Armored Train

This is coolbert:

Here is another military concept, an anachronistic and archaic "weapons system", never to be seen again?

The armoured train.

"An armoured train is a train protected with armour. Usually they are equipped with railroad cars armed with artillery and machine guns. They were mostly used during the late 19th and early 20th century, when they offered an innovative way to quickly move large amounts of firepower into position."

Allowed primarily for heavy artillery to be moved from one locale to another in a rapid fashion. At least where ever there was a continuous and unbroken stretch of railroad track. Armored to the extent of creating a "weapons system" that is relatively impervious to counter-battery fire or strafing and bombing from ground attack aircraft.

Also, when accompanied by infantry or cavalry, constituted a combined arms unit with some pretty lethal firepower. Having combined arms with the instantaneous mobility of the railroad gave the combat commander extraordinary flexibility!

Armored with what appears to armor plate like you would find on a battleship? A totally armored train, from head to toe. So much so that it is difficult to even recognize, at a single glance, the steam locomotive.

Appear in a variety of flavors and functions. Including armored trains dedicated to:

* Artillery
* Infantry
* Machine gun
* Anti-air [flak train]
* Command
* Anti-tank
* Tank gun turret [the turret with gun from a tank mounted on an armored railway car]
* Platform [used for a variety of purposes]
* Railroad ploughs [to rip up and destroy track behind them!!]
* Troop sleepers [moving troop formations around, again, relatively impervious to attack]
* Missile transport

Armoured trains have seen use during:

* "the American Civil War (1861-1865)"
* "the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)"
* "the First and Second Boer Wars (1880-81 and 1899-1902)"
* "the First (1914-1918) and Second World Wars (1939-1945)"
* "the First Indochina War (1946-1954)"
* "the Russian Civil War (1918-1920)"

Particular and distinctive uses of the armored train have included:

* "The Czechoslovak Legion used heavily-armed and armoured trains to control large lengths of the Trans-Siberian Railway (and of Russia itself) during the Russian Civil War"

* "used in China in the twenties [1920's], most notably by the warlord Zhang Zongchang"

* "Poland used armoured trains extensively and successfully during the Invasion of Poland [1939]."

* "Germany . . . used armoured trains to a small degree during World War Two."

* "During the Slovak National Uprising the Slovak resistance used armoured trains."

* "Five [5] armoured trains were built during the Estonian War of Independence on the Estonian side."

* "Fulgencio Batista’s army [Cuba] operated an armoured train during the Cuban revolution"

* "In the First Indochina War, the French Union used the armoured and armed train La Rafale as both a cargo-carrier and a mobile surveillance unit."

* "the USSR developed armoured trains in the early 1970s to protect the Trans-Siberian Railway." [see prior blog entry on Soviet Fortification Troops]

["These trains were used by the Soviet Army to intimidate nationalist paramilitary units in 1990 during early stages of the Nagorno-Karabakh War."]

* "An improvised armoured train named 'Krajina ekspres '(Krajina express) was used during the war in Croatia (part of the Yugoslav wars) of the early 1990s by the army of Republika Srpska Krajina"

The greatest and most extensive use of armored trains has been by the Russians/Soviets. During the Russian Civil War, both sides, the Red [Bolsheviks] and the Whites [anti-communists], employed armored trains. This is not surprising. The Russian Civil War was fought over a vast area, from Poland to the Pacific Ocean, with everywhere in between being a potential battlefield. Combat units had to be prepared to move vast distances in short order and arrive intact and ready for battle! This was possible when armored trains were used!



[the combatants in the Russian Civil War could not have used conventional motor transport even if available. The road system of Russia at the time [perhaps now too] was too sparse and poorly developed to allow for large troop movements via internal combustion vehicles!]

During the Second World War [WW2], the Soviets continued to employ armored trains, on a scale unimagined by other belligerents. The effectiveness of these highly mobile, armored artillery "platforms" was less than what would be desired, but under the right circumstances, an armored train could still give a good account of itself!

See here a web site devoted to Soviet armored trains of the World War Two era.

More at these web sites for Russian/Soviet armored trains from the Russian Civil War era. Here for White Army armored trains.

Armored trains are a thing of the past? Anachronistic and archaic, never to be seen again? I can see that there are advantages to having armored trains. The British Admiral Parry has predicted that if the world order begins to break down in the year 2012, militaries may resort to using cavalry forces, as strange as that may sound! Armored trains too may also enjoy a comeback?

coolbert.