Flammarion, Paris, "Enseignements Psychologiques
de la Guerre Européenne," M. Gustav Lebon; Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton,
"Winged Warfare," Captain Bishop, V.C.; Messrs. Hutchinson, "My War
Memories, 1914-1918," General Ludendorff.
He is equally indebted to Mr. C. J. Bowen-Cooke, C.B.E., for permission
to reproduce extracts from his work "British Locomotives"; also to Mr.
L. W. Horne, C.B.E., M.V.O., and his personal staff at Euston, who
so kindly supplied statistics in regard to war-time traffic. Last,
but not least, are due the Author's thanks to Mr. L. J. Maxse, Editor
and Proprietor of the _National Review_, whose readiness to pen a few
prefatory remarks is now most gratefully acknowledged.
Whilst in no way seeking to underrate the intelligence, or to
disavow the knowledge, already possessed by those readers who may be
sufficiently patient to bear with him, the Author would beg that at
least they may not see cause to classify him with those who "wishing to
appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish."
CREWE, 1920.
PREFACE
The British cannot be accused, even by their bitterest critics,
of blowing their own trumpet. Indeed, they fail in the opposite
direction, and, as a general rule, carry their modesty to a point when
it positively ceases to be a virtue, because it causes credit to go
where it is not due. If we are unpopular as a nation--of which we are
continually assured, though whether we are more disliked than other
nations may be doubted--it is certainly not on account of boasting by
our men of action and achievement. Occasionally, it is true, we suffer
under the extravagant claims of Talking Men--chiefly politicians--who
are possibly inspired by the apprehension that unless they were their
own advertisers mankind would remain oblivious and therefore ungrateful
as regards the services they are supposed to have rendered.
The events of the Great War will gradually emerge in proper
perspective, and things will then seem somewhat different to what they
do to-day, when there is a certain and inevitable reaction which both
enables pretenders to pose as saviours of Society, and encourages us
to overlook much of which we may be legitimately proud because it
has demonstrated afresh to a world that was forgetting it that the
British are essentially a great people with a genius for everything
appertaining to war, however lacking in the supreme art of making
durable peace. In that day we shall want to know a great deal more than
we do at present concerning the origin of a conflict which has been to
some extent obscured by interested parties on both sides of the North
Sea who have enveloped the palpitating pre-war crisis in a curtain of
misrepresentation. It is common ground that Germany willed the war for
which she was super-abundantly prepared, while Great Britain willed
peace for which she was no less eager. Not for the first time in our
history were we taken completely unawares--neither Government nor
public having the faintest inkling of any impending storm, still less
that civilisation was on the eve of a cataclysm of which it would feel
the effects for more than one century.
As we look back on the Dark Ages of 1914, so graphically recalled by
the author of this book, we can only marvel at our blindness and wonder
how it could be that so many highly trained observers and experts on
current events could entirely ignore a danger that, in the familiar
French phrase, "leapt to the eyes." Of this strange phenomenon there
has so far been no attempt at any explanation, no amende from those
"great wise and eminent men"--not confined to any particular political
party--whose business it should have been to see what stared them in
the face, altogether apart from the fact that the Government of the
day commanded that abundance of accurate inside information concerning
international affairs, which, from generation to generation, is at the
service of His Majesty's Ministers. It would be some consolation and
compensation for all we have endured during this portentous period were
there any guarantee that no such catastrophe could recur because the
terrible lesson of 1914 to 1918 had been assimilated by Responsible
Statesmen who ask so much from the Community that we are entitled to
expect something from them in return.
If we cannot afford to forget the political aspect of that crisis, it
is infinitely more agreeable to contemplate the miraculous manner in
which "England the Unready" buckled to and transformed herself into the
mighty machine whose hammer blows on every element ultimately turned
the scale, and with the aid of Allies and Associates converted what at
the outset looked like "World Power" for Germany into her "Downfall."
Of the part played by the Fighting Men we know a good deal, and the
more we know the more we admire. Of the wonderful organisation largely
improvised, that placed and kept vast forces in the field all over
the world, we know next to nothing, partly because the more dramatic
aspects of the war have naturally attracted the attention of its
historians, partly because those with the necessary knowledge have been
too busy re-converting the machine to pacific purposes to be able to
write its war record.
In this attractive volume, Mr. Darroch, Assistant to the Chief
Mechanical Engineer in the Locomotive Department of the London and
North Western Railway Company at Crewe,--who has enjoyed the advantage
of two full years' active service overseas,--tells us in so many words
how our premier Railway Company "did its bit." Every factor in that
great organisation was subordinated to the common object, and the
Works at Crewe as urgency arose became a Munitions Department. It is a
wonderful and stimulating story--made all the more interesting because
the author continually bears in mind that it is part of a still larger
whole and breaks what is entirely new ground to the vast majority of
the reading public.
There is a desire in some quarters to banish the war as an evil
dream--to bury its sacred memories, to forget all about it. If we
followed this shallow advice, we should merely prove ourselves to
be unworthy of the sublime sacrifice, thanks to which we escaped
destruction, besides making a recurrence of danger inevitable. To our
author, who is an enthusiast in his calling, this book has been a
labour of love, and he has certainly made us all his debtors by this
brilliant and entrancing chapter of the history of the London and
North-Western.
