''Kriegslokomotiven'' (german: for "war locomotives", singular: ''Kriegslokomotive'') or ''Kriegsloks'' were

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s produced in large numbers during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

under

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Their construction was tailored to the economic circumstances of wartime

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

along with conquered and occupied territories across Europe, taking account of the shortage of materials, the transportation of goods in support of military logistics, ease of maintenance under difficult conditions, resistance to

extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...

, limited life and the need for rapid, cheap mass production. In order to meet these requirements, economic drawbacks such as relatively high fuel consumption had to be accepted. Forced labour was used in the construction of some of the locomotives; German locomotive building firms employed prisoners from concentration camps and foreign, mostly Polish, workers.

Construction

The war locomotives (or ''Kriegslokomotiven'') were kept technically as simple as possible and the use of scarce materials (particularly copper) was dropped. Several German firms used prisoners from concentration camps as

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

in the production of ''Kriegslokomotiven''.

Borsig Lokomotiv Werke (AEG) The rail vehicle factory in Hennigsdorf, Germany, was founded in 1910 by AEG. Locomotive production began in 1913, and in the 1930s absorbed the work of the August Borsig locomotive factory, being renamed the Borsig Lokomotiv Werke GmbH until 194 ...

used

from

KL Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Schichau-Werke The Schichau-Werke (F. Schichau, Maschinen- und Lokomotivfabrik, Schiffswerft und Eisengießerei GmbH) was a German engineering works and shipyard based in Elbing, Germany (now Elbląg, Poland) on the Frisches Haff (Vistula Lagoon) of then-East ...

used

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

from KZ Stutthof, and its subcamps. DWM Posen (''

Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken ''Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken Aktiengesellschaft'' (German Weapons and Munitions public limited company), known as DWM, was an arms company in Imperial Germany created in 1896 when ''Ludwig Loewe & Company'' united its weapons and amm ...

Posen'') took over Polish manufacturer H. Cegielski – Poznań and turned its workforce into

. Oberschlesische Lokfabrik Krenau took over Polish manufacturer

Fablok Fablok is a Polish manufacturer of locomotives, based in Chrzanów. Until 1947 the official name was ''First Factory of Locomotives in Poland Ltd.'' ( pl, Pierwsza Fabryka Lokomotyw w Polsce Sp. Akc.), Fablok being a widely used syllabic abbrevia ...

and used

under threat of death. Identical engines were produced in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Kirchen Kirchen (Sieg) is a town and Luftkurort (climatic spa) in the district of Altenkirchen in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg, approx. 12 km southwest of Siegen. Among its notable features is the Freusb ...

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...

(Pilsen), and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. The manufacture of electric locomotives as ''Kriegslokomotiven'' was a special case, because they could only be used in the core network where there was the working infrastructure able to supply the current: power stations, overhead transmission lines, electricity substations and

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficia ...

. As a rule, locomotives were preferred that were dependent on additional infrastructure as little as possible. German electric locomotives were given aluminium windings in the

traction motors A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric or hydrogen vehicles, elevators or electric multiple unit. Traction motors are used in electrically powered rail vehicles ( electric multiple ...

and

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

s, and the steam engines had steel fireboxes, hence the name ''Heimstofflok'' or 'home-grown loco'.

Classes

A ''Kriegslokomotive'' usually had two classifications: one based on the normal peacetime classification system and a separate wartime classification. For example, a wartime steam locomotive or ''Kriegsdampflokomotive'' (KDL) was given a KDL class as well as its DRG (''

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

'') class. Likewise a wartime motorised locomotive or ''Kriegsmotorlokomotive'' had a KML class number and a wartime electric locomotive or ''Kriegselektrolokomotive'' would have a KEL class number. Besides the DRG, the German Armed Forces had their own locomotive classes. A

field railway A , or , is the German term for a narrow-gauge field railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry () and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth an ...

locomotive belonging to the Army were known as a ''

Heeresfeldbahnlokomotive {{unreferenced, date=December 2014 A Heeresfeldbahnlokomotive is the German term for a special wartime locomotive (''Kriegslokomotive'') for employment on military field railways (''Heeresfeldbahnen''), railways usually designed to transport militar ...

