Railway sabotage during World War II: Difference between revisions

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In 1994 [[Richard J. Crampton]] estimated that an eighth of all German transports to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] were destroyed or substantially delayed due to Home Army operations.<ref name="Crampton 1994">{{cite book|author=R. J. Crampton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ro-AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA197|title=Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century|publisher=Routledge|year=1994|isbn=978-0-415-05346-4|pages=197–198}}</ref> Approximate number of railway sabotage operations carried out by Polish resistance and/or on the Polish territories in the years 1942-1945 has been estimated by {{ill|Krzysztof Komorowski|pl|Krzysztof Komorowski (historyk)}} in 2009 at around 2850 operations (including about 7% of failed attempts) noting that the successful attacks targeted 1825 large and 100 small train complements, and has resulted in numerous incidents of damage or destruction to tracks (380), bridges (150) and stations (210). He also noted that the acts of sabotage intensified with 1942 seeing about 100 attacks, 1943, about 600, and the last two years, over 2,000. Komorowski also noted that there were numerous acts of sabotage that were carried out by Polish railway workers in repair depots or at stations, but they are very hard to quantify.<ref name="Komorowski2009-44" /><ref name="Komorowski2009-45" />
In 1994 [[Richard J. Crampton]] estimated that an eighth of all German transports to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] were destroyed or substantially delayed due to Home Army operations.<ref name="Crampton 1994">{{cite book|author=R. J. Crampton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ro-AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA197|title=Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century|publisher=Routledge|year=1994|isbn=978-0-415-05346-4|pages=197–198}}</ref> Approximate number of railway sabotage operations carried out by Polish resistance and/or on the Polish territories in the years 1942-1945 has been estimated by {{ill|Krzysztof Komorowski|pl|Krzysztof Komorowski (historyk)}} in 2009 at around 2850 operations (including about 7% of failed attempts) noting that the successful attacks targeted 1825 large and 100 small train complements, and has resulted in numerous incidents of damage or destruction to tracks (380), bridges (150) and stations (210). He also noted that the acts of sabotage intensified with 1942 seeing about 100 attacks, 1943, about 600, and the last two years, over 2,000. Komorowski also noted that there were numerous acts of sabotage that were carried out by Polish railway workers in repair depots or at stations, but they are very hard to quantify.<ref name="Komorowski2009-44" /><ref name="Komorowski2009-45" />

==In Romania==
Between 1940 and 1944, the [[Romanian Communist Party]] organized isolated attacks on railroads. Their impact on the German war effort, which relied on petroleum from [[Ploiești]], was minimal.<ref name="Deletant">{{cite book|author=[[Dennis Deletant]]|url=https://books.google.ro/books?id=2avRDwAAQBAJ|title=Activități britanice clandestine în România în timpul celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial |publisher=Editura Humanitas|year=2019|isbn=978-973-50-6503-4|pages=123, 239}}</ref>


== In USSR ==
== In USSR ==

Revision as of 21:28, 26 May 2020

German soldiers surveying a derailed train in occupied Poland

Battle for the railways (Polish: Bitwa o szyny) or War of the Rails[a] refers to the sabotage of the German-controlled railway infrastructure by the partisans during World War II.[2][3][1][4][5][6]

Gordon L. Rottman noted that "railroad sabotage was one of the most frequent partisan activities in all theaters of the [World War II]".[7]

In addition to violent attacks by organized resistance, acts of rail-related sabotage also included actions by railway workers such as causing minor accidents and delays, misdirecting and misrouting trains, and similar.[8]

In Denmark

Railway sabotage has been described as very successful in Denmark.[9][10]

In France

In 1944, before D-Day landings, Britain and French resistance coordinated a series of railway sabotage actions known as Plan Vert.[7] Efforts of the French resistance in the area of railway sabotage have been the subject of the 1946 French documentary The Battle of the Rails.[11]

In Norway

Among the most notable acots of railway sabotage in Norway was the Thamshavn Line sabotage.[12]

In Poland

Occupied Poland became an important transit area connecting Germany to the Soviet Union territories, and rail transport was the main method of transportation of resources for the German war effort.[2] Following the end of organized Polish resistance in October 1939, Germans started to rebuild the damaged infrastructure, and then improve it beyond the pre-war level.[2][13] Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, close to 100% of the German supplies to the Eastern Front lines passed through the former Polish territories. [13]