L. J. MAXSE.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
FOREWORD v
PREFACE ix
I. BEING MAINLY HISTORICAL 1
II. ARMOURED TRAINS 39
III. MECHANICAL MISCELLANEA 51
IV. THE GRAZE-FUSE 75
V. CARE OF THE CARTRIDGE CASE 88
VI. GUNNERY AND PROJECTILES (RUDIMENTARY NOTES AND
NOTIONS) 93
VII. THE CREWE TRACTOR 127
VIII. "HULLO! AMERICA" 135
IX. THE ART OF DROP-FORGING 139
X. 1914-1918 PASSENGERS AND GOODS 153
XI. INDISPENSABLE 176
XII. L'ENVOI 200
APPENDIX A
THE SYSTEM OF CONTROL APPLIED TO THE ARMOURED
TRAINS MANUFACTURED IN CREWE WORKS 211
APPENDIX B
EXPLANATORY OF THE GAUGE 212
APPENDIX C
THE THREAD-MILLER, AND THE "BACKING-OFF"
LATHE, AS APPLIED TO SHELL MANUFACTURE 215
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
C. J. Bowen-Cooke, Esq., C.B.E., Chief Mechanical Engineer,
London and North-Western Railway _Frontispiece_
Armoured Train 45
Various Types of Artificial Limbs 68
The Protector, or Mine-sweeping, Paravane 70
Gauges made at Crewe and used for the Manufacture of
Graze-Fuses 78
Reversible Mechanical Tapping Machine for Fuse Caps
Designed at Crewe 78
The Graze-Fuse, shewn in section 80
Rolling out Dents in 4·5-inch Fired Cartridge Case 89
"Patriot."--A Typical Example of the "Claughton" Class of
6´ 6´´, Six Wheels Coupled Express Passenger Engine
with Superheated Boiler; Four h.p. Cylinders, 15-3/4´´ bore
x 26´´ stroke; Boiler Pressure, 175 lbs. per sq. inch;
Maximum Tractive Force, 24,130 lbs.; Weight of Engine
and Tender in Working Order, 117 tons 99
6-inch Shell Manufacture in the New Fitting Shop, Crewe
Works 112
A Crewe Tractor in Road Trim 130
A Crewe Tractor as Light-Railway Engine on Active Service 130
Limber Hooks: Illustrating Duplex Method of Drop Forging 145
Trunnion Brackets for 6-inch Howitzer Gun, Drop Forgings 145
The 4-ton Drop Hammer 148
Naval Gun weighing 68 tons. A Typical Instance of War-time
Traffic 173
Breakdown Crane and Lifting Tackle for Shipping Small
Goods Engines 178
An Overseas Locomotive Panel "Severely Wounded" 178
Type of Overhead Travelling Crane, Built at Crewe and
Supplied to the Overseas "Rearward Services" 180
"We, the Working Men of Crewe, will do all that is Humanly
Possible to Increase the Output of Munitions, and Stand
by our Comrades in the Trenches" 186
London and North-Western Railway War Memorial, Euston 210
Manufacture of a Hob-cutter, in "relieving" or "backing-off"
lathe _Appendix C_
DEEDS OF A GREAT RAILWAY
CHAPTER I
BEING MAINLY HISTORICAL
"England woke at last, like a giant, from her slumbers,
And she turned to swords her plough-shares, and her pruning
hooks to spears,
While she called her sons and bade them
Be the men that God had made them,
Ere they fell away from manhood in the careless idle years."
Thus it was that on that fateful morning of August 5th, 1914, England
awoke, awoke to find herself involved in a struggle, the magnitude
of which even the most well-informed, the most highly placed in the
land, failed utterly, in those early days, to conceive or to grasp;
in death-grips with the most formidable and long-since-systematically
prepared fighting machine ever organised in the history of the world
by master-minds, ruthless and cunning, steeped in the science of war.
England awoke, dazed, incredulous, unprepared; in fact, to quote
the very words of the Premier, who, when Minister of Munitions, was
addressing a meeting at Manchester in the summer of 1915, "We were the
worst organised nation in the world for this war."
The worst organised nation! And this, in spite of repeated public
utterances and threats coming direct to us from the world-aggressors,
as to the import of which there never should, nor indeed could, have
been any shadow of doubt.
"Neptune with the trident is a symbol for us that we have new tasks to
fulfil ... that trident must be in our fist"; thus the German Emperor
at Cologne in 1907. "Germany is strong, and when the hour strikes
will know how to draw her sword"; Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, in the
Reichstag, 1911. Or to burrow further back into the annals of the last
century, one recalls a challenge, direct and unmistakable, from the
pen of so prominent a leader of German public opinion as Professor
Treitshke, "We have reckoned with France and Austria--the reckoning
with England has yet to come; it will be the longest and the hardest."
The reckoning came, swiftly and with deadly purpose. Necessity knew
no law, Belgian territory was violated, Paris was threatened, the
Prussian spear pointing straight at the heart of France.
Unprepared, taken unawares, and, but for the sure shield of defence
afforded by her Fleet, well-nigh negligible, England awoke.
Happily, the nation as a whole was sound; though hampered as it was
by a Peace-at-any-price section of the Press, and honeycombed though
it had become with the burrowings of the "yellow English," that
"lecherous crew" who, naturalised or unnaturalised, like snakes in the
grass, sought, once the hour had struck, to sell the country of their
adoption, the man-in-the-street little knew, and probably never will
know with any degree of accuracy, how near England came to "losing her
honour, while Europe lost her life."
To reiterate all that was written at the time with the one object of
keeping England out of the fray, of making her desert her friends,
and of causing her, "after centuries of glorious life, to go down to
her grave unwept, unhonoured, and unsung," is naturally beyond the
scope of this necessarily brief _résumé_ of the _status quo ante_.
But, lest we forget, lest we relapse once again to our former and
innate characteristics of sublime indifference and of complacent
_laissez-faire_, heedless of that oft-repeated warning, "They will
cheat you yet, those Junkers! Having won half the world by bloody
murder, they are going to win the other half with tears in their eyes,
crying for mercy,"[1] a cursory glance through one or two of the more
glaring and self-condemnatory essays at defection from the one true and
only path consistent with the nation's honour and integrity, may not
be held amiss.
[1] Carl Rosemeier, a German in Switzerland, to the Allies. Cp. _Daily
Mail_, June, 1919.
_Literæ scriptæ manent_, and so he who runs may still read the
remonstrance of a high dignitary of the Church, to wit, the Bishop
of Lincoln, as set forth in the _Daily News and Leader_, August 3rd,
1914--"For England to join in this hideous war would be treason to
civilisation, and disaster to our people"; or this reassuring sop from
the Archbishop of York on November 21st, 1914--"I have a personal
memory of the Emperor very sacred to me." The strange views of a
leading daily newspaper are typical of the "Party of dishonour." In
its columns in August, 1914, we read, "The question of the integrity
of Belgium is one thing; its neutrality is quite another. We shall not
easily be convinced ... that the sacrosanctity of Belgian soil from the
passage of an invader is worth the sacrifice of so much that mattered
so much more to Englishmen." "Cold feet" was an affliction from which
the same journal was evidently suffering on the same date, for "from
all parts of the kingdom we are hearing of businesses that are about to
close down if Great Britain goes to war. It is going to be an appalling
catastrophe." In this respect, too, the Parliamentary correspondent
of the _Daily Chronicle_ doubtless felt that the spilling of ink was
likely to be more profitable than the shedding of blood, as evinced
by his inspiring little contribution on August 3rd: "Whatever the
outcome of the present tension, I believe the Cabinet have definitely
decided not to send our Expeditionary Force abroad. Truth to tell,
the issues which have precipitated the conflict which threatens to
devastate the whole of Europe are not worth the bones of a single
soldier." This policy of "scuttle" must ever remain as shameful as it
is unintelligible to the ordinary self-respecting Britisher; but as to
the nature of the plea put forward by the _Daily News_, August 4th,
there can be no vestige of doubt: "If we remained neutral we should be,
from the commercial point of view, in precisely the same position as
the United States. We should be able to trade with all the belligerents
(so far as the war allows of trade with them); we should be able to
capture the bulk of their trade in neutral markets; we should keep our
expenditure down; we should keep out of debt; we should have healthy
finances."
