The Somme stations - Andrew Martin

On the first day of the Somme enlisted railwayman Jim Stringer lies trapped in a shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the
blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival - even before they departed for France, a
member of Jim's unit had been found dead.

During the stand-off
that follows, Jim and his comrades must operate by night the vitally
important trains carrying munitions to the Front, through a ghostly
landscape of shattered trees where high explosive and shrapnel shells
rain down. Close co-operation and trust are vital. Yet proof piles up of
an enemy within, and as a ferocious military policeman pursues his
investigation into the original killing, the finger of accusation begins
to point towards Jim himself . . .