German Railways in the East

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Der Alte Fritz
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Re: German Railways in the East

#556

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 17 Jun 2016, 12:42

Heerestruppen
Eisenbahntruppen (Railway Troops)
Being part of the Inspekteur of Pioniere (Inspection of Pioneers), they wore Black Waffenfarbe (arm of service colours) and were commanded by Befehlshaber des Eisnebahntruppe Gen. Lt. Otto Willi but came under the operational command of Chef des Transportwesens (Transport Chief) Gen. Lt. Rudolf Gercke.

7 Eisenbahnpioniere Regiments (2 Batalliones) 1 to 7
10 Eisenbahn Bau Bataillones (4 Kompaanie)
15, 83, 106, 111, 139, 511, 512, 514 & 515
2 Eisenbahn Brücken Bataillone, 12 & 501
3 Eisenhanpioniere Regiment Stäbe z.b.V, 19, 20 & 701
27 Eisenbahn Bau Kompanie (Railway construction compnaies)
2 Eisenbahn Pfeilerbau Kompanie (Railway pipe laying companies)
21 Eisenbahn Fernsprecher Kompanie (Railway telephone companies)
13 Eisenbahn Stahlwerk Kompanie (Steel fabriction companies)
7 Eisenbahn Wasserstraßen Kompanie (Railway water companies)
8 Eisenbahn Betriebs Kompanie (Railway operations companies)
2 Feldbahn Bataillone Stäbe, 21 & 22
10 Feldbahn Kompanie (Light railway companies)
2 Seilbahn Kommandos (Cable railways headquarters)
10 Seilbahn Trupps (Cable railway troops)
12 Eisenbahnpioniere Park Kompanie (Railway troops depots)
8 Eisenbahn Panzerzüge (Armoured trains)i

HeerestransportDienststellen (Army Transport Department)
The Transport Department wore a Salmon Pink Waffenfarbe and was under the direct command of the Chef Des Transportwesens, Gen. Lt. Gercke.

2 WVD Wehrmachtverkehrsdirektion (Armed Forces Transport Directorate)
5 Etra Eisenbahntransportabteilung (Railway Transport Unit)
30 Bv.T.O. Bevollmächtigte Transportoffiziere (Authorised Transport Officer) 49 Transport Kommandanturen (Transport headquarters)
36 Bahnhof Kommandanturen (Station headquarters)
36 Ausladekommissare (Loading officer)
20 Weiterleitungsstellen (Forwarding stations) border control points forwarding local traffic
272 Bahnhof Offiziere (Railway station officer)ii

To give an idea of the size of these units, an Etra comprised 29 officers, 1 administrator, 24 NCO and 38 soldiers, a Bv.T.O. comprised 6 officers, 3 NCO and 10 soldiers, a Transport Kommandanturen 7 officers, 5 administrators, 7 NCO and 16 soldiers, an Ausladekommissare 4 officers, 2 NCO and 9 soldiers and a Bahnhof Kommandanturen 4 officers,1 administrator, 4 NCO and 7 soldiers.iii These staff units handled the transport administration in the Rückwärtigesgebiet (Rearwards Area) with the Etra liasing with the railways Hauptbahndirektion HBD (Main Railway Directorate) and the Bv.T.O. liaising with the military railways Feldeisenbahnkommando FEDko (Field Railway Command) who actually carried out the work. A FEDko had an establishment (KStN 2006) which comprised of 130 officers (15 Army, 76 Reichsbahn and 39 from either) 11 administrators, 184 NCO (38 Army, 145 Reichsbahn and 1 from either) 294 men (142 Army, 152 Reichsbahn.) with 43 motor vehicles including 3x 2t trucks and 8x 3t lorries, 11 motorcycles and 5 bicycles some of which could operate on rails.

