Engines for Empire. The Victorian Army and its Use of Railways

摘要

Railways came quickly to the attention of British military men and civilian authorities concerned with public order, the defence of the realm, and the security and expansion of the British Empire. The military benefits of railways were almost self-evident. Soon after its 1830 opening the Liverpool and Manchester line transported some soldiers on active service thereby saving them from a two-day march - a modest troop movement that by 1914 became the rapid deployment to the Western Front via British and French railways of the many divisions of the British Expeditionary Force. Thus, by the outbreak of World War I British authorities had learned well the value of railways as force enablers and force multipliers.