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Armoured train is a train protected with armour. Usually they are equipped with artillery and machine gun railroad cars.
Design and equipment
Most common types of railroad cars include:
- artillery - fielding mixture of guns and machine guns
- infantry - fielding machine guns, designed to carry infantry units
- machine gun - dedicated to machine guns
- anti-air - equiped with anti-air guns
- command - similar to infantry wagons, but desinged to be a train command center
- anti-tank - equipped with anti-tank guns, usually in a tank turret
- platform - unarmoured, with purposes ranging from transport (of ammunition or vehicles), through track repair to derailing protection
Diffrent types of armor were used for tank protection. In addition to various metal plates, cement and sand bags were used in some cases.
Armoured trains were sometimes escorted by a kind of rail-tank called a draisine.
History
Armoured trains saw use during in the 19th century in the American Civil War (18611865), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the Boer Wars (1880-81 and 1899-1902), and the First (1914-1918) and Second World Wars (1939-1945). The most intensive use of armoured trains was during the Russian Civil War (1918-1920). There are also reports of a limited use of armoured trains in the Second Chechen War (1999-).
After the First World War the usage of armored trains declined. Poland used them extensively and successfully during the Polish September Campaign, which in turn prompted Nazi Germany to reintroduce them into its own armies.
Tactics
The advantage of armoured trains is that they can be quickly moved across great distances (which was especially importand in the extremely mobile Russian Civil War. They can also carry a large quantity of supplies (including ammunition and materials for track repairs).
The obvious disadvantage is that they are tied to rail tracks, and destroying tracks immobilizes them. They are also easy to spot and destroy from the air. Because of this, armoured trains have virtually disappeared since World War II.
List of armored trains
Armoured trains of different countries:
Poland: <---to be moved from Polish wiki--->
Russia: Zaamurets, Khunkhuz, General Annenkov.
External links:
Quotes
- "Poland had only few armoured trains, but their officers and soldiers were fighting well. Again and again they were emerging from a cover in thick forests, disturbing German lines"
- from the history of Wehrmacht: "Wie das Gesetz es befehl"
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