This basic establishment established for Operation Barbarossa underwent a series of rapid changes as a result of the Winter Transport Crisis of 1941. The Etra were changed into Wehrmachttransportleitung W.Trsp.Ltg (Armed Forces Transportation Route) and in February 1942 the Bevollmächtigter General des Transportwesens Bev.Gen.Trspw. (General of Transport) was introduced to replace the Army Group Bv.T.O. while the Bv.T.O. now concentrated on managing transport at Armee headquarters. Further T.O. and Trsp.Verb.St. performed the same function for other units such as the Supply Districts (North, Dnepr and Black Sea) and temporary formations. The units remained small with the Bev.Gen.Trspw. At just 9 officers, 3 NCOs and 16 men it only needed an additional 11 officers, 2 administrators, 12 NCO and 24 men to convert it into a W.Trsp.Leitg. The number of units increased so that by the 16th May 1942 the 5 Etras had been replaced by 7 W.TrspLtg and 5 Gen.des.Trsp, the original 30 Bv.T.O. had grown to 22 BvT.O. and 49 T.O./Trsp.Verb.St. while the number of 49 Trsp.Kdtr grew to 62, the 36 Bhf.Kdtr grew to 46 and the 36 Aus.K. grew to 49 while the 272 Bhf.O. increased to 332. Finally in Southern Russia a overall commander was provided to co-ordinate the work of Bev.Gen.Trspw. Sud, A & B and this organisation was much larger as Bev.Gen.Trspw.Südrußland (at the same time Wehrm.Trsp.Ltg. Ukraine) from 1943 shows with 62 officers, 5 administrators, 56 NCOs, 103 soldiers and 31 'Hiwis'.iv,v The original slender means of control over the railways was expanding to meet the demands of a sustained campaign for the summer of 1942.



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Re: German Railways in the East

#558

Post by ljadw » 23 Jun 2016, 21:21

Der Alte Fritz wrote:Heerestruppen
Eisenbahntruppen (Railway Troops)
Being part of the Inspekteur of Pioniere (Inspection of Pioneers), they wore Black Waffenfarbe (arm of service colours) and were commanded by Befehlshaber der Eisenbahntruppe [Bedeis] Gen. Lt. Otto Will but came under the operational command of Chef des Transportwesens (Transport Chief) Gen. Lt. Rudolf Gercke.

7 Eisenbahnpionier-Regimenter (à 2 Bataillone) 1 to 7
10 Eisenbahn-Bau-Bataillone (à 4 Kompanien)
15, 83, 106, 111, 139, 511, 512, 514 & 515
2 Eisenbahn-Brücken-Bataillone, 12 & 501
3 Eisenbahnpioniere Regiments-Stäbe z.b.V. 19, 20 & 701
27 Eisenbahn-Bau-Kompanien (Railway construction compnaies)
2 Eisenbahn-Pfeilerbau-Kompanien (Railway pipe laying companies)
21 Eisenbahn-Fernsprecher-Kompanien (Railway telephone companies)
13 Eisenbahn-Stahlwerk-Kompanien (Steel fabriction companies)
7 Eisenbahn-Wasserstraßen-Kompanien (Railway water companies)
8 Eisenbahn-Betriebs-Kompanien (Railway operations companies)
2 Feldbahn-Bataillons-Stäbe, 21 & 22
10 Feldbahn-Kompanien (Light railway companies)
2 Seilbahn-Kommandos (Cable railways headquarters)
10 Seilbahn-Trupps (Cable railway troops)
12 Eisenbahnpionier-Park-Kompanien (Railway troops depots)
8 Eisenbahn-Panzerzüge (Armoured trains)i

Heerestransport-Dienststellen (Army Transport Department)
The Transport Department wore a Salmon Pink Waffenfarbe and was under the direct command of the Chef Des Transportwesens, Gen. Lt. Gercke.

2 WVD Wehrmachtverkehrsdirektionen (Armed Forces Transport Directorate)
5 Etra Eisenbahntransportabteilungen (Railway Transport Unit)
30 Bv.T.O. Bevollmächtigte Transportoffiziere (Authorised Transport Officer) 49 Transport-Kommandanturen (Transport headquarters)
36 Bahnhof-Kommandanturen (Station headquarters)
36 Ausladekommissare (Loading officer)
20 Weiterleitungsstellen (Forwarding stations) border control points forwarding local traffic
272 Bahnhof-Offiziere (Railway station officer)ii

