Armored train: history, description, photo

The older generation of Russians remember well the words from the popular song: "We are peaceful people, but our armored train is on the siding." In it, the armor is not just a fighting unit, but a symbol of the military might of the state. Is it any wonder that even nowadays this word is not losing its popularity, and even one very famous printing house is named to it. Armored train is an era in history, and the memory of it is indelible. Where did these fortresses come from?

The first experience of using armored trains

The idea to use the train as a mobile artillery battery appeared in France in 1826, when the news spread throughout the world about the creation of the first railway in England. But no one seriously disregarded it, and the first railroad train entered the battle only in 1848, when the Austrian army had to defend its capital from the Hungarians.

However, this experience, although successful, had no continuation, and the idea was fully realized already beyond the ocean during the civil war in the USA (1861-1865). It was initiated by the American general of Russian descent Ivan Vasilievich Turchaninov, better known by his American name John Basil Turchin.

Having installed guns on the railway platforms and thoroughly shining (covering) them with sandbags, he unexpectedly attacked the positions of the enemy army of the northerners located near the railway tracks. The effect was so overwhelming that the use of artillery platforms became a regular practice, and later, when the armored train was adopted by many armies of the world, they became an integral part of it.

Further development of a new type of weapons

In Europe, the idea to sew railroad cars with armored plates, and inside to place artillery and machine-gun calculations came to the head of the French engineer Mougins. But the problem was that the narrow-gauge railway tracks of those years were unsuitable for the movement of heavy trains on them, and their application was possible only with a specially constructed track, which made it difficult to implement the project.

In the form of a railway armored train, the history of which at that time numbered almost half a century, was used in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The Boers widely used the tactics of guerrilla warfare, suddenly attacking trains with ammunition and foodstuffs and thereby violating the supply of enemy units. In these conditions, armored fortresses on wheels proved to be a very effective means of protecting the communications of the British army. Since then, the railroad train, whose weapons have been constantly improved, has become an indispensable participant in all wars and major military conflicts.

The Highest Decree

In the years that preceded the outbreak of the First World War, virtually all European armies had armored trains on their armament, and with the onset of hostilities their widespread intensive production began. In 1913, Emperor Nicholas I ordered the production of mobile armored vehicles to be issued on the basis of technical developments carried out by Russian engineers KB Krom and MV Kolobov. Two years later, at the height of the war, five such trains went into service for the railway units formed by that time, and soon two more were added to them.

Armored trains of the Civil War

It is common knowledge that the railroad train became one of the symbols of the Civil War. This is not an accident, since it was during this period that it acquired special significance in view of the acute struggle for control over the ways of supplying the front. Bundled in armor and bristling with guns, the formulations were in service with virtually all belligerents. But such an intensive application made their main shortcomings soon apparent.

Because of their bulky armored train were a convenient target for enemy artillery, and with the development of military equipment - and for aviation. In addition, their mobility depended entirely on the condition of the railway tracks, so that to completely stop the train it was sufficient to destroy them in front and behind the train.

In connection with this, each railway train, the use of which inevitably provoked the enemy to take such measures, was completed with a platform with spare rails, sleepers and necessary fasteners, and the team included railway workers. Preserved curious data: the repair teams almost manually managed to restore up to forty meters of track within an hour. This productivity of labor allowed the movement to resume with minimal delays.

Armored trains in service with the Red Army

In the Red Army, armored trains were found as widely used as their opponents. At the beginning of the hostilities, these were basically the formations left after the First World War, but since they lacked for the needs of the front, production of so-called "surrogate" models was started, which were ordinary passenger or freight trains with armored plates hung on them and manned Tools. The creation of such an armored train did not require additional drawings and took very little time. Only in 1919 it was possible to establish the production of real combat formations. By the end of the Civil War, in the arsenal of the Red Army, they already had one hundred and twenty units.

At the end of the war, many of them were again converted for peaceful purposes, which led to a significant reduction in the rolling stock of railway troops. However, in the thirties, work continued on their release, but with the changed requirements. Particularly, separate armored platforms and armored cars, as well as armoredrezins, were widely used. During the Great Patriotic War, they were often equipped with antiaircraft guns and machine guns and were intended to protect the echelons from enemy air attacks.

Components of armored trains

Of what was the classic train armored train? The photos presented in the article demonstrate rather powerful constructions. First of all, such a train was supplied with a locomotive, the function of which was carried out by the engine-covered locomotive, and later the locomotive. In addition, the presence of several armored cars or platforms with weapons placed on them was mandatory. It could have been artillery systems, reinforced with machine-gun calculations, and later missile installations. Very often the railroad train had in its composition landing platforms, which housed a living force for transferring it to the area of military operations.

Despite its name, armored trains were not always protected solely by armor. Sometimes it was used to arm the cars, that is, to ensure their protection with tightly packed bags of sand and sheet iron. Similarly, protective breastwork was made for guns and assault platforms. During the Second World War, German armored trains also included platforms with tanks, whose task was to support the landing.

Features of armored trains in the forties

At the same time, a specially developed type of armored trains specially designed to protect important strategic facilities (bridges, factories, weapons stores, etc.), located far from the front line, but within the reach of enemy aircraft, appeared. Their feature was the design, optimized to repel air attacks. They consisted of an armored locomotive and armored platforms with various antiaircraft weapons. Armored cars in them, as a rule, were absent.

In the early forties, the Soviet Army had a battalion of armored trains and a battalion, armed with armored trolleys. With the outbreak of the war, their number increased significantly, and it included railroad anti-aircraft batteries, also placed on trains. Their task, as in previous years, was mainly to protect communications and ensure the smooth flow of trains. It is known that in those years more than two hundred armored trains operated on the railways.

Railway troops in the post-war period

In the postwar years the value of armored trains was reduced due to the rapid development of armored vehicles. Until 1953, they were used mainly in Ukraine, during the military operations against the UPA, which often carried out attacks on various railway facilities. However, in 1958 the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree to stop further development of this kind of troops, and by the end of the fifties the armored trains were completely withdrawn from service.

Only in the seventies, in connection with the aggravation of relations with China, it was considered expedient to supply the Transbaikal and Far Eastern military districts with five armored trains continuously cruising along the state border. They were subsequently used to resolve the conflicts in Baku (1990) and Nagorno-Karabakh (1987-1988), after which they were sent to the permanent residence base.

Missile base on rails

Modern railroad train little reminds its predecessors, who earned fame in the years of past wars. These days it is a compound equipped with combat missile systems capable of hitting any planned targets with nuclear warheads and in the shortest possible time to change the location of its deployment.

Despite the fact that this is a fundamentally new technical design, it nevertheless retains the usual name - armored train. The train, which is essentially a missile base, thanks to its mobility, represents a significant difficulty for its detection even with the help of satellites.