TRANSPORT PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 40, 15 August 1942, Page 4

TRANSPORT PROBLEM

GERMANY'S WINTER HURDLE The meaning of Hitler's promise to the Reichstag that the Germain army would not have to overcome the same difficulties next winter has been clarified by the publication of a statement by German industrialists explaining why, in Russian climatic conditions, Gel-man machines, the efficiency of which had always been the pride of the whole nation, failed, stated "The Times" (London) recently. Highly-complicated locomotives, for instance —the only Ones available after the Russian broad-gauge lines had been transformed—proved to be too heavy for the Russian railway tracks and unsuited to the climate, because they ,were built explicitly to Suit conditions in. Germany. Bailer water pumps and air brakes fitted outside the German locomotives failed in the fantastic cold Of Russia. Protective sheathing proved ineffectual until special thawing utensils were sent to the east. Moreover, the watering stations in Russia were much farther apart than in the Reich, and the German trains were not equipped to carry enough water to cover the Russian stages; this difficulty was further intensified by the fact that the Russians had destroyed a great number of watering stations. At 70 degrees of frost all pipes, pumps, and motors failed. German locomotives are accustomed to softened boiler water, which is not available in Russia. Boiler water had to be obtained from rivers covered with ice several feet thick. Every time the locomtives stopped ice formed among the wheels, cranks, and shafts, and the drivers were obliged to remove the ice with picks; damage was consequently unavoidable, and the delicate mechanism was in this way soon ruined. The long stretches between watering stations had to be Overcome by the use of two tenders to each German locomotive. This amounts to a frank admission that the German supply system in Russia cannot be expected to function efficiently until an area which the Germans themselves assert to be three times as large as the whole Reich is entirely re-equipped with new and heavier tracks and with rolling-stock and tanks. This is a task which the overcharged German industry will obviously be unable to accomplish iii^the few months available, in view of its admitted inability to overhaul the Reich's Own lines.