To give an idea of the size of these units, an Etra comprised 29 officers, 1 administrator, 24 NCO and 38 soldiers, a Bv.T.O. comprised 6 officers, 3 NCO and 10 soldiers, a Transport Kommandanturen 7 officers, 5 administrators, 7 NCO and 16 soldiers, an Ausladekommissare 4 officers, 2 NCO and 9 soldiers and a Bahnhof Kommandanturen 4 officers,1 administrator, 4 NCO and 7 soldiers.iii These staff units handled the transport administration in the Rückwärtigesgebiet (Rearwards Area) with the Etra liasing with the railways Hauptbahndirektion HBD (Main Railway Directorate) and the Bv.T.O. liaising with the military railways Feldeisenbahnkommando FEDko (Field Railway Command) who actually carried out the work. A FEDko had an establishment (KStN 2006) which comprised of 130 officers (15 Army, 76 Reichsbahn and 39 from either) 11 administrators, 184 NCO (38 Army, 145 Reichsbahn and 1 from either) 294 men (142 Army, 152 Reichsbahn.) with 43 motor vehicles including 3x 2t trucks and 8x 3t lorries, 11 motorcycles and 5 bicycles some of which could operate on rails.

This basic establishment established for Operation Barbarossa underwent a series of rapid changes as a result of the Winter Transport Crisis of 1941. The Etra were changed into Wehrmachttransportleitung W.Trsp.Ltg (Armed Forces Transportation Route) and in February 1942 the Bevollmächtigter General des Transportwesens Bev.Gen.Trspw. (General of Transport) was introduced to replace the Army Group Bv.T.O. while the Bv.T.O. now concentrated on managing transport at Armee headquarters. Further T.O. and Trsp.Verb.St. performed the same function for other units such as the Supply Districts (North, Dnepr and Black Sea) and temporary formations. The units remained small with the Bev.Gen.Trspw. At just 9 officers, 3 NCOs and 16 men it only needed an additional 11 officers, 2 administrators, 12 NCO and 24 men to convert it into a W.Trsp.Leitg. The number of units increased so that by the 16th May 1942 the 5 Etras had been replaced by 7 W.TrspLtg and 5 Gen.des.Trsp, the original 30 Bv.T.O. had grown to 22 BvT.O. and 49 T.O./Trsp.Verb.St. while the number of 49 Trsp.Kdtr grew to 62, the 36 Bhf.Kdtr grew to 46 and the 36 Aus.K. grew to 49 while the 272 Bhf.O. increased to 332. Finally in Southern Russia a overall commander was provided to co-ordinate the work of Bev.Gen.Trspw. Sud, A & B and this organisation was much larger as Bev.Gen.Trspw.Südrußland (at the same time Wehrm.Trsp.Ltg. Ukraine) from 1943 shows with 62 officers, 5 administrators, 56 NCOs, 103 soldiers and 31 'Hiwis'.iv,v The original slender means of control over the railways was expanding to meet the demands of a sustained campaign for the summer of 1942.

:thumbsup:

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Re: German Railways in the East

#559

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 24 Jun 2016, 11:57

Art wrote:Testimony of major Fritz Abbas (military commandant of Ostrovets station, taken prisoner in January 1945), translated to Russian:

A link to the folder:
http://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/ru/n ... rid/zoom/1
Thought it might be interesting,
Looks good, though Ostrovets is a bit off the main line. I think it is near Pskov?

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Re: German Railways in the East

#560

Post by GregSingh » 24 Jun 2016, 13:04

It's in GG/Poland, based on his testimony, most likely Ostrowiec (Świętokrzyski).

But he moved around a lot: GG, Luxemburg, Belgium, Austria, Italy, GG again, Ukraine and back to GG.

