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Unlike road transportation, the establishment of a Heeresfeldbahn required the construction of expensive and time-consuming railway infrastructure (albeit of simpler design than conventional railways). They were built by specialist troops trained by the military, known as Eisenbahnpioniere. As a war progressed prisoners of war were also employed.
In the American Civil War, unlimited authority over all railway lines in the North was given to General McClellan.To begin with, McClellan formed a construction corps from ordinary soldiers, but he soon recognised that the lack of training of these troops for technical work meant that a specially organised corps was needed within the Union Army for technically trained civil engineers and workers.
The Army sent its Chief of Staff, the two Deputy Chiefs, the heads of the First (Operations) and Third (Transportation and Communications) bureaus, the heads of the 2nd (Operations) and 10th (Shipping and Railways) sections, the Vice-Minister of the Army, the Chief of the Bureau of Military Affairs, and the head of the Military Affairs Section.
The Armored Train Regiment (Estonian: Soomusrongirügement) was an armored regiment of the Estonian Defense Forces from 1934–1940. In 1939, the strength of the regiment was 544 men. [ 1 ] The symbol of the regiment was a skull with wings on train wheels, symbolizing how armored trains fought in the Estonian Independence War .
Besides the DRG, the German Armed Forces had their own locomotive classes. A field railway locomotive belonging to the Army were known as a Heeresfeldbahnlokomotive or HF. Standard gauge engines for the Wehrmacht, mostly diesel switchers, were designated "Wehrmacht Standard Gauge Locomotive" (Wehrmachtslokomotive für Regelspur) or WR. [6]
During World War II the RVM took over agencies in conquered nations and provided military rail transport. It also became responsible for the deportation of European Jews to extermination camps. The particular unit involved, "No. 21. Bulk Transport", functioned in close cooperation with the SS.
The commander of the 2nd Military Railway Service, Brigadier General Clarence L. Burpee, arrived in Normandy on 17 June, and by the end of July the 707th Railway Grand Division had the 720th, 728th and 729th Railway Operating Battalions and the 757th Shop Battalion operational. [59] French civilian railway workers were employed whenever possible.
During World War II, 12 Polish armoured trains in Britain were manned, from October 1940 until 1942, by the Polish Armed Forces in the West. They were assigned to patrol the British railways in 1940. They saw no combat and were disbanded in England by July 1943 (November 1944 in Scotland). [1] [2]