. Railway and locomotive engineering : a practical journal of railway motive power and rolling stock . erailways were working under the serioushandicap caused by the capture of hugenumbers of locomotives and cars bv the The French railways had to measurethemselves in speed against the enemy,who could use the shorter interior linesfor his war transport service. Through 1915 the strain on the Frenchrailways continued, until, early in 1916,the railway situation reached a crisiswhen the Germans launched their terrificattack on \erdun. The enemys advancedirectly menaced the railway through
. Railway and locomotive engineering : a practical journal of railway motive power and rolling stock . erailways were working under the serioushandicap caused by the capture of hugenumbers of locomotives and cars bv the The French railways had to measurethemselves in speed against the enemy,who could use the shorter interior linesfor his war transport service. Through 1915 the strain on the Frenchrailways continued, until, early in 1916,the railway situation reached a crisiswhen the Germans launched their terrificattack on \erdun. The enemys advancedirectly menaced the railway through to \erdun, and the presenceof the Germans at St. Mihiel cut off Ver-duns communications in that , only one narrow-gauge railwaybetween Revigny and Souilly was avail-able for getting men and supplies into thebeleaguered fortress. It was here thatthe auto truck came to the rescue, and. byits admirable services, saved the day. For the Somme battles of the summerof 1916 the French railway authoritiesnot only taxed existing lines to the ut-most, but. by building many miles of nar-. TVIK OF OX THE OF onrushing Germans. Losses from thiscause at the beginning of hostilitiesreached a total of locomotives andcars out of a total on the French railwaysof 13,800 locomotives and 376,000 net loss, however, was reduced to45,000 by the acquisition of 7,000 Belgiancars and 3,000 captured German cars. Hardly had the French railway mentransported the great masses of Frenchand British troops to the front when thedisastrous battles at Mons-Charleroi andfurther east necessitated the great retreattoward Paris, in which the railways wereagain taxed to the uttermost. Besidescarrying enormous numbers of men south-ward, they had to help in the transfer ofarmy corps from one end of the line topoints imperiled at the other, while theprcat operations incident to the battle ofthe Marnc and the race for the sea wereunder way. This was
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