It has been said that "each country and each epoch has the Press which
it deserves"; but although God may have given us our Press just as
He has given us our relations, at least let us thank God that we can
choose our Papers just as we can choose our friends.
On "Black Saturday" (August 1st, 1914) the position was literally
"touch and go," as may be gathered from the following:--"Powerful City
financiers, whom it was my duty to interview this Saturday (August 1st)
on the financial situation, ended the Conference with an earnest hope
that Britain would keep out of it" (Mr. Lloyd George, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in an interview with Mr. Henry Beech Needham, _Pearson's
Magazine_, March, 1915).
Clearly, international finance had all but succeeded in winning the
day for the Fatherland. S.O.S. must assuredly have been the signal
subconsciously sent out by the staunch little minority in the Asquith
Cabinet; for when the tide was at its lowest ebb, when England's
honour literally hung in the balance, and while Mr. Asquith was still
waiting and wobbling, there came Mr. Bonar Law's memorable letter
as voicing the opinion of the Government Opposition, and of which
the plain, outspoken meaning may be said to have had the effect of
definitely turning the scale:--"Dear Mr. Asquith, Lord Lansdowne and
I feel it our duty to inform you that in our opinion, as well as in
that of all the colleagues whom we have been able to consult, it would
be fatal to the honour and security of the United Kingdom to hesitate
in supporting France and Russia at the present juncture, and we offer
our unhesitating support to the Government in any measures they may
consider necessary for that object. Yours very truly, A. Bonar Law."
The tonic effect of this dose of stimulant was as immediate as it
was invigorating, for "on Sunday (August 2nd)," as Sir Edward Grey
announced the following day in the House of Commons (cp. the _Times_,
August 4th, 1914), "I gave the French ambassador the assurance that if
the German Fleet comes into the Channel or through the North Sea to
undertake hostile operations against the French coasts or shipping,
the British Fleet will give all the protection in its power." Further,
although "we have not yet made an engagement to send the Expeditionary
Force out of the country" we were not letting the grass grow under
our feet, for "the mobilisation of the Fleet has taken place; that of
the Army is taking place." All self-respecting Englishmen were able to
breathe again; we were at least to be permitted to do our bare duty
towards our neighbour; we could, in fact, once again look him in the
face. But the Almighty indeed "moves in a mysterious way, His wonders
to perform," and it needed the blatant blundering of the bullet-headed
Boche, which throughout the prolonged agony has proved one of the
greatest assets of the Entente cause, more often than not being
instrumental in saving ourselves in spite of ourselves, finally to
ensure that we fulfilled our treaty, as well as our moral, obligations.
Our erstwhile "checker" of armament expenditure took very good care,
subsequently, to remove the possibility of any doubt lingering on this
score--"This I know is true.... I would not have been a party to a
declaration of war, had Belgium not been invaded, and I think I can say
the same thing for most, if not all, of my colleagues.... If Germany
had been wise, she would not have set foot on Belgian soil. The Liberal
Government then would not have intervened" (Mr. Lloyd George, in an
interview with Mr. Harry Beech Needham, _Pearson's Magazine_, March,
1915).
Wednesday, August 6th, is a day that will remain "momentous in the
history of all times," for owing to the incursion within Belgian
territory of German troops "His Majesty's Government have declared to
the German Government that a state of war exists between Great Britain
and Germany as from 11 p.m. on August 4th" (cp. the _Times_, August
5th, 1914).
Thenceforth eyes became riveted on the North Sea, thoughts centred on
Belgium. Liège, the first stumbling-block in the path of the invader,
was holding at bay the oncoming enemy hordes, thousands of whom
advancing in close formation were made blindly to bite the dust.
Eagerly the newspapers were bought up; every fresh message ticked
off on the "tape" was greedily devoured. A French success in Alsace,
a German submarine sunk, fighting on the Meuse and in the Vosges,
Lorraine invaded by the French--these and other announcements, acting
as apperitiffs to whet the appetite, added to the excitement of the
hour. Pressure of public opinion had ousted Lord Haldane from the War
Office; Kitchener, "with an inflexible will, a heart that never fails
at the blackest moments, a spirit that time and again has been proved
unconquerable," becoming Secretary of State for War. With the approval
of His Majesty the King, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe assumed supreme
command of the Home Fleets, Field-Marshal Sir John French was nominated
to the command of the British Expeditionary Force. Yet as day succeeded
day and little or nothing became visibly apparent, vainly on all hands,
but with increasing persistence, was asked the question, "Why did not
England move?" Why this inaction, this seeming hesitation? The Fleet
had been as if swallowed up by the waters. All was silence everywhere.
At midnight on August 12th we were at war with Austria, and although
"the general attitude of the nation is what it ever has been in time
of trial, sedate, sensible, and self-possessed," the _Times_ of August
15th, anxious, no doubt, to ease the existing tension, openly commented
on the fact that "all sorts of absurd and unfounded rumours have been
circulated by light-headed and irresponsible individuals," throwing
ridicule on "dire reports of mishaps suffered by the Allies, of German
victories, of insurrections in the French capital, and even of heavy
British casualties by land and sea." Three more days "petered out,"
however, before all doubts were dispelled, and these "dire reports"
shown to be totally void and without foundation. On Tuesday, August
18th, or exactly a fortnight from the declaration of war, it was with
mingled feelings of gratitude and of relief that we read in our morning
paper, "The following statement was issued last night by the Press
Bureau--'The Expeditionary Force, as detailed for foreign service,
has been landed on French soil. The embarkation, transportation, and
disembarkation of men and stores were alike carried through with the
greatest possible precision, and without a single casualty.'"
Only those who had been intimately connected with, or actually
concerned in, this the first move in the great drama were aware of the
intense amount of activity that had been crowded into the breathless
space of those two short weeks. The ordinary man-in-the-street, the
strap-hanger, the lady in the stalls, the girl in the taxi, all were
purposely kept in the dark; the great British Public knew nothing.
Those of us who happily foresaw the historical interest and value that
must surely accrue in the years to come from the preservation of the
newspapers of the day may yet ponder in reminiscent mood headlines and
paragraphs, descriptive of events and portraying emotions, current and
constraining, throughout those August days.
On August 18th, the _Times_, habitually dignified, lucid and exemplary,
touches on the occasion in a vein deserving as it is decorous: "The
veil is at last withdrawn from one of the most extraordinary feats in
modern history--the dispatch of a large force of armed men across the
sea in absolute secrecy. What the nation at large knew it knew only
from scraps of gossip that filtered through the foreign Press. From its
own Press, from its own Government, it learned nothing; and patiently,
gladly, it maintained, of its own accord, the conspiracy of silence."