'' or HF.

Standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

engines for the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

, mostly diesel switchers, were designated "Wehrmacht Standard Gauge Locomotive" (''Wehrmachtslokomotive für Regelspur'') or WR. The following classes of Kriegslokomotive were procured by the

and other customers (industrial and military railways) during the Second World War: DR Class 52

; Steam locomotives (''Kriegsdampflokomotive'' or "KDL") *

DRB Class 52 The Deutsche Reichsbahn's Class 52Wartime locomotives classes are prefixed DRB (Deutsche Reichsbahn) to distinguish them from those introduced by the DRG (prefixed DRG), which became defunct in 1937, and those introduced later by the East German D ...

(KDL 1) * BMB Class 534.0 (KDL 2) *

DRG Class 42 The DRB Class 42Wartime locomotives classes are prefixed DRB (Deutsche Reichsbahn) to distinguish them from those introduced by the DRG (prefixed DRG), which became defunct in 1937, and those introduced later by the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn ...

(KDL 3) * ELNA 6 0-8-0T industrial (KDL 4) * 0-10-0T industrial (KDL 5) * 0-8-0T industrial (KDL 6) * 0-6-0T industrial (KDL 7) * 0-4-0T industrial (KDL 8) * 900 mm gauge 0-6-0T industrial (KDL 9) * 900 mm gauge 0-4-0T industrial (KDL 10) * HF 160 D (KDL 11) * HF 70 C (KDL 12) *

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...

"Riesa" type construction locomotive, austere version, (KDL 13) ; Internal combustion locomotives (''Kriegsmotorlokomotive'' or KML) * (KML 1) * WR D 311 - 2 were used on the 80 cm railway guns. Also base of some post-war development. *

DRG Köf II German ''Kleinlokomotiven'' (literally: small locomotives) like the DRG Kö II (later: Köf II) were developed as locomotives with a low weight and driving power for light shunting duties. There were two classes, based on engine power. The Cla ...

(KML 2) * HF 130 C (KML 3) * HF 50 B (KML 4) * O&K MD 2 (KML 5) * Twin-axled mining locomotives (KML 6, KML 7, KML 8) ; Electric locomotives (''Kriegselektrolokomotive'' or KEL) * DRG Class E 44 (KEL 1) *

DRG Class E 94 The DRG Class E94 is an electric heavy freight locomotive built for Deutsche Reichsbahn from 1940, with the bulk of deliveries taking place in that year. It was a major evolution of the DRG Class E 93. Railway aficionados still call the type "Gr ...

(KEL 2) * Bo′Bo′Bo′ mining (KEL 3) * 900 mm gauge Bo′Bo′ mining (KEL 4) * 550–630 mm gauge Bo industrial (KEL 5) * 550–630 mm gauge Bo′Bo′ mining (KEL 7) * Bo Battery-electric mining (KEL 7, KEL 8, KEL 9) ; Fireless steam locomotives (''Dampfspeicherlokomotive'') * 0-6-0 (KFL 1) * 0-4-0 (KFL 2) A large number of

locomotives were rebuilt by

into

DR Class 52.80 The ''Rekolokomotives'' of DR Class 52.80 first appeared in 1960 in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany as extensive rebuilds of the wartime locomotives or ''Kriegslokomotiven'' of the DRB Class 52 built by Nazi Germany. This moder ...

References

* *

External links

* {{cite web , url = http://www.malletlok.de/ge/ge_d/br53.htm , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161215064455/http://www.malletlok.de/ge/ge_d/br53.htm , archive-date = 15 December 2016 , title = Das Projekt der Kriegslokomotive 53 0001 , language = de The Borsig class 53 project. Steam locomotive types Locomotives of Germany Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft locomotives Military locomotives of Germany

Construction

Classes

See also

References

External links