The spread of railways
) increased the scale on which wars could be fought, with greater numbers of troops and more ammunition delivered to battlefields. "By
1914 you absolutely had to keep up with the Joneses if you were not to be too late on the frontier," says military historian Martin Van Creveld , in the fourth part of this series charting the development of railways.
A British veteran of the First
World War and a Russian woman engine driver recall their experiences of railways at war, and Hans Bewilogua , who looked after Hitler's personal train says: " had a bath carriage where troops could have a wash and brush up before they got their medals." Hitler, however, preferred road transport as his 81-ton wagon was prone to derailment.
Producer Peter Grimsdale