The Most Devastating Weapon Of The First World War.

What did the most damage?

When we think of the mechanised meat grinder of the First World War, which mechanism comes to mind? When devastation was unleashed, which technological marvel was the greatest culprit?

Many would offer the staccato chatter of the machine gun that cut down so many. Others might suggest the artillery that rained upon their heads. The nightmare of poison gas may loom large.

However, one of the biggest culprits that besieged these boys remains. It has woven through our lives in the century since.

After all, when the Duke of Wellington met Napoleon on the field of battle, he could rely only upon what he had to hand. He would raise an army, spend weeks marching across Europe, and of this was insufficient to win the day, that was that.

However, in the First World War a more terrible weapon was available to those generals who had the entire industrial might of a nation to hand.

The train.

With a comprehensive rail network available, a nation’s whole population and their entire industrial output might very quickly be brought to bear upon a single painful point for weeks or for months or even for years.

With an effective rail network, two great nations might come into contact and exert a formidable pressure against one another.

This pressure may slow any progress to a crawl. Trenches are dug. Defences are constructed. Men are cut down day and night.

Meanwhile, the train will endlessly supply men to this cauldron to be consumed and replaced in equal measure until this supply runs out.

These trains might even transport those wounded to convalesce, or offer respite with leave, only to quickly send those recovered back into the fray once more, refreshed and invigorated.

The train could scoop up an entire generation.

The train was voracious.

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