"Deutsche Reichsbahn was the largest single public enterprise in the world at the time of its nationalization in 1937 . . . [and by late in the war, through absorption of Austrian, Czech, and Polish RRs, etc.] . . . operated a staggering total of 50,000 locomotives and at least three million freight cars, more than double that of the United States."
The vast quantity of railroad equipment available to the nazi war machine made it possible for the German armed forces to conquer Europe. However, that very same railroad equipment also illustrates some of the reasons why, after having overrun so many countries with lightning speed, Germany lost the war.
European locomotives and cars were smaller and lighter than those in use in North America during WW II. That is still the case today. Lighter axle load limits, tighter clearances and weaker couplers all limit locomotive, car and train size to approximately that found in North America prior to 1910. Germany needed more locomotives and cars and (of huge importance during the war) more people to run them than US and Canadian railroads needed to haul the same amount of freight.
Germany had no locomotives with the weight or power of the heavy USRA designs built in America during WW I. Germany had nothing remotely close to a Super Power Berkshire or Northern, let alone an articulated or the 1000 FT diesels built by General Motors during the war. Their locomotives needed more man hours of maintenance per ton mile than North American locomotives. They had to run more short trains with more small locomotives and with more small cars and had to use more people to do it. Fortunately for the rest of the world the lack of efficiency of German Railways took manpower and material away from the German war effort.
During WW II the press in allied countries devoted a great deal of attention to the firepower and mobility of German armored and mechanized forces. However, most German infantry divisions were never mechanized. They relied on trains to move near the front. For tactical movements the men marched and artillery and supply wagons were drawn by horses. They did so because Germany lacked the industrial capacity to provide the majority of their army with trucks. In contrast, Canada alone (with less than 1/6th of the German population) outproduced Germany in military trucks during WW II and supplied vehicles to all the Commonwealth countries.
I am fortunate to have studied the Second World War at Seattle University under Professor Bob Harmon. Bob is a veteran of Patton's Third Army. He recently spend his 90th birthday in the same place he spent his 20th birthday, Wiemar, Germany. The Seattle Times ran a very nice story on Bob last week.
http://www.seattletimes.com/se...fter-wwii-surrender/
Ah....But If you were a P47 driver, this was a target rich environment !
When speaking of the drive across Europe made by the Third Army, Professor Harmon always gives great credit to the destruction wrought by the USAAF fighter bombers. As American troops advanced from one crossroads to the next they could count on seeing the work of P-38s and P-47s - destroyed German trucks or dead German horses.
