Page 167 - How It Works - Book Of Amazing Answers To Curious Questions, Volume 05-15

History

The railway warlord of China

When the Communists emerged victorious in Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin. Churchill in his
military uniform,
the Russian Civil War, many defeated As well as the ‘White’ trains and four years before his

nationalist ‘Whites’ fled to China – and they volunteers, including at least three generals scrape in South
brought their trains with them! and an entire cavalry regiment, Zhang Africa
The vastness of China and the widespread employed Russian engineers to create
nature of the fighting after the overthrow of similar armoured trains for his army.

the emperor in the Xinhai Revolution (1911) Fittingly, Zhang was assassinated in his
was ideal territory for armoured trains and train on 4 June 1928 when a bomb was
they became most closely associated with planted on a railway bridge.

The wreckage of Zhang
Zuolin’s train after his
assassination
Winston Churchill’s
armoured train
Before he entered politics and then history,
swashbuckling young cavalry offi cer-turned-war
reporter Winston Churchill was captured along
with 50 British soldiers when their armoured
train was ambushed by a well-armed Boer militia
in South Africa.
On 15 November 1899 they blocked the line
with rocks and then opened fire with two fi eld

guns, taking out the train’s naval gun. “The
troops, who had maintained a hopeless fi ght
with great courage, were overpowered,” wrote
The Manchester Guardian on 17 November.
“Mr Churchill was last seen advancing with a

rifle among the Dublin Fusiliers. He is believed to
have surrendered himself to cover the retreat.”
Command tower Armour This incident made it clear how vulnerable
The commander would sit The armour was 19.8mm armoured trains were to organised foes with
in an armoured turret and (0.78in) thick on the sides artillery, but it established Churchill as a national
peer through the triplex and 15mm (0.59in) thick hero. One year later he became an MP,
glass visor or a periscope. on the roof. aged 26.

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