It was true, in fact inevitable, that "every day for many days now
mothers have been saying good-bye to sons, and wives to husbands," but
"until Britain knew that her troopships had safely crossed that narrow
strip of water that might have been the grave of thousands, Britain
held her peace." However, "now that we are at last allowed to refer
to the dispatch of a British Army to the seat of war, we may heartily
congratulate all concerned upon the smooth and easy working of the
machinery. The staffs of England and France who prepared the plan of
transport, the railway and steamship companies which carried the men,
the officers and men who marched silently off without the usual scenes
of farewell at home, and last, but not least, the Navy that covered the
transports from attack, all deserve very hearty congratulations."
Comparisons are odious, and it is obviously without any desire to
detract from the laudable performances of others in the accomplishment
of this, "one of the most extraordinary feats in modern history," that
reference of a special character is here made to the singularly high
state of efficiency obtaining on the great British railway companies,
which alone rendered possible so remarkable an achievement as that of
marshalling at a moment's notice, and dispatching, the many trains
necessary for the conveyance to the different ports of embarkation
within the United Kingdom of the four Divisions of all arms and one of
Cavalry of which the original British Expeditionary Force was composed.
It is true that on the outbreak of war, the State, at least in
name, assumed control of the railways, and this by virtue of an Act
of Parliament passed in 1871 (34 and 35 Victoria, c. 86) "for the
Regulation of the Regular and Auxiliary Forces of the Crown," section
XVI. of which enacted that "When Her Majesty, by order in Council,
declares that an emergency has arisen in which it is expedient for the
public service that Her Majesty's Government should have control over
the railroads of the United Kingdom, or any of them, the Secretary of
State may, by warrant under his hand, empower any person or persons
named in such warrant to take possession in the name or on behalf
of Her Majesty of any railroad in the United Kingdom ... and the
directors, officers, and servants of any such railroad shall obey the
directions of the Secretary of State as to the user of such railroad
... for Her Majesty's service."
A previous "Act for the better Regulation of Railways, and for the
Conveyance of Troops" (5 and 6 Victoriae 30th July, A.D., 1842, cap.
LV. section XX.), similarly declares--"Be it enacted, 'That whenever
it shall be necessary to move any of the Officers or Soldiers of Her
Majesty's Forces of the Line, Ordnance Corps, Marines, Militia, or
the Police Force, by any Railway, the Directors thereof shall and are
hereby required to permit such Forces respectively with their Baggage,
Stores, Arms, Ammunition, and other Necessaries and Things, to be
conveyed at the usual Hours of starting, at such Prices or upon such
Conditions as may from Time to Time be contracted for between the
Secretary at War and such Railway Companies for the Conveyance of such
Forces, on the Production of a Route or Order for the Conveyance signed
by the proper Authorities."
Hence it will be seen that, always subject to the provisions of the
National Defence Act of 1888 (51 and 52 Victoriae, c. 31), which simply
ensured that naval and military requirements should take precedence
over every other form of traffic on the railways whenever an Order for
the embodiment of the Militia was in force, the actual working of the
various departments of the different railway companies when war was
declared remained, to all intents and purposes, identical with that
prevailing in the piping times of peace, that is to say in the hands
of the individual "directors, officers and servants" of the respective
railways, with the result that in the absence of all attempt at
interference on the part of official bureaucracy, "all went merry as a
marriage-bell"; staffs worked day and night; confusion was conspicuous
by its absence; smoothly, yet unrehearsed, proceeded the unparalleled
programme, until the last man had been detrained, the last gun hauled
aboard the transport lying in readiness at the quay; and in due course,
as has already been mentioned, "the Contemptibles" were landed in
France without a single casualty.
Whilst touching lightly upon the evident and praiseworthy preparedness
and consequent ability of the great railway companies to deal with "the
emergency" the moment it arose, it will perhaps not be uninteresting
to inquire briefly into the circumstances dating back to the "fifties"
of the last century from which were evolved and brought gradually to
a state as nearly approaching perfection as is humanly possible the
organisation necessary for the speedy and safe transport of troops by
rail in time of war.
History ever repeats itself, and it has invariably been the case that
the imminent peril of invasion rather than any grandiose scheme of
foreign conquest has been the determining factor in arousing that
martial spirit, so prone to lying dormant, but which, handed down to
us by our forbears, undoubtedly exists in the fibre of every true-born
Britisher, and which has assuredly been the means of raising England to
her present pinnacle of greatness.
The three more obviously parallel instances in modern times of the
manifestation of this trait so happily characteristic of the nation
are to be found, first and foremost perhaps in connection with
the present-day world conflict, when in response to the late Lord
Kitchener's first appeal for recruits thousands flocked to the colours.
Apposite indeed was the following brief insertion to be found in the
personal column of the _Times_, August 26th, 1914: "'Flannelled fools
at the wicket and muddied oafs at the goal' have now an opportunity of
proving whether Mr. Kipling was wrong." They seized the opportunity in
no uncertain manner; incontrovertibly they proved him wrong, "The first
hundred thousand," or "Kitchener's mob" as they were affectionately
termed, being speedily enrolled, and forming the nucleus of the immense
armies which eventually took the field.
Analogous to this effort may be taken the crisis occurring in the
middle of the last century, when, in the year 1858, out of what may
best be described perhaps as a "storm in a tea-cup," there loomed the
threat of invasion by our friends from across the Channel, resulting
in a scare the immediate outcome of which was the formation of the
Volunteer Force, which quickly reached a total of 150,000 men.
Although this particular crisis must be considered as bearing more
directly on present-day matters of interest in view of the fact that
the importance of steam-traction by rail relative to warlike operations
commenced at that time to make itself felt, the extent to which the
nation seemed likely to be imperilled was, nevertheless, scarcely to
be compared with the danger that threatened during what may be termed
the closing phase of the Napoleonic era, when in the year 1805 massed
in camp at Boulogne was the flower of the French Army equipped with
quantities of flat-bottomed boats ready for its conveyance across the
Channel. To counter this formidable menace was mustered in England a
force of 300,000 Volunteers, imbued with the same fervent ardour, the
same spirit of intense patriotism and self-sacrifice that has ever been
evinced by the country in her hour of peril. How the menace was in fact
averted, and the last bid for world-domination by the Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte frustrated, is common knowledge, the memorable action off Cap
Trafalgar determining once and for all the inviolability of England's
shores. "England," exclaimed Pitt, "has saved herself by her courage;
she will save Europe by her example."
