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ARMORED TRAINS
STEVEN J ZALOGA
ILLUSTRATED BY TONY BRYAN
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
NEW VANGUARD • 140
ARMORED TRAINS
STEVEN J ZALOGA
ILLUSTRATED BY TONY BRYAN
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
4
ORIGINS
5
WORLD WAR I
10
THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR
13
WAR OF THE EMPIRES
20
ARMORED DRAGONS
21
WORLD WAR II
24
Blitzkrieg armored trains
Russian developments, 1922–41
Soviet armored trains, 1941–45
Wehrmacht armored trains, 1941–45
Other armored trains in World War II
THE DECLINE OF ARMORED TRAINS
44
FURTHER READING
45
INDEX
48
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
ARMORED TRAINS
INTRODUCTION
The revolutionary impact of railroads on the world’s armies in the 19th
century encouraged the development of various types of armed train. By the
time of World War I (1914–18), armored trains were one of the growing
variety of armored vehicles that took their place alongside armored cars and
the first primitive tanks. Russian and Austro-Hungarian armored rail-cruisers,
for example, were the largest, most sophisticated, and most powerful armored
vehicles of their day. Like the Zeppelin bomber, however, armored trains had
a brief moment of military glory and then rapidly faded from view. Their
important contribution to the evolution of mechanized warfare is not widely
known in the West, as they were most successful elsewhere in the world. The
armored train was a key weapon in the Russian Civil War in 1917–22, and its
use there spilled over into the civil war in China in the 1920s. Armored trains
were used again in World War II, but by then their heyday had passed, as they
were replaced by the more versatile tank. Armored trains have made sporadic
appearances in many scattered wars in the latter half of the 20th century, but
more as technical curiosities than as vital means of warfare.
Armored trains reached their
technical pinnacle in the 1920s
and 1930s in Eastern Europe,
based on the lessons of the
1917–20 wars for the Russian
Empire. The Cegielski Plant in
Poznan built these elegant
artillery wagons for the Polish
Army starting in 1921, armed
with a turreted 100mm Skoda
Mod. 14/19 howitzer and a
rechambered Putilov 75mm
Mod. 02/26 field gun, as well
as nine 7.62mm Maxim
machine guns.
4
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
The American Civil War saw the
first extensive use of armored
trains. This lithograph shows
an armored train built by the
Philadelphia, Wilmington &
Baltimore Railroad to patrol
along the line between
Havre de Grace and Baltimore,
Maryland, after a number of
bridges along the line were
burned in 1861 by Confederate
sympathizers. The cannon
could be pivoted to fire
forward or to either side.
(Patton Museum)
ORIGINS
From 1825 to 1900, the railroad network in Europe grew from nearly
nothing to 186,500 miles of track. Travel to any of Europe’s great cities took
a day instead of weeks. Railroads also helped to solve two of the most vexing
issues in the era of mass national armies – transport and supply. Railroads
could move armies across vast distances with considerably more speed than
the traditional army on foot. Just as important, railroads could keep armies
supplied in the field at enormous distances away from the homeland.
Early military use of the railroad spawned the first schemes to build
armored trains. During the revolutionary disturbances of 1848, some
improvised armored trains were built by Austro-Hungarian troops, and
Britain contemplated the creation of an armored train force during a war
scare in 1859. The full potential of military railroads first became evident in
the American Civil War in 1861–65. During the fighting around Chattanooga
in 1863, Gen. Hooker was able to move his entire command of 22,000 troops
some 1,168 miles from Washington DC to Bridgeport, Tennessee, in only
seven days, a journey that would ordinarily have taken more than a month
on foot and left the troops exhausted and unready for battle.
The American Civil War also saw significant use of armored trains in
combat. The first American armored train was built to patrol the railways
north of Baltimore against Confederate saboteurs, the earliest example
of armored trains performing their classic role of antipartisan warfare. In
June 1862, the Confederate commander Gen. Robert E. Lee instructed the
commander of his artillery to construct a railway gun wagon. A Confederate
Navy officer placed a 32pdr on a four-axle railcar protected by a wall of
inclined steel rails and this armored battery was used in combat during the
Seven Days’ Battle near Savage Station (June 25–July 1, 1862). The Union
Army built a larger version in 1864 using a Parrot gun, and during the siege
of Vicksburg in 1864 a 13-in. mortar was mounted on a railcar. These
developments were noticed in Europe and during the Franco-Prussian War of
1870–71 the Compagnie d’Orléans built an armored train with two armored
wagons for 140mm guns, and used this vehicle during the siege of Paris.
Before proceeding, it is worth making some distinctions between the three
main types of railroad weapon. The focus of this book is on armored trains,
which are characterized by armored protection of their weapons and crew.
Artillery troops eventually realized that trains could serve as platforms for
5
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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