German Railways in the East

[Der Alte Fritz]

A bit confused here...
I think Willie was talking about Seversky Donets bridge at Belaya Kalitwa being rebuilt and tracks between this bridge and destroyed Don bridge near Chir (Tchir) station re-gauged. YES

* mid Sept probably completion of Don bridge.

Did you mean Seversky Donets bridge?

YES

I really should have put a map in here ( I will do so later), it does not help that I am using Google maps which calls both rivers the "Don".

Sorry.

[Der Alte Fritz]

[GregSingh]

Unfortunately I can't find any photo of Seversky Donets bridge at Belaya Kalitwa from 1942.
We can only assume damage was not too severe as repairs were completed in just a couple of weeks.
Also bridge is not too long, only 250 metres.

In contrast Don bridge near Tschir station (or Loshki station on the other bank) was 800 meters long and possibly heavily damaged. Complete stuff up as initially bridge was taken intact - see Post Number#131.

Back to Vistula river bridges in "Polish Corridor".
I couldn't resist to post those lovely photos taken by Kurt Grimm in early 1940 showing progress of repairs.
Bridge destroyed in September 1939 was ready for use in mid-March 1940.

Thorn bridge September 1939

Thorn bridge Sep1939.jpg (40.37 KiB) Viewed 1673 times

Thorn bridge January 1940

Thorn bridge Jan1940.jpg (44.75 KiB) Viewed 1673 times

Thorn bridge January 1940

Thorn bridge Jan1940 2.jpg (53.76 KiB) Viewed 1673 times

[Dann Falk]

Just a little feedback about the layout of the railway bridges over the Chir and Don Rivers.

The main Rail line crosses the Chir near the city of Obivskaia, close the middle of the Chir. Some time ago I did a Google Earth measurement of the Chir River in this area. The water is only about 30 meters wide, at most, with another 10 meters or so of marshy banks on each side. So the total span would be something like 50 meters. There would also be many fords of the river, as the water level would have been low during the summer. So vehicle traffic would have hardly been impeded.

The rail crossing of the Don River is not at Kalach but some 35 Km downstream near the city of Rychkovskii. Sorry I have not seen any photos of this bridge but it would have been substantial. I also know from accounts that the Soviets used this bridge as a road crossing during the battles in July-August 1942.

Also of note, the large lake on the Don (shown on the previous map) would not have existed during the war, it’s modern.

[GregSingh]

Just so everyone is on the same page, we have this German map of the area from 1942.
It shows railway Tschir crossing near Obliwskaja, railway Don crossing near Rytschow or Loshki, road bridge at Kalatsch and no lake...

Don and Tschir rivers 1942

[Dann Falk]

Nice Map!

Also notice there would be several other minor bridges along this section of line.

Kalach was used as a Rail/River transhipment point as well as a road crossing of the Don.

[GregSingh]

Back to the 'Deblin bridge November 1939' photo from Post Number:#233

Officials from left to right: Beck, Leferenz, du Bois-Reymond
I assume Beck is Emil Beck - Generaldirektor der Gedob from Nov 1939 to Feb 1940.
Emil Beck

Not sure about others. Anyone?

[Der Alte Fritz]

No luck with any of the names, so I started to look for the uniform on the right hand man but with no luck for either the NSDAP or OT or RAD

Found this informative DRB uniform thread: http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... d&t=140393

[GregSingh]

Based on 1938 data, it seems that Polish railroads had axle load in 14-18 tonne range. 80% of the link were in 16-17.5 tonne range.
Not sure if that was upgraded in 1940-43 at all?

[Der Alte Fritz]

This is not surprising given the history of the railway. The original Tsarist railway would have had track in a variety of rail weights and track strengths and when converted by the Germans to standard gauge during the Great War the track strength would have remained the same. The German railway of the era ran lighter mixed weight trains. It is only when the German network is upgraded to a uniform strength and moves towards a 20 tonne axle weight during the 1920s does the German network become different to the networks to the east and south of it.

My understanding of the Otto programme was that it aimed to convert the new parts of the Reich and 7 main through routes to the German standard but left the "Polish" part of the railway running with Polish equipment or with older Prussian equipment. After all the Government General was a small area even by Polish standards.

The best way to verify this would be to study the 7 through routes and particularly their bridges from the Polish period through the 1939 war and then on through the Otto programme.

[GregSingh]

Here is an Ostbahn ad from 1940...
I like the "schnell-billig-zuverlässig" bit.

Lichtbildstelle - Gedob 1940

[recidivist]

That is a nice poster. I can't identify the locomotives precisely, but they look like old Prussian types to me. The one at the bottom might be a P6? I think the Ostbahn had many of those as Reichsbahn hand-me-downs.

The passenger wagon at the top looks like a 'Hecht'-type, which would be very modern for 1940. I can't identify the post wagon in the middle, and the two goods wagons look like G-10s to me, that type could be found all over occupied Europe.

[GregSingh]

Polish State Railways Pt31 is on first two photos.
98 were built before September 1939 and another 12 after in Upper Silesia.

At the end of March 1940 only 12 were in Ostbahn (OBD Warschau). 12 more in RBD Danzig, 25 in RBD Posen and 10 in RBD Oppeln.
40 or so ended up in Soviet hands in September 1939. Some returned back after June 1941.

And this one was still going in 1970's... Source: http://swr.podkarpackakolej.net/spec/pz

Pt31 1970's

Third one - most probably also Polish State Railways - Ok22.
Nice photo from http://www.parowozy.com.pl

Ok22

[GregSingh]

Two posters from serie:
HILF DER DEUTSCHEN REICHSBAHN UND DU HILFST DIR SELBST!

1940 DR poster

1941 DR poster

[Der Alte Fritz]

Found a nice account of the regauging of the US Southern Railways in 1886 so that they could work with the Northern railways. This regaugued 21,000km of track over 2 days using tens of thousands of men.

I would like to find out about the German re-gauging effort in Poland and the Ukraine during the Great War.