The ups and downs of rail wars during the Second World War

During the years of World War II, for the highest military command of the Red Army, one of the most important tasks was disruption of the enemy's railway transport. It was by rail that the Nazis transferred the largest number of units of military equipment and weapons, and carried out other types of military supply.

Subversive activities on the railroads began at the beginning of the war, and by 1943, the destruction of enemy echelons acquired the scale of real "rail wars", which led to the blocking of enemy transport communications.

An invaluable contribution to the organization and conduct of the "rail war" behind enemy lines was made by Colonel Ilya Starinov, who is rightly called the main Soviet saboteur of the Second World War. The richest personal experience of sabotage activity, which was accumulated by Starinov during the years of service, allowed him to carry out large-scale massive attacks on the enemy during the crucial period of the war.

However, the top military leadership of the country did not immediately accept the ideas of Colonel Starinov, who throughout the war pushed around the thresholds, trying to get an appointment with Stalin with his proposals for conducting sabotage operations behind enemy lines. And only in 1943 did they agree with his concept, making some adjustments that Starinov himself did not consider correct.

Comments

[Same lech]

The diversionary experience of the legendary Starinov is still valuable ... who knows, maybe in our time it will be necessary to destroy his communications behind enemy lines.

[qQQQ]

The leadership of the partisan movement for beautiful reports suggested waging a rail war, i.e. destroy the rails and keep track of them. Starinov pointed out that we are all human beings and want to live, therefore they will explode where it is safe, i.e. there will be nowhere to take alternate routes and with the subsequent offensive of the spacecraft, which happened in Belarus before the Battle of Kursk. I have never read that the Germans in front of Kursk had any problems with logistics. Starinov himself suggested destroying steam locomotives and trains, because with this the Germans had a strain, which he was allowed to do in Ukraine. Practice has shown that his ideas were much more effective.

[Kusja]

Well, in the film "In the woods near Kovel", the man is also not in vain remembered!

[starpur]

From August 42 to February 43 a partisan detachment (later "named after the Ignatov brothers") operated in the Kuban, in the foothills of the North Caucasus. The number of the detachment is 59 people. The personnel are engineers, technicians, highly qualified workers of the Glavmargarin trust, and food chemists. Specialization - sabotage on railways, vehicles, roads and bridges. This is probably the most efficient (one of the most efficient) squad. The detachment's losses in six months - 3 people died on operations, 2 were captured, executed by the Germans in Krasnodar, two were seriously wounded. Only on the railway detachment destroyed 16 steam locomotives and more than 500 cars. This is six months! Top class work!