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In very many cases history is downright curious. For example, historian Dimitri Volkoganov related that in 1921 Josef Stalin was highly indignant at then chairman of the Revolutionary War Council Trotsky, the supreme military commander. During his frequent trips to visit the fighting troops Trotsky not only surrounded himself with a large party of young, leather-clad Red Army soldiers, but also frequently had two armored trains accompany him. Stalin, who in any case envied Trotsky because of his talent as a speaker, his energy and his popularity, viewed this as a challenge. At that time he had no way of knowing that he - who could not stand flying -would make use of eight armored trains of the NKVD while travelling by rail to the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 (1923 km: USSR 1095 km, Poland 594 km, Germany 234 km). For completeness sake, it should be added that there were six to fifteen sentries per kilometer of track. All told, the NKVD employed eleven regiments with 17,000 men as well as 1,515 men of its strategic personnel to guard the route. As to whether Stalin had a special personal relationship with these steel colossi on rails or whether the idea of guarding the route from Moscow to Potsdam originated from his entourage, the question remains open. As a matter of fact, one can say that this episode also marked the end of this class of weapon. The Soviets released little information concerning the command structures, organization, allocation of personnel and equipment, losses, total strength, the fate of the trains themselves or other details. After the war there were few clues as to whether plans existed in the USSR to continue using armored trains or other armored rail vehicles.

Название: Armored Trains of the Soviet Union 1917-1945
Издательство: Shiffer Publishing
Автор: WiLFRIED KOPENHAGEN
Серия: Military History
Год издания: 1996
ISBN: 0-88740-917-2
Страниц: 52 pages
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf
Размер: 15,9 Mb