The Polish resistance attitude towards railway sabotage was complicated. On one level, it was seen as a viable target of opportunity, disrupting the German war effort. At the same time, Soviet Union which also invaded Poland in 1939, was seen as another enemy of the Polish state, and therefore there were debates within the Polish resistance loyal to the Polish government-in-exile to what extent efforts aiding Soviet Union are in the best interest of Poland. As a result, the decision was made by the main part of the Polish resistance, affiliated with the government-in-exile and the Polish Underground State, to conduct only limited railway sabotage, while a plan for a wide-scale action aiming to totally disrupt it, codenamed "Akcja Bariera" was drawn up but shelved.[13] The smaller communist-affiliated resistance, however, rejected this and supported extensive attacks at the German supply lines.[13]

The first acts of railway sabotage on Polish territories occurred already during the German invasion in September 1939 by Polish units tasked with carrying out operations behind enemy lines (Polish Diversionary Fronces [pl]).[13] Such acts, however, were few, and the organized sabotage stopped for few months, as the Polish resistance would just begun organizing at that point.[13] Many early acts of sabotage in the first years of occupation were done by individuals with little connection or support to organized resistance, often by Polish railway workers working for the German railways (Reichsbahn and Ostbahn).[13] In addition to causing simple delays, very common acts of sabotage at that time included arson and damage to wagon traction or breaks.[13][14] First organized partisan attacks on the railways would occur in 1940, at first averaging about once a month; such acts would not become common the until summer of 1942.[13] While most operations of the Polish resistance took place in Poland, several notable acts of railway sabotage involved actions outside former Polish territories, with the Union of Retaliation and Wachlarz conducting bombings and sabotage in Germany (Berlin in 1940 and 1942) and Belarus (Minsk in 1942).[15][16] Activity of Polish resistance, including attacks on railway infrastructure, intensified from autumn of 1942; the numbers of attacks have quadrupled or more between 1942 and 1943 (for example Warsaw saw 25 acts of railway attacks in 1942 and 138 in 1943).[15] Particularly notable where four large-scale operations of 1942 and 1943. The first three (in October and November of 1942 and January of 1943) were organized by the Union of Retaliation and Kedyw groups of the Polish Home Army. The fourth was organized in September 1943 by the communist Gwardia Ludowa. Each of those four actions resulted in major disruption and delays to the German logistics.[15]

According to German reports, Polish resistance carried out approximately 600 attacks on railway infrastructure in the years 1942-1943.[16]

The resistance activity in Poland intensified further in 1944, as the Eastern Front approached and crossed the Polish borders. This period also marked the increase in activity of the communist-affiliated partisans, both Polish, and increasingly supported by infiltrating units directly under Soviet command.[16] Between January and July of 1944, combined efforts of Polish and Soviet partisans in the Lublin District, which was the scene of most of the sabotage efforts of that period, resulted in about 800 attacks against railway targets.[16] As parts of the Lublin region were occupied by the advancing Soviet forces and the front line stabilized for few months in the Autumn, further attacks on railway targets occurred in the western Radom District. Last acts of railway sabotage involving Polish resistance took place around 20 January 1945 in the Western Beskids.[16]

In 1993 Marek Ney-Krwawicz [pl] counted approximately 27,000 acts of railway-related sabotage (including smaller incidents) for the period of 1941-1944 (see table).[14]

Confirmed railway-related sabotage and covert operations of the Armed Resistance (ZWZ) and Home Army (AK)
from 1 January 1941 to 30 June 1944, listed by type[14][17]
Sabotage / covert-operation type Total numbers
Damaged locomotives 6,930
Damaged railway wagons 19,058
Delayed repairs to locomotives 803
Derailed transports 732
Transports set on fire 443
Blown-up railway bridges 38
Destroyed fuel-tanks 1,167

In 1994 Richard J. Crampton estimated that an eighth of all German transports to the Eastern Front were destroyed or substantially delayed due to Home Army operations.[18] Approximate number of railway sabotage operations carried out by Polish resistance and/or on the Polish territories in the years 1942-1945 has been estimated by Krzysztof Komorowski in 2009 at around 2850 operations (including about 7% of failed attempts) noting that the successful attacks targeted 1825 large and 100 small train complements, and has resulted in numerous incidents of damage or destruction to tracks (380), bridges (150) and stations (210). He also noted that the acts of sabotage intensified with 1942 seeing about 100 attacks, 1943, about 600, and the last two years, over 2,000. Komorowski also noted that there were numerous acts of sabotage that were carried out by Polish railway workers in repair depots or at stations, but they are very hard to quantify.[16][17]

