Polish State Railways as a Mode of Transport for Troops of the Warsaw Pact

Zbigniew Tucholski; Barbara Bienias

Polish State Railways as a Mode of Transport for Troops of the Warsaw Pact

Technology in Service of a Doctrine

by Zbigniew Tucholski (Author), Barbara Bienias (Revision)
©2020, Monographs, 448 Pages
History & Political Science

Open Access

Series: Studies in History, Memory and Politics, Volume 35

The subject of the book is the history of the planned use of Polish railway infrastructure during the Cold War as part of the strategic plans of the Warsaw Pact. Analysing both technical and operational issues related to railway military transportation in a historical perspective, the author presents the history of the military transportation service of the Polish Army and provides a detailed characteristics of the organizational structure, equipment and tasks of the military transportation units and railway troops. The book also deals with rail transports of the Soviet Army on the Polish State Railways. The work is not only the result of archival queries and interviews with retired officers of the military transportation service but also field research of railway infrastructure.

Cover
Title
Copyright
About the author
About the book
This eBook can be cited
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
1. DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT OF MILITARY RAILWAY USE
2. RED ARMY MILITARY TRANSPORT IN THE FINAL STAGES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR – TRANSPORT-BASED SECURITY OF THE RED ARMY OPERATIONS IN BELARUS AND THE VISTULA-AND-ODRA REGION
3. RECONSTRUCTING, ORGANISING, AND DEVELOPING THE HEADQUARTERS OF MILITARY TRANSPORT IN THE YEARS 1944–1962
- 3.1 Department of Military transport, Military District Command I Warsaw
- 3.2 Reconstruction of Railway Units
  - 3.2.1 The 5th Railway Troops Battalion in Darłowo
  - 3.2.2 3rd Railway Troops Battalion in Pikulice near Przemyśl
  - 3.2.3 7th Railway Troops Battalion in Września
4. PREPARING THE Polish State Railways NETWORK FOR A MILITARY CONFLICT AS PART OF WARSAW PACT STRATEGIC PLANS
- 4.1 Securing Transport for the Frontline Offensive Campaign
- 4.2 Evacuation of the Wounded
  - 4.2.1 Temporary Transhipment Areas
  - 4.2.2 Organisational Structure of Military Transport on the Frontline
  - 4.2.3 Organising Technical Protection for the Frontline Railway Network
- 4.2. Destruction of Railway Lines, Stations, Facilities and Rolling Stock
  - 4.3.1 Bridge Destruction
  - 4.3.2 Bridge Mining
- 4.4 Temporary Reconstruction (Construction) of Railway Lines
  - 4.4.1 Reconstruction of Water Supply Facilities
  - 4.4.2 Reconstruction of Buildings Indispensable to Railway Traffic
  - 4.4.3 Reconstruction of Railway Signalling Devices
  - 4.4.4 Temporary Bridge Reconstruction
- 4.5 Folding Railway Bridges
- 4.6 Railway Bridge Crossings Built by the Road and Railway Units of the Polish Armed Forces as part of the Warsaw Pact Military Exercises and Performing Tasks to Support the National Economy
5. MILITARY TRANSPORTS
- 5.1 Military Transports – Typology
  - 5.1.1 Military Rail Transport
  - 5.1.2 Anti-Aircraft Defence of Military Transports
  - 5.1.3 Anti-Tank Defence of Military Transports
  - 5.1.4 Safeguarding the Confidentiality of Transports
  - 5.1.5 Rolling Stock used for Military transport Purposes
  - 5.1.6 Loading Areas, Stations, and Sites; Loading Devices
- 5.2 Transporting Soviet Army Troops in Transit by the Polish State Railways
- 5.3 Transports for Soviet Army Troops Stationed in Poland
6. MILITARY RAILWAY SIDINGS AND MILITARY RAILWAYS
- 6.1 Military narrow-gauge railways
  - 6.1.1. Military siding no. 289 Hrubieszów (Hrubieszów narrow-gauge railway)
  - 6.1.2. Narrow-gauge military railway at the Field Artillery Research Centre in Zielonka (military siding No. 182) and standard-gauge siding No. 127727
  - 6.1.3. Rolling stock
  - 6.1.4. Narrow-gauge 600mm railway on the Hel peninsula (military siding No. 582)
  - 6.1.5. Narrow-gauge 600 mm military railway Gdynia-Port Wojenny Oksywie, (military siding No. 581) JW 3643 Gdynia Port-Oksywie, siding No. 407
  - 6.1.6 Military railway Świnoujście, military siding No. 881 (600 mm)
  - 6.1.7 Military siding No. 181, JW 1540 Nowe Miasto and sidings for fuel re-pumping station in Piaseczno No. 101/183 (standard- and narrow-gauge)
  - 6.1.8 Military siding in Zegrze Pomorskie and fuel re-pumping point siding in Koszalin
  - 6.1.9 Military siding JW 4420 No. 180 (Mława narrow-gauge railway)
- 6.2. Military rolling stock
  - 6.2.1 Locomotives
  - 6.2.2 Wagon and special rolling stock
  - 6.2.3 Management of military rolling stock
  - 6.2.4 Road trailers for wagon transport
  - 6.2.5 Narrow-gauge military tank wagons of the Ministry of National Defence
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Series index

Pages:

448

Year:

2020

ISBN (HARDBACK):

9783631818299 (Active)

ISBN (EPUB):

9783631829660 (Active)

ISBN (PDF):

9783631829653 (Active)

DOI:

10.3726/b17291

Open Access:

CC BY

Language:

English

Keywords:

developing the concept of military railway use, military transport, Polish state railways network, Warsaw Pact, Red Army military transport, military narrow-gauge railways

Published:

Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2020. 448 pp., 65 fig. b/w, 58 tables.

Zbigniew Tucholski Ph. D. is a professor at the Institute of History of Science of the Polish Academy of Science, a technical historian, specialised in the history of railways, transportation, industry and military technology, and the preservation of transport infrastructure and architecture heritage.

Polish State Railways as a Mode of Transport for Troops of the Warsaw Pact

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