The average historian of to-day, who mentally is as firmly convinced
that the genius of Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar as he is ocularly
certain that the famous admiral's statue dominates Trafalgar Square,
will, on the other hand, in all probability deny that the use of
steam as a motive force was contemporaneous with the period in which
Nelson lived. But although it is somewhat of a far cry from the
latter part of the eighteenth century to the "eighteen-fifties" when
steam was to become a factor of no mean importance in the waging of
modern war, there is, nevertheless, conclusive evidence to show that
dating so far back as the "seventeen-seventies" individual efforts of
admittedly a most elementary, albeit utterly fascinating, kind were
already being made with a view to solving the problem wrapt up in this
"water-vapour," and so compelling the elusive energy to be derived
therefrom as a motive agency for rendering facile human itinerancy.
No sooner had the first self-propelled steam-carriage made its
appearance on the road, than speculation became rife as to the range of
potentialities lying latent in the then phenomenal invention; well-nigh
limitless seemed the vista about to unfold itself to human ambition,
and looking back over the past century and a half how strangely
prophetic sound these lines from the pen of Erasmus Darwin, who died in
1802!--
"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or, on wide-waving wings expanded, bear
The flying chariot through the field of air!"
Evidently the "Jules Verne" of his day, Erasmus Darwin was physician
as well as poet; his ideas, so we are told, were indeed "original and
contain the germs of important truths," to which may, in some measure,
be attributed the genius of his grandson, the famous Charles R.
Darwin, discoverer of natural selection.
It is true the petrol engine has latterly proved its more ready
adaptability to the purpose of road locomotion and of aviation, but
the fact remains that steam to this day eminently preserves her
predominance in the world of ocean and railway travel.
Seldom does one find the evolution of any one particular branch of
scientific endeavour traced in so alluring as well as instructive a
manner as proves to be the case, when, taking down from the nearest
bookshelf that delightful little volume "British Locomotives," one
pursues the author, Mr. C. J. Bowen-Cooke (now C.B.E. and Chief
Mechanical Engineer of the London and North-Western Railway), with
never-abating interest through his treatise on the early history of
the modern railway engine. He tells us that "the first self-moving
locomotive engine of which there is any authenticated record was made
by a Frenchman named Nicholas Charles Cugnot, in the year 1769. It was
termed a 'land-carriage,' and was designed to run on ordinary roads."
Although we learn that "there are no particulars extant of this, the
very first locomotive," this same Cugnot designed and constructed
two years later, a larger engine, "which is still preserved in the
Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris." The French are a people
ever prone to looking further than their noses, hence the fact that
the French Government not unnaturally "took some interest in this
notion of a steam land-carriage, and voted a sum of money towards its
construction, with the idea that such a machine might prove useful for
military purposes." Man proposes, but God disposes, and as luck would
have it the vehicle seemed fore-ordained to end its brief career
somewhat ingloriously, for after it "had been tried two or three times
it overturned in the streets of Paris, and was then locked up in the
Arsenal." A lapse of ten or a dozen years supervened before England
began looking to her laurels, but "in 1784 Watt took out a patent
for a steam-carriage, of which the boiler was to be of wood or thin
metal, to be secured by hoops or otherwise to prevent its bursting from
the pressure of steam"! It was not long, however, ere the steam road
carriage was superseded by a locomotive designed to run on rails, of
which the earliest "broods," embracing such "spifflicating" species
as the Puffing Billies, Rockets, Planets, etc., and "hatched" from
the brains of eminent men such as Stephenson and Trevithick, were
necessarily original and quaint to a degree. It is, unfortunately,
impossible here to do more than skim the copious wealth of interesting
data through which Mr. Bowen-Cooke so admirably pilots us, and which
evidently he has spared no pains to collect; suffice it to add that the
succeeding years bear unfailing witness to that intense earnestness
which, sustaining the early locomotive pioneers unwearying in their
well-fading was so largely instrumental in the attainment of that
perfection of which we, their beneficiaries, now in our own season reap
the benefit.
It was not until the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in
1830, when the directors of that line offered "a premium of £500 for
the most improved locomotive engine," that any real tendency towards
modern design and external appearance began to make itself apparent.
The stimulus afforded by this offer, however, was rousing in effect,
engines becoming gradually larger and more or less powerful, until in
the year 1858 Mr. Ramsbottom designed and built for the London and
North-Western Railway Company at Crewe an express passenger engine
known familiarly as the "seven foot six," in that its single pair of
driving wheels measured 7 feet 6 inches in diameter. Bearing the name
of "Lady of the Lake" (for, whilst sacrificing perhaps a certain amount
of power for speed, it was "certainly one of the prettiest engines ever
built"), this engine and others of the same "class" remained in the
service of the London and North-Western Railway until quite recently,
thus forming a link between the earth-shaking events of the present day
and that period of anxious calm, when the scare (to which reference has
previously been made) became the occasion in 1858 for centring public
opinion on the possibilities of, and the advantages likely to accrue
from, transport by rail in time of war.
The Crimean struggle of 1855 had done little enough to enhance
England's military prestige, only to be followed, two years later, by
the nightmare horrors of the Mutiny.
Throughout the first and second Palmerston Ministries, the reading of
the European barometer remained at "stormy," and an attempt in 1858
to assassinate the Emperor Napoleon III., which was believed to have
had its origin in England, served as a prelude to the "blowing-off"
of a considerable volume of steam, especially when a year later, the
war between France and Austria having terminated and the kingdom of
Italy being created, the French people found themselves free to devote
their then bellicose attentions, as had so frequently been their
misguided and regrettable wont, to our insular selves. It is, however,
an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and the very fact that the
tone, particularly of the military party in France, was violent and
aggressive to a degree, had the salutary effect of serving as a mirror
in which was accurately reflected our own deplorable unpreparedness for
war.
Commenting on the situation, the writer of a leading article in the
_Times_ of April 19th, 1859, openly deplores the fact that "the
Englishman of the present day has forgotten the use of arms"; not
merely this, but "the practice of football or of vying with the
toughest waterman on the Thames is of little service to young men when
their country is in danger."
Mercifully enough, perhaps, the pernicious sensationalism of the
cinema, and the vacant thrills afforded by the scenic railway, were
magic lures unknown in those mid-Victorian days, manly and open-air
forms of sport already being considered sufficiently derogatory to the
inculcation within the minds of the younger generation of that fitting
sense of duty, of self-sacrifice, and subservience to discipline.
The opinion was further expressed that "there can be only one true
defence of a nation like ours--a large and permanent volunteer force
supported by the spirit and patriotism of our young men, and gradually
indoctrinating the country with military knowledge," the article
concluding with this ominous reminder--"We are the only people in the
world who have not such a force in one form or another."