In Romania

Between 1940 and 1944, the Romanian Communist Party organized isolated attacks on railroads. Their impact on the German war effort, which relied on petroleum from Ploiești, was minimal.[19]

In USSR

Soviet partisans carried out a large number of attacks on German railway infrastructure, particularly in 1943. Germans recorded over 400 attacks "from March" that year, with a peak number in July, whuch saw over 1,100 attacks. August 1943 in Belarus, and saw 21,300 rail attacks; further attacks occurred from September to November that year, According to German documents, in that period the Soviets destroyed 20,505 rails.[4] In 1944 Soviet partisans damaged or destroyed thousands of locomotives and wagons. Soviet reports are considered to be exaggerated, but Alexander A. Hill concluded that "damage done to German communicators was at times significant". As happened in Poland, the partisan activity and the corresponding damage to German rail infrastructure intensified as the war progressed and turned increasingly unfavorable for the Germans.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The terms battle or war for/of the rails/railways are terms used in this context by the Polish and Russian historiographies They have been used in the Polish historiography as early as in 1975 and at first was used to describe the operations of Polish and Soviet partisans in 1943.[1] Newer Polish works, however, use it more broadly in the context of all partisans operations in occupied Europe directed against the German-controlled railway infrastructure in the period of 1939-1945.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Kazimierz Sobczak (1975). Encyklopedia II wojny światowej. Wydawictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej. p. 75. Uderzenia pol. ruchu oporu na linie kolejowe... w wyniku tej formy działań została przedłużona o 300 km na zach. t.zw. bitwa o szyny, podjęta w 1943 przez oddziały partyzantów radz.
  2. ^ a b c d Komorowski, Krzysztof (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945: przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Bellona. p. 40. ISBN 978-83-11-10357-3.
  3. ^ Stanisław Kania (1986). Polska gwara konspiracyjno-partyzancka, 1939-1945. Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. p. 130. ISBN 978-83-01-06619-2.
  4. ^ a b Phillip W. Blood (October 2006). Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe. Potomac Books, Inc. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-59797-021-1.
  5. ^ Alexander Hill (10 December 2008). The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-45: A Documentary Reader. Routledge. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-135-76526-2.
  6. ^ a b Alexander Hill (2017). The Red Army and the Second World War. Cambridge University Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-107-02079-5.
  7. ^ a b Gordon L. Rottman (20 February 2013). World War II Allied Sabotage Devices and Booby Traps. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-4728-0162-3.
  8. ^ David T. Zabecki (1 May 2015). World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 1256. ISBN 978-1-135-81249-2.
  9. ^ Harold Flender (9 August 2019). Rescue in Denmark. Plunkett Lake Press. p. 143. GGKEY:DCT7LAKXC18.
  10. ^ Carsten Holbraad (6 February 2017). Danish Reactions to German Occupation: History and Historiography. UCL Press. pp. 157–160. ISBN 978-1-911307-50-1.
  11. ^ Ian Aitken (2013). The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. Routledge. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-415-59642-8.
  12. ^ Thamshavnbanens Venner (1983). Thamshavnbanen. Orkanger: Kaare Grytten. pp. 46–50.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Komorowski, Krzysztof (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945: przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Bellona. p. 42. ISBN 978-83-11-10357-3.
  14. ^ a b c Ney-Krwawicz, Marek = (1993). Armia Krajowa: siła zbrojna Polskiego Państwa Polskiego. Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne. p. 214. ISBN 978-83-02-05061-9.
  15. ^ a b c Komorowski, Krzysztof (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945: przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Bellona. p. 43. ISBN 978-83-11-10357-3.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Komorowski, Krzysztof (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945: przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Bellona. p. 44. ISBN 978-83-11-10357-3.
  17. ^ a b Komorowski, Krzysztof (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945: przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Bellona. p. 45. ISBN 978-83-11-10357-3.
  18. ^ R. J. Crampton (1994). Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. pp. 197–198. ISBN 978-0-415-05346-4.
  19. ^ Dennis Deletant (2019). Activități britanice clandestine în România în timpul celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial. Editura Humanitas. pp. 123, 239. ISBN 978-973-50-6503-4.
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