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Re: German Railways in the East

#561

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 24 Jun 2016, 15:18

In addition to the above were the railway operating units

5 Feldeisenbahndirektion FBD (Wehrmacht) 4 were originally planned but FBD.1 was sent into the Balkans following the invasion of Greece and another was created to take its place. In 1942 were changed to Feldeisenbahnkommano FEDKo

5 Haupteisenbahndirektion HBD (Reichsverkehrminsterium) Civilian railway companies formed from DRB and RVM personnel to operate railways in occupied Russia broadly in line with the Reichskommissariat boundaries. Changed in 1942 to Reichsverkehrdirektion RVD

The command structure for Russia ran as follows:

------Wehrmacht ------------------------------------------- Reichsverkehrministerium
Chef des Transportwesens --------------------------------Reichsminister Dorpmueller
Etra Ost (became Wehrmachttransportleitung Ost)
----------------------Betriebsleitung Ost (opened in Warsaw September 41)
-----------------------------------------------------------------Generalverkehrdirektion Ost (replaced BLO in Feb 1942)
Rear area of Armies and Army Groups ---------------Reichskommissariats
Feldeisenbahndirektion 1-4 -------------------------------Haupteisenbahndirektion Nord Mitte Sud Sudost (later RVD Riga, Minsk, Kiev & Poltava (Dnepropetrovsk added Dec 1942))
BvTO Armee 2,4,9 etc
Trsp.Kdtr / Hbf.Kdtr

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Re: German Railways in the East

#562

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 27 Jun 2016, 00:24

Looking at some other German documents in Soviet archives there is this one:
OKW Akte 182. Vergleichstabelle über Eisenbahnkriegsbrücken, vorbereitet von der Pionier- und Eisenb...

This comprises list of bridge equipment and on image 53 the list shows the bridge across the Don at Rostov was a single track 120 m long Kohn St 52 bridge while the one at Belaya Kalitwa to the north over the Donez - the crucial bridge linking Stalingrad with the railway network was a double tracked RW bridge 270m long.

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Re: German Railways in the East

#563

Post by GregSingh » 27 Jun 2016, 11:02

Good to have all in one place.

I think they meant einstegige or zweistegige, whatever that means, not number of tracks.
We had some good photos of Belaya Kalitwa bridge (from Finnish officer's report) earlier in this topic and it was single track.
Anyway Roth-Waagner permits only one track, so you have to build two bridges side by side for double track line.

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Re: German Railways in the East

#564

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 27 Jun 2016, 12:15

Perhaps it means single "storey" and double "storey" which is about the number of bridge components used in its construction as per this diagram:
Bridge 6.jpg

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Re: German Railways in the East

#565

Post by GregSingh » 27 Jun 2016, 13:43

Perhaps it means single "storey" and double "storey"
Most likely so!
On image 116 we have: ein-, zwei-, drei- stöckig.

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Re: German Railways in the East

#566

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 06 Jul 2016, 14:39

I have started a topic over in the Soviet Union section to deal with the Soviet railways information see:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 9&t=220611
see you there
:milwink:

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Re: German Railways in the East

#567

Post by Solorev » 20 Jul 2016, 17:03

Hello! I am looking for information about the construction of the German troops in 1942 Feldbahn I - from Bf.Schelistowka (Shelistovka). This area of the river Don.Feldbahn from Shelistovka station - Alekseevka - Radchenskoe.
http://boguchar-pamyat.ru/upload/000/u2 ... 4b2920.jpg
http://boguchar-pamyat.ru/upload/000/u2 ... dbd39f.png
http://boguchar-pamyat.ru/upload/000/u2 ... bfc6b5.jpg

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Re: German Railways in the East

#568

Post by Solorev » 25 Jul 2016, 14:21

Image

Narrow gauge railway scheme
Source: CAMO RF "on the rear of the Report of the South-Western Front during the January-February offensive troops in 1943."
Источник: ЦАМО РФ "Отчет о работе тыла Юго-западного фронта в период январско-февральской наступательной операции войск в 1943г."

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Re: German Railways in the East

#569

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 25 Jul 2016, 19:12

What we have found out so far about Feldbahn I-III is given on this and following pages:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... n#p1936480

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Re: German Railways in the East

#570

Post by Der Alte Fritz » 25 Jul 2016, 19:29

Solorev wrote: Source: CAMO RF "on the rear of the Report of the South-Western Front during the January-February offensive troops in 1943."
Источник: ЦАМО РФ "Отчет о работе тыла Юго-западного фронта в период январско-февральской наступательной операции войск в 1943г."
Is this on the Memory of the Nation website https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/ website?

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