"Si vis pacem, para bellum" was the obvious corollary drawn by all
sober-minded people and seriously inclined members of the community,
and on the 13th of May, 1859, the _Times_ had "the high gratification
of announcing that this necessity (that of home defence) is now
recognised by the Government," for "in another portion of our columns
will be found a circular addressed by General Peel to the Queen's
Lieutenants of counties sanctioning the formation of Volunteer Rifle
Corps." At the same time the war in Italy was made to serve the
purpose of bringing out in full relief the importance of steam as a
novel factor in strategical operations, for we further read (cp. the
_Times_, May 13th, 1859) that "steam--an agency unknown in former
contests--renders all operations infinitely more practicable....
Railroads can bring troops to the frontier from all quarters of the
kingdom.... It is in steam transport, in fact, that we discover the
chief novelty of the war."
Thenceforward matters began to assume practical shape, and in the
following year 1860, on September 15th, we come across a reference to
the Volunteer movement "which has so signal a success as to produce
a costless disciplined army of 150,000 marksmen," springing from
"a unanimous feeling of the necessity of preparing for defence."
Conspicuous amongst this "costless disciplined army" figure the 1st
Middlesex (South Kensington) Engineer Volunteers, "numbering now,"
as we find, on October 23rd, 1860, "over 500 members," and "daily
increasing in strength is making rapid progress in its drills, etc."
The 1st Middlesex was evidently the original corps of Engineer
Volunteers to be formed, and thus became the precursor of other and
similar corps which sprang into being in other parts of the country; a
fine example of which (although entirely distinct in that it was the
sole Engineer Corps to embody railway engineers) was later to become
apparent in the 2nd Cheshire Engineers (Railway) Volunteers.
Formed in January, 1887, the battalion was recruited entirely from
amongst the employés of the London and North-Western Railway,
comprising firemen, cleaners, boilermakers and riveters, fitters,
smiths, platelayers, shunters, and pointsmen. The nominal strength of
the establishment was six companies of 100 men each, but in addition
245 men enlisted as a matter of form in the Royal Engineers for one day
and were placed in the First Class Army Reserve for six years, forming
the Royal Engineer Railway Reserve, and being liable for service at any
time. During the South African War 285 officers and men saw service at
the front, and the military authorities were not slow to appreciate the
invaluable aid rendered by this picked body of men. On the inception
of Lord Haldane's scheme of Territorials in 1908, the battalion was
embodied therein, and continued as such until March, 1912, when for
some inexplicable reason it was finally disbanded.
How valuable an asset from the professional point of view were deemed,
originally, these Engineer Corps, may be gathered from the _Times_ of
November 23rd, 1860, which congratulates the 1st Middlesex, as being
the parent corps, on having been "most successful in obtaining skilled
workmen of the class from which are drawn the Royal Engineers. Every
member of the corps goes through a course of military engineering in
field works, pontooning, etc.," with the result that the Volunteer
Engineers "will therefore form a valuable adjunct to the Royal
Engineers in the event of their being called into the field."
The ball once started rolling, it was not unnaturally deemed advisable
to form some central and representative body of control, and the
_Times_ of January 10th, 1865, gives an account of an "interesting
ceremony of presenting prizes to the successful competitors of rifle
practice of the Queen's Westminster (22nd Middlesex) Rifle Volunteers,"
when Colonel McMurdo, then Inspector-General of the Volunteer Forces,
"who was received with loud and long-continued applause," in the
course of a speech referred to the formation of a new corps, "a most
important one both for the Volunteer Force and the Regular Army. He
would tell the objects of this corps," which would consist of 30
Lieutenant-Colonels, and would enlist other members down to the rank
of sergeants:--"In order that the Volunteers and the Army of England
should be able to move in large masses from one part of the country
to another they would have to depend upon railways. In all the wars
of late years--as in the Italian war, the war in Denmark, and in the
American war--the railway had been brought into service, to move armies
rapidly from place to place, and this new corps, which at present
consisted of the most eminent railway engineers and general managers of
the great lines, had the task of bringing into a unity of action the
whole system of railways of Great Britain; so that if war should visit
England, which God forbid, this country would be placed on an equality
with countries whose Governments possessed the advantage--if advantage
it might be called--of carrying on the business of the railways. And
the importance of this they might estimate when he assured them that
with the finest army in the world, unless they had a system by which
200,000 men could move upon the railways with order, security, and
precision, efficiency and numbers would be of no avail upon the day of
battle; and that unless we had order, unless we had certainty in the
moving of large masses, the day of battle, which might come, would be
to us a day of disaster."
Accorded the title of "The Engineer and Railway Volunteer Staff
Corps," this select little group, combining some of the best brains
and ability to be found in the engineering and managerial departments
of the railways, acted in the capacity of consulting engineers to the
Government, from the time of its formation until the year 1896, when a
smaller body composed on similar lines and known as the "War Railway
Council" was introduced for the purpose of supplementing, and to some
extent relieving, the original Railway Staff Corps.
As has already been seen, although in accordance with the provisions
of the Act of 1871 the Government would assume control of the railways
in the event of "an emergency" arising, the directors, officers, and
servants of the different companies would nevertheless be required to
"carry on" as usual, and to maintain, each in their several spheres,
the actual working of the lines.
The final adjustment of any minor defects that may have been apparent
in the rapidly completing chain of organisation was speedily
accelerated by the Agadir crisis of 1911, resulting in the inception in
the following year of that unique and singularly thorough institution,
the Railway Executive Committee, which in turn superseded its immediate
predecessor, the War Railway Council.
On the outbreak of the world conflict in August, 1914, and following
on an official announcement by the War Office to the effect that
Government control would be exercised through this "Executive Committee
composed of General Managers of the Railways," Sir Herbert Walker,
K.C.B., General Manager of the London and South-Western Railway, who
was forthwith appointed Acting-Chairman of the Railway Executive
Committee, issued in concise form a further and confirmatory statement,
in which he drew attention to the fact that "the control of the
railways has been taken over by the Government for the purpose of
ensuring that the railways, locomotives, rolling-stock, and staff shall
be used as one complete unit in the best interests of the State for the
movement of troops, stores, and food supplies.... The staff on each
railway will remain under the same control as heretofore, and will
receive their instructions through the same channels as in the past."
