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AIUI, tracks are difficult to destroy or significantly damage. So you push any critically damaged locomotive and rolling stock off the tracks, repair the rails and get moving.
The trick is to hit bridges, like this one somewhere in Nazi-held Europe. Bonus points if the locomotive crashes into the crevasse. Such accurate timing suggest partisans rather than Thunderbolts.
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I've always been amazed at how well Germany managed to keep a functioning railroad system despite overwhelming Allied air superiority. Youtube is full of videos of Allied fighters disabling locomotives, often with violent steam explosions. I say this from the point of view of an American who had to sit on a train for hours because the train hit a car. Does anyone have any information about how the Germans managed to fix train tracks and especially stuck or derailed trains due to locomotive busting? What kind of equipment did it take to clear a train whose locomotive has been busted? How long did it take to repair train tracks broken by bombs or sabotage? What kind of resources were dedicated to railroad repair? Statistics?
The trick is to hit bridges, like this one somewhere in Nazi-held Europe. Bonus points if the locomotive crashes into the crevasse. Such accurate timing suggest partisans rather than Thunderbolts.
View attachment 578880
Obviously trains could be moved at night and were thus immune from direct attack.
Because a blacked-out train on the move is nearly impossible to spot from the air unless someone was careless and left on a light or it was a moonlit evening during winter."Obviously trains could be moved at night and were thus immune from direct attack."
Why do you think this was so? After D-Day night attacks by intruder Mosquitos on the rail system were common, for example between June-July 1944 the book '2 Group RAF' by Bowyer, on p.379 mentions that:...
Because a blacked-out train on the move is nearly impossible to spot from the air unless someone was careless and left on a light or it was a moonlit evening during winter.
One accomplishment that Bomber Harris should get a lot of credit for but gets overlooked is that he placed a strong emphasis on mining. In fact the USAAF took his lessons to heart and brought Japanese sea traffic to a virtual halt via a massive mining program using B-29s.Scroll down to The Attack on the Railways and Waterways. United States Strategic Bombing Survey: Summary Report (European War)"