The American railroad network reached its peak track mileage in 1916 with over 254,000 miles of operational railway that served rural areas and cities alike. Although track construction had significantly tailed off since the turn of the century, passenger demand and transport requirements for agriculture still made the smaller branch... More
Severe shortcomings in the general organization and capacity of the rail industry were exposed upon America’s entry into World War I in 1917. The railroads’ lack of capability to assist the war effort through vital freight transport led the US government to assume control of the country’s railroads in a... More
The sharp increase in both passenger and freight demand during World War II led many of the major railroad operators to invest in new rail infrastructure ready to continue high capacity operations following the war. Contrary to prior predictions, there was a steep decline in overall rail use following World... More
By 1860 the American rail network stretched across the eastern states and was owned by numerous competing railroad companies that used many different track gauges. Much of the early rail network used the narrower 4 ft 81/2 in., 4 ft 10 in. or 5 ft gauges. Newer railroads whose construction... More
After the US declared war upon the Central Powers in April, 1917, President Wilson introduced compulsory conscription. This was after the first six weeks of voluntary enlistment produced only 73,000 recruits, rather than the anticipated million. The Selective Service Act introduced a ‘liability of military service of all male citizens’... More
Under the Lend-Lease policy of March 1941, the US agreed to supply its Allies with food, oil and weaponry until the end of the war. In return, the US leased army and naval bases in Allied territories. When the Lend-Lease policy was established, the US was neutral; in December 1941,... More
The United States Neutrality Act of 1939 required that military supplies were dispatched on a ‘cash and carry’ basis, but by 1941 Great Britain could no longer afford to pay. In March 1941 Roosevelt created Lend-Lease to enable the United States to send free supplies such as munitions, fuel and... More
Political upheaval had left the Soviet Union in an increasingly desperate situation by the beginning of the 1990s. A failed coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991 initiated a final series of events, which ended in dissolution just four months later on 26 December 1991. Although the Soviet Union... More
The positions gained by the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions after their initial drop early on 6 June were important in enabling the forces from the beach landing to progress inland. Resistance at the beaches themselves was minimal, however the dense bocage terrain made navigation and location of enemy and... More
Utah was the furthest west of the D-Day landing beaches and was cut off from the rest by an area of marshy terrain. The area behind the beach had been purposefully flooded by the Germans to limit an Allied advance to a network of small lanes that passed between the... More
German V1 and V2 Rockets waged a bombing campaign against London and areas in eastern England with the objective of destroying civilian infrastructure and instilling fear in the British population, ultimately reducing productivity of industries. They were designed as ‘retribution weapons’ for Allied bombing on German cities. The first V1... More
Built by the Germans in World War II as a response to Allied bombings, the V2 is the world’s first long-range guided missile. First used against London in September 1944, V2s were 45ft 11in high (14 m), with a diameter of 5ft 5in (1.65 m) and weighed 28,000 lbs (12,500... More