My German Empire - Chapter 57:

Wilhelm pretended to be embarrassed and said. “I’m thinking about how the materials can be transported quickly and conveniently. With such a large amount of transportation, it’s impossible to only use trucks. They can only be transported by rail.”

In the original time and space, after Hitler came to power he naturally paid more attention to the construction of railways. He unified all small and large railway companies and established the Deutsche Bahn in 1937. German Railways Director General Doppmüller became the Minister of Transport of the Empire after swearing loyalty to Hitler, and the entire railway system began to formulate more sophisticated wartime transportation plans.

During the 1939 blitz in Poland and the battle of France in the year 1940, Deutsche Bahn successfully completed its tasks, including transporting soldiers and evacuating residents. Similarly, the acceptance and adaptation of the Polish and French railways did not take much effort, because the track width standards and the technical level were relatively modern. In Poland, the Germans established the Eastern Railway, which was at the same level as the German Railways. On the Western Line, the railway was still under the jurisdiction of the country in principle, but in Paris, Germany established the Western Railway Transportation Department to supervise the operation of the local railway.

Until 1941, the German Railways seemed to be running very well. Taking into account the transportation mobilization problem for the attack on the Soviet Union, the Germans formulated the Otto Plan and fully expanded the Eastern Railway. It was completed on June 15, only one week before the attack on the Soviet Union. In order to complete the military mobilization to attack the Soviet Union, from February 25 to June 23, Deutsche Bahn and Eastern Railway used a total of 34,000 trains to send personnel and equipment of 141 divisions to the Soviet-German border. The German Army General Staff’s evaluation was that the performance of the railway department has exceeded their expectations.

While the performance of German Railways exceeded expectations, the state of Soviet railways did not bring any surprises to the German army. Compared with the West, where railways were vertically and orderly distributed, the Soviet railway as a whole presents a primitive state: the most dense (only relatively speaking) railway network hubs in the Soviet Union were in Moscow, Leningrad, and Donets. On the border, there were only four double-track railways that could be used by the Germans. The Neman River to Leningrad, the Bug River to Moscow via Orsha, and the Bug River to Donets and San River via Klimenchok. Of course, these four east-west railways also intersect with six north-south railways, but they were still relatively sparse compared to the vast western Soviet territory.

At the same time, due to the little knowledge of the German intelligence agency about the Soviet Union, the German Railways also seriously underestimated the primitive nature of the Soviet railway. The Germans only knew that the Soviet railway was a wide-gauge railway. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, they discovered that the Soviet railway was still at the level of World War I: most railways (except Kharkov to Moscow) were built on soft sandy soil. The sleepers were also relatively soft pine. For example, the German standard railway bearing capacity standard was 49 kg per meter compared to the Soviet Union’s 38 kg per meter, the German railway had 1600 sleepers per kilometer, and the Soviet Union had 1440. The Germans fixed rails with screws and washers, the Soviets directly used spikes. The Soviet railway bridges were basically worthless. They had to be reinforced before transporting tanks or any other heavy equipment, not to mention railway dispatching equipment. Basically most of the equipment was old antiques from the First World War, and electronically controlled devices were very rare.

The German General Staff asked the German army to seize the Soviet railway network as much as possible, and hoped that the Soviet army would destroy the railway as little as possible when retreating. Fortunately, this was achieved as much as possible due to the German army’s surprise attack and triumphant advance which caused the Soviet railway to fall into the German hands. Germany established the Eastern Operations Office in Warsaw to try to coordinate the efficiency of rail transport on the Soviet battlefield but the Soviet railway was too backwards. Although the number of trains sent from Germany to the front line every day was successfully increased from 600 to 900, it was too little compared to the massive amount of supplies required on the front line. With the advent of Russia’s cold winter, the Eastern Route Railway finally collapsed: the Central Army Group had a minimum daily supply of 75 trains, but in fact only 40 trains at most were available. The Northern Army Group had a quota of 30 trains, but actually only 10 trains worth of materials were transported daily .

It wasn’t until the spring of 42 that Speer took over the German Railways. Under Speer’s energetic management, the German Railways quickly recovered its vitality.

Wilhelm, of course, must plan ahead and solve these problems early. “It’s a hassle to ship the minerals, and it’s also a hassle to ship the finished products back. With the existing methods, it’s too difficult. Unless…”

“Unless what?” Tukhachevsky asked eagerly, he also wanted to know what solution Wilhelm had.

“Unless the railway can be unified.” Wilhelm said his plan without changing his face. “But your country’s railways are not universal to Europe’s. If your country’s railways are transformed into the same width as Europe, then the transportation of minerals will be very convenient.”

“!!!” Tukhachevsky raised his eyebrows slightly, he is naturally not a fool, of course he knows what railway specifications mean. Once the railway specifications are unified, it will become very convenient for the future transportation of strategic materials!

Wilhelm didn’t give Tukhachevsky any time to think, and continued. “It’s best if the railway is from the border to the Ural Mountains, In this way, various minerals in the Ural Mountains can be continuously transported.” In the future, the German army can also march straight along this railway, and the supply will be extremely convenient.

As for the Soviets, will they agree? Wilhelm is also not sure.

Maybe the Soviets will agree after reviewing the “Super Battleship” drawings and discovering that they are not capable of building this ship. After all, on the surface, as long as they extract the minerals from the mountains and transport them to Germany, they will be able to get a “super battleship” in the near future.

Where can they find such a good opportunity again? Apart from Germany, no other country would be willing to do this!

After pondering for a while, Tukhachevsky shook his head. “His Royal Highness Wilhelm’s proposal is good, but we don’t have any excess funds to rebuild the railway. Moreover, if this railway is remodeled, then the trains on our other railway networks will not be able to run on this line.”

“It’s simple.” Wilhelm said casually: “In this case, then we will simply build a dedicated ore transport line from the Ural Mountains to the border, connecting with Europe. Isn’t that convenient for both of us? Of course, you are the one who’s going to pay for it , but you can also consider using ore for settlement.”

In this era, it is not difficult to build railway tracks. It does not require advanced seamless steel rails and ballastless tracks, and it does not require large amounts of resettlement compensation like later generations.

Therefore, only the money for building the track is required. If the Soviet Union does not have that much money, they can still use ores to pay for it!

But he also knew that Tukhachevsky could not make a final decision on such a large engineering plan. “Your Excellency General can go back to discuss.” If the Soviets really disagree with the construction of the railway, he can only move to Plan B and use containers, which can at least improve a lot of efficiency.

The meeting ended in a pleasant atmosphere and both sides felt they had earned a lot from this cooperation.

Tukhachevsky took the outdated version of the drawings of armored reconnaissance vehicles, tanks, trucks and other equipment and set foot on the returning plane. On the plane, he even heard a terrifying secret from Natasha, the 150-ton super tank developed by Germany!