Re: Strategic Reserve.

[David Bromage <dbromage@omni.com.au>]

Janos Ero wrote:
> 
> David Bromage wrote:
> >
> > Janos Ero wrote:
> 
> > > I am not sure this is true. (Well, I have no closer info about the Soviet
> > > strategic planning). But they forced all East European allied countries
> > > to buy from their 2000HP diesels (first as Class M62 in Hungary). These
> > > were all normal gauge locos but they were also built in broad gauge
> > > version with a regauging background.
> >
> > That's all true, but if it ever came to war the lesson from WW2 is that
> > transhipping takes time. The "railroad divisions" were supposed to be
> > able to regauge track about as fast as the combat forces could capture territory.
> >
> > "Weapons and tactics of the Soviet Army" by David Isby (Jane's, New
> > Work, 1981) has a brief description of railroad divisions.
> 
> They might be true, but I don't believe this plans.
> 
> While the Red Army North Group had the task to occupie German territory,
> where there are tunnnels in limited numbers, the South Group had the
> task to reach Italian territory. It was taken into account to make
> a corridore through the neutral Yugoslavia and Austria. But all
> possible routes include many many tunnels either in the Karst mountain
> (Yugoslavia) or in the Alps (Austria).

The book didn't cover that area of operations. The railroad divisions
described concentrated on what the Soviet army would do in a war in
Germany or against China.

> The other argument: in all East European countries from the '60s
> the sleepers (ties) were made of concrete on the mainlines. While
> the German Todt Organization in the WW2 was properly trained and
> tooled to drill new holes into the wooden sleepers and cut off
> the longer sleeper ends of the Soviet tracks, this is not as easy
> with concrete sleepers. They would have needed a HUGE reserve from
> sleepers to replace them as the front forwards. It seems to me
> to keep the normal gauge tracks as a more obvious solution.

They may well have had huge stockpiles of wooden sleepers to do just
this. If so, they've probably been burnt by now.

Cheers
David