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Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
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Mar 9 • 17 tweets • 9 min read
History - Armoured Trains and the military use of railways.
A thread for all my kind friends and followers who requested more content. Mostly German with a few pictures from elsewhere.
Images: PWB
Mapping why the Germans had to employ armoured trains on the eastern front. 2 maps: the main railway network; and, a map show the intensity of partisan activity in the area area of Army Group Centre in 1943.
Maps: @USArmyCMH
The war of the rails was probably the decisive aspect of the Soviet insurgency. While decoy raids trashed German regiments, there were never enough to carry a strike into the rear areas.
After 1945, the former German soldiers in the US Foreign Military Studies project frightened the Americans into believing the Soviet partisans were the greatest threat of all time. The Americans spent millions in research - if only old man Kovpak had known.
A closer look at the armoured train in the Polish National Railway Museum in Warsaw.
Images: PWB
The museum also has some impressive standard gauge motive power. Change of ownership common to railways.
Images: PWB
Stencils confirming change of ownership not always so visible. The gauge nodal moment!
Image: Andreas Knipping
The little engines: the work horses of the the military-railway complex. Example of a little train turned into an armoured train.
Images: PWB/@BundesarchivD
Interlude - preserved military/historical locomotives still at work.
Images: PWB
A fascinating study of the actuality of railways at war: July 1943 - Ukrainian railway yards and troop trains:
Images: Walter Hollnagel
A Nazi ceremony to open a bridge constructed by the railway engineer troops:
Images: Walter Hollnagel
Sometimes allied air raids looked very destructive, but expert railway engineers can restore traffic flow within 3 days.
Images: Walter Hollnagel
Back to Armoured Trains - the construction of tank cars had a familiar silhouette.
Image: @BundesarchivD
A preserved command car is on display in Bratislava.
Image: Lukáč Peter
Armoured train providing security and protection as construction troops repair damage caused by Red Army partisans.
Image: @BundesarchivD Bundesarchiv
Fascinating analysis by Wolfgang Sawodny illustrating how the armoured trains their configuration. Highly recommended book - German version is my favourite.
Images: Sawodny
A couple more recommended reading:

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More from @HistorianBlood

Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
Mar 10
The Russian Way of War - Putin’s #Anaconda plan unrolls.

A summary of observations based upon intel received.

Initial lodgements have been exploited and are beginning to join/meet closing gaps in and flanks while filtering the rear areas
The most obvious consistency with Putin’s previous wars is the application of total destruction against civilians. This has been applied with brutal savagery as in previous conflicts.

We are watching mechanised genocide.
Grave concern for the use of chemical warfare. This could be used against Ukrainian forces as in the Moscow state theatre siege. But also defoliants or common weed-killers used against crops. The railways enables the swift and secure movement of chemicals.
Read 10 tweets
Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
Mar 10
Another tweet is dreadful analogy. This is worse than the absurd analogies that followed 9-11. This latest descent into absurdity is to refer to George Washington and a future the Ukrainian insurgency. Image
A better alternatives: Mosby as a similar style of raider guerrilla as Sidor Kovpak, the famous Ukrainian partisan leader. ImageImage
Perhaps a better reference point, for an American view analogy, might have been this book. Closer to the kind of conflict Americans pursued for a large part of their history. The relevance here being the brutal conflict that is escalating in the Ukraine. Image
Read 8 tweets
Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
Mar 10
Observations/thoughts about the Russian military train and #Anacondaplan

A thread about railways as a game changer in the logistics narrative. According to John, the train was seen in this vicinity - note tracks intact:
We had a look at the history of military railways in a previous thread. The use of railways will be similar, but not the same in this war #Ukraine
The issue.
Russian rail supply and it’s been in operation long before the war started. Integrating these movements to the Ukraine rail network is quite straightforward.
Images: ibtimes, 112.international, thedrive.com ImageImageImage
Read 14 tweets
Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
Mar 9
#armchairgeneral - preliminary thoughts about future European security.

The old scenario: in the middle of a war, planning for the next one. However, in the face of abject failure, Europe should reconsider an integrated and independent security system.
Europeans watch daily as horror unfolds, feeling utterly defenceless as European people are thrown under the hammer of a dictator.

This, however, is not a demand for the tired old European army concept within the NATO agenda. We need to accept NATO has failed.
Europe requires a functioning security structure to better serve the Europeans, whether in or out of the EU. A security policy that serves European interests and defends the European way of life. A structured policy, force and power capability - owned by Europeans not America.
Read 8 tweets
Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
Mar 8
Warning some sensitive content.

2022 - is the 80th anniversary year of Hitler’s Bandenbekämpfung Directive. This thread is the first in a series of threads uploaded through this year.
Bandenbekämpfung was the Nazi concept of a war against insurgency. There was much discussion over the definition of the partisan as an illegal combatant. Copy of the first discussion document, but conferences and planning began in March 1942.

Image: PWB Image
The reason for its implementation had been the increasing partisan problem in Russia, Yugoslavia and Slovenia. Throughout the latter half of 1941 the SS-Police and the army attempted to address the problem to be more effective in security warfare.
Image: @BundesarchivD Image
Read 15 tweets
Dr Philip W Blood🇺🇦 Profile picture
Mar 7
#armchairgeneral - logistics, railways and Russian failure.

The problem with the logistics argument is the absence of facts. The heavy ordinance landing on Ukrainian cities proves: either forward depots or stacked loads. Greater issue can the Ukrainians remain supplied?
In regards to the railways argument, there are parallels to WW2. Without constant interdiction, the railways keep rolling. With declining air space and layers of Russian AA defences, the chance of interdiction is reducing daily.
Russia’s war machine - err - maybe if Russia switches off the fuel supply the western world’s economies will wobble very badly. Impoverishment of nations through energy prices and inflation will seriously undermine the western capability to resist/confront Putin.
Read 11 tweets

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