Indelibly imprinted though the memory of those fateful August days
must remain in the minds of every living individual, days brimful of
wonderings alternating with doubt, expectancy, ill-foreboding, and
occasional delight, coupled with an all-pervading sense of mystery
completely enshrouding the movements of our own forces, few indeed were
aware of the extent of the task imposed upon the Railway Executive
Committee. Yet so swiftly, so silently, was the entire scheme of
mobilisation carried through, that it was with a sense bordering
on bewilderment and with something akin to a gulp that the public
found itself digesting the news of the safe transport and arrival
in France of the Expeditionary Force. On the occasion of his first
appearance in the House of Lords as Secretary of State for War, the
late Lord Kitchener referred in brief, but none the less eulogistic
terms, to the successful part played by the railway companies (cp.
the _Times_, August 26th, 1914): "I have to remark that when war was
declared mobilisation took place without any hitch whatever. The
railway companies in the all-important matter of railway transport
facilities have more than justified the complete confidence reposed
in them by the War Office, all grades of railway services having
laboured with untiring energy and patience. We know how deeply the
French people appreciate the prompt assistance we have been able to
afford them at the very outset of the war." Nor has Sir John French
neglected to record his own appreciation of so signal a performance,
for, in describing the events leading up to the concentration of
the British Army in France, he writes (cp. "1914," p. 40): "Their
reports (_i.e._ of the corps commanders and their staffs) as to the
transport of their troops from their mobilising stations to France were
highly satisfactory. The nation owes a deep debt of gratitude to the
naval transport service and to all concerned in the embarking of the
Expeditionary Force. Every move was carried out exactly to time."
So far so good, it will be opined. Certainly from the chief points of
disembarkation, Boulogne and le Havre, there were "roses, roses all the
way," surely never before in the annals of warfare have troops from an
alien shore been greeted with such galaxy of joy and enthusiasm, though
perhaps most touching tribute of all was that of a wayside impression,
the figure of an old peasant leaning heavily on his thickly gnarled
stick, with cap in hand outstretched, his wan smile and glistening
tear-dimmed eye indicating in measure unmistakable the depth and
sincerity of his silent gratitude.
"On Friday, August 21st, the British Expeditionary Force," Sir John
French tells us, "found itself awaiting its first great trial of
strength with the enemy," and the childish display of wrathful
indignation evinced by Wilhelm the (would-be) Conqueror, who is
credited with having slapped with his gauntlet the face of an all
too-zealous staff officer, bearer of so displeasing an item of
intelligence, is not devoid of humour. The nursery parallel is
complete--"Fe, fi, fo, fum," roared the giant, "I smell the blood of an
Englishmen." "Gott im himmel," snarled the Kaiser, "It is my Royal and
Imperial command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate
present, upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all
your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the
treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little
army." Head-quarters, Aix-la-Chapelle, August 19th, 1914, (cp. the
_Times_, October 1st, 1914).
"Up to that time," however, as Sir John French asseverates in his
further reminiscences, "as far as the British forces were concerned,
the forwarding of offensive operations had complete possession of our
minds.... The highest spirit pervaded all ranks"; in fact "no idea of
retreat was in the minds of the leaders of the Allied Armies," who were
"full of hope and confidence." In this wise, then, did the Regulars,
the flower of the British Army, enter the fray, little dreaming that
the entire nation and Empire were to be trained in their wake, or that
upwards of four years, instead of so many months, involving sacrifices
untold, must elapse ere we were destined to emerge (or perhaps muddle)
successfully from out the wood.
For the moment, as it transpired, "nothing came to hand which led
us to foresee the crushing superiority of strength which actually
confronted us on Sunday, August 23rd"; neither had "Allenby's bold and
searching reconnaissance led me (Sir John French) to believe that we
were threatened by forces against which we could not make an effective
stand." How completely the strength and disposal of the enemy forces
had been veiled, no more than a few brief hours sufficed to disclose;
disillusion quickly supervened. "Our intelligence ... thought that
at least three German corps (roughly 150,000 men)[2] were advancing
upon us," and following on a severe engagement in the neighbourhood of
Charleroi in which the French 80th Corps on our left suffered heavily,
a general retirement commenced. Namur had fallen on August 25th, and
there was no blinking the truth, it was the Germans who were advancing,
not we! Thenceforward, the retreat, the now historic Retreat from Mons,
orderly throughout, set in along the whole line of the Allied Armies;
of respite there was none, day in day out, 'neath the burning rays of
an August sun the enemy pressure increased rather than relaxed.
[2] The German army corps of two divisions has 44,000 men, and a
combatant strength of 26,900 rifles, 48 machine guns, 1200 sabres, and
144 guns. The German army corps of three divisions is approximately
60,000 strong (cp. the _Times_, August 29th, 1914).
The following narrative set down by an eye-witness, temporarily _en
panne_ during the afternoon and evening of August 27th on the outskirts
of the little provincial town of Ham, depicts briefly but with some
degree of vividness the tragic nature of the scene that was being
enacted. After making some slight preliminary allusion to the pitiable
plight of refugees who everywhere helped to block the roads, "there
commenced," so the narrative runs, "this other spectacle of which I
speak; at first, as it were, a mere trickle, a solitary straggler here,
a stray cavalry horseman there, until the trickle grew, grew into a
strange and never-ending living stream; for, down the long straight
route nationale from Le Cateau, and so away beyond from Mons, they
came those 'broken British regiments' that had been 'battling against
odds'; men bare-headed, others coatless, gone the very tunic from their
backs; tattered, blood-stained, torn; now a small detachment, now a
little group; carts and wagons heaped with impedimenta galore, while
lying prone on top of all were worn-out men and footsore. And all the
time along the roadside fallen-out, limping, hobbling, stumbling, came
stragglers, twos and threes, men who for upwards of four days and
nights, without repose, had fought and marched and trekked, till sheer
exhaustion well-nigh dragged each fellow to the ground. Yet on they
kept thus battling 'gainst the numbness of fatigue, that mates more
broken than themselves should ease, in measure slight, their sufferings
in the bare comfort of thrice-laded carts. All but ashamed to poke the
crude curiosity of a camera in the grim path of war-worn warriors such
as these, from where I stood, as unobtrusive as could be, I snapped
three instantaneous glimpses of this gloriously pitiful review, stamped
though it was already ineradicably in the pages of my memory. Twilight
fell, and night, and still the stream flowed in and ever onward."
The news in London, heralded by a special Sunday afternoon edition
of the _Times_, came as a bolt from the blue, for not since the
announcement of the landing of the Expeditionary Force in France had
anything of an authentic nature been received as to its subsequent
doings or movements; in fact, as the _Times_ pointed out on August
19th, "the British Expeditionary Force has vanished from sight almost
as completely as the British Fleet"; further, as if to complete the
nightmare of uncertainty, "British newspaper correspondents are not
allowed at the front; ... the suspense thus imposed upon the nation
is almost the hardest demand yet made by the authorities,--with some
misgivings we hope it may be patiently borne."
The British public, however, in spite of occasional qualms and
momentary misgivings, ever confident of success and sure in its
inflexible belief that the British Army could hold its own against
almost any odds (the prevailing logic being that one Britisher was as
good as any three dirty Germans), had bidden Dame Rumour take a back
seat in the recesses of its mind.
