Planes vs Trains

Don't know why it posted twice.

Should be able to click edit and delete one

I'll get it right next time.

Trains run on a very strict time table. Any interruption of service from breakdowns to damage tracks causes one BIG headache.

An excellent thread. As several have noted, RRs are notoriously easy to repair, and nobody did it faster & better than the N Koreans and Chinese. As for WW II, Germany had dedicated engineer units for the purpose, and SOMEWHERE in my "archives" are some references.

Also as noted, bridges are the favorite choke points of targeters, as Steve Coonts and I described in last year's "Dragon's Jaw," the Vietnam saga of Thanh Hoa Bridge. But the N Viets (with considerable Chinese help) kept supplies flowing with emphasis on the NE railroad.

Two sidebars:

In the 70s a friend of the P-51/47 persuasion (9AF) said "I woke up the other day with a feeling I hadn't had in 30 years. I wanted to go out and bust a locomotive. Not one of those diesels that just die on the track but one of those 40-ton steam monsters that EXPLODE when you hit 'em with eight .50 calibers."

In the 80s I met a former SE-5 pilot, Canadian living here in Arizona. He mentioned bombing bridges in 1918 and I asked "How did you approach the bridge?"
He said (looking askance) "Diagonally along the length. OF COURSE." (Compensates both for range and deflection errors.)
I said that the vile-putrid LBJ and RSM sometimes required attack headings perpendicular to the span, which of course made a long target into a really narrow one.
He asked "WHY?"
I explained that the vile-putrid LBJ and RSM were concerned about chinese & russian persons at either end.
He just shook his head...

Never mind.

Barrett said:

In the 80s I met a former SE-5 pilot, Canadian living here in Arizona. He mentioned bombing bridges in 1918 and I asked "How did you approach the bridge?"
He said (looking askance) "Diagonally along the length. OF COURSE." (Compensates both for range and deflection errors.)

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Click to expand...

Hi

Of course during WW1 attacks were also being made on the rail system at night, stations, junctions, sidings as well as trains running on tracks were all targeted, some examples of No. 100 Sqn. RFC night attacks attached below (from 'The Annals of 100 Squadron' by Major C Gordon Burge):



Except in bad weather railway lines can be found after all they run from town to town and aircraft can fly over the track to find trains, stations etc. The same applied in WW2, particularly during the battle of Normandy, for example during the night of 27/28th July 1944 42 Mosquito aircraft of RAF 138 Wing patrolled over the railways radiating from TOURS, MONTARGIS and DIJON, they could then make attacks on any movement along the track. These would at the very least delay the movement of troops and equipment to the battlefront, it could not be considered 'safe' for trains to travel at night except during very bad weather for low flying aircraft. However, even in that case there may still be heavy bombers attacking marshalling yards etc. during night time.

Mike