German Railway Map from 1910

[Olham 164]

This map shows, how well spun the railway web was already back in 1910.

For our historians.

[Barkhorn1x 14]

Actually not surprising - the 1880's to the 1920's was the heyday of the railways - before cars became ubiquitous.

[Hasse Wind 46]

And Germans had been building railways since the 1830s, so it didn't happen overnight. Railways were the lifelines of WW1 armies. Cars were few and unreliable, so almost everything was transported by train.

 

Nice find, Olham. Old maps are interesting, and often true masterpieces made entirely by hand, without any help from computers etc.

[Derk 265]

And the railways in Germany as well as in some occupied countries,were very much designed and build for military purposes with many so called "Strategische Bahnen" (strategic railways), built to a high standard with huge marshalling yards, moderate grades and lots of viaducts and tunnels. Most of it has been broken up but some of it is still used today.....

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

Edited May 4, 2010 by Derk

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Don't forget the part played by Horses and Mules!...Railways are only good for delivering from 1 town to another...they were vulnerable too....Horses did all the Major hauling, and were dearly loved and respected by the Men who worked them!

 

We owe a debt of gratitude to them imho (they even had Gasmasks for them)...The Top Brass often considered them more important than the Soldiers!!!

[Hasse Wind 46]

Good point, Widowmaker. And like men, the horses and mules had to suffer terribly in that brutal war. Perhaps even more so, because they had no idea what was going on. (But that must have been true with many men also - it can't have been all that clear all the time just what the hell the generals and politicians who started the whole mess were thinking and expecting from their subordinates!)

 

Horses were extremely important for the majority of armies even in WW2. Only the British and American armies were completely motorized, the others kept using horses in addition to trucks throughout the war. Even the Germans and Soviets, who we always see in propaganda films charging forward with almost nothing but tanks and APCs. In reality, most of their troops marched on foot just like their ancestors in countless earlier wars.