Incredible then the news that broke the spell: "This is a pitiful story
I have to write," so read the message, dated Amiens, August 29th,
"and would to God it did not fall to me to write it. But the time for
secrecy is past. I write with the Germans advancing incessantly, while
all the rest of France believes they are still held near the frontier."
What had happened? How could it be true? Sir John French wastes no time
in mincing matters:--"The number of our aeroplanes was limited." "The
enormous numerical and artillery superiority of the Germans must be
remembered." "It (the machine gun) was an arm in which the Germans were
particularly well found. They must have had at least six or seven to
our one." "It was, moreover, very clear that the Germans had realised
that the war was to be one calling for colossal supplies of munitions,
supplies indeed upon such a stupendous scale as the world had never
before dreamed of, and they also realised the necessity for heavy
artillery."
The time for secrecy was past; but how to stem the tide? The situation
was, and indeed remained, such that a year later Mr. Lloyd George (then
Secretary of State for War) was moved to make this astounding admission
in the House of Commons: "The House would be simply appalled to hear of
the dangers we had to run last year." And again at a subsequent date
when as Minister of Munitions he exclaimed in the House, "I wonder
whether it will not be too late. Ah! fatal words on this occasion! Too
late in moving here, too late in arriving there, too late in coming to
this decision, too late in starting enterprises, too late in preparing.
In this war the footsteps of the Allied forces have been dogged by the
mocking spectre of 'Too late.'"
In this connection it would be amusing, were it not so utterly tragic,
to compare a slightly previous and public utterance from the lips of
this same "Saviour of his Country":--"This is the most favourable
moment for twenty years to overhaul our expenditure on armaments" (Mr.
Lloyd George. _Daily Chronicle_, January 1st, 1914).
Happily however, "il n'est jamais trop tard pour bien faire," and this
good old adage as to it being never _too_ late to mend was perhaps
never better exemplified than when, the Army Ordnance authorities
having realised that the Government arsenals were in no position
to cope fully with the demands likely to be made by the military
authorities in the field, that other army of "Contemptibles," the
staffs and employés of the great engineering concerns of this country,
came forward in a manner unparalleled in the history of modern
industry, and forthwith commenced to adapt themselves and their entire
available plant to the process of manufacturing munitions of war.
Foremost amongst firms of world-wide repute must be mentioned the
great London and North-Western Railway Company, whose Chief Mechanical
Engineer, Mr. C. J. Bowen-Cooke, C.B.E., realising from the outset
the import of the late Lord Kitchener's forecast as to the probable
duration and extent of the war, and in spite of ever-increasing demands
on locomotive power which he found himself compelled to meet for
military as well as for ordinary civilian purposes, threw himself heart
and soul into the problem of adapting the then existing conditions and
plant in the Company's locomotive works at Crewe to the requirements of
the military authorities.
Forewarned as it was to some extent by the hurricane advance of the
Hun, the Government was also forearmed in that it was empowered by the
provisions of the Act of 1871 not merely to take over the railroads
of the United Kingdom, but, should it be deemed expedient to do so,
the plant thereof as well. The Government might even take possession
of the plant without the railroad; though how the railways could have
been maintained minus their plant, any more than the Fleet could have
remained in commission minus its dockyards, is doubtless a problem that
was duly considered by those who framed the wording of the Act in the
year of grace 1871.
However that may be, as soon as the really desperate nature of the
struggle began to dawn upon the Government, and it was seen to be a
case of "all or nothing," the then President of the Board of Trade,
Mr. Runciman, M.P., was not slow to espy the latent, yet none the less
patent, possibilities which surely existed within the practical domain
of railway workshops.
In certain circumstances it may be regarded as fortunate that not a few
of those happy-go-lucky individuals, whose leaning is towards politics,
are gifted with the convenient art of adapting themselves and their
views to that particular quarter whence the wind happens to be blowing.
"I must honestly confess," as this same Mr. Runciman had expressed
himself when in 1907 he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury, "that
when I see the armaments expanding it is gall and wormwood to my heart;
the huge amount of money spent on the Army is a sore point with every
one in the Treasury."
Particularly galling, therefore, must have seemed the rate at which
expenditure on armaments was increasing by leaps and bounds in 1914;
yet so ingenuous is the manner in which politicians are calmly capable
of effecting a complete _volte-face_, that on October 13th we find Mr.
Runciman positively engaged in seeking out the late Sir Guy Calthorp,
then General Manager of the London and North-Western Railway, and Mr.
Bowen-Cooke, for the purpose of eliciting their views as to the extent
to which the railway companies might be relied upon to assist the
Government in spending still more huge amounts of money (incidentally
thus adding a further dose of wormwood to his heart), especially in
regard to the output of artillery.
Without knowing for the moment what actually were the more immediate
and pressing requirements of the Government, Mr. Cooke suggested an
interview with the late Sir Frederick Donaldson, then Director of Army
Ordnance at Woolwich Arsenal, with whom he was personally acquainted;
the result being that Sir Frederick was able to point out in detail
the difficulties with which he was faced, handing over to Mr. Cooke
a number of drawings of gun-carriage chassis, etc., which he (Mr.
Cooke) went through, tabulating them in concise form, so that at a
forthcoming meeting which had been called at the Railway Clearing
House for Tuesday, October 20th, the Chief Mechanical Engineers of the
Midland, Great Western, North-Eastern, Great Northern, and Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railways who were present should have every facility for
noting and deciding what they could best undertake in their respective
railway workshops.
The rapid growth of this Government work necessitated arrangements
being made for orders to pass through some recognised channel, and
in November 1914, an offshoot of the previously-mentioned Railway
Executive Committee, consisting of the Chief Mechanical Engineers of
the principal railway companies, together with representatives from the
War Office, was created, to be called "the Railway War Manufacturers'
Sub-Committee."
Briefly the duties of this sub-committee were to consider, to
co-ordinate, and to report upon various requests by or through the
War Office to the railway companies, to assist in the manufacture of
warlike stores and equipment. All applications for work to be done
in the railway workshops, either for the War Department or for War
Department contractors, were submitted to this committee by one of the
War Office members. On receipt of any request the railway members of
the committee decided whether the work was such as could be effectively
undertaken by the railway companies, and if their decision was
favourable, steps were taken to ascertain which companies could and
would participate in the work, the amount of work they could undertake
to turn out, and the approximate date of delivery. The War Office
members decided as to the priority of the various demands made upon the
railway companies. The actual order upon the railway companies to carry
out any manufacturing work was given to such companies by the Railway
Executive Committee.
To detail the manner in which the London and North-Western Railway
Company's locomotive Works at Crewe became, in great measure, as it
were, a private arsenal subsidiary to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich is
the aspiring theme of the succeeding pages of this narrative.