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A railroad plough is a rail vehicle which supports an immensely strong, hook-shaped plough. It is used for destruction of sleepers in warfare, as part of a
A similar device, which ripped the rail off the ties, had been used by railway troops of the ''Pre-war fortification of Czechoslovakia in Czech Switzerland''
(entry for 24 September 1938) (Retrieved: 15 November 2007) and by German ''
Schwellenpflug, the rail wolf used by Germans in retreat.Photos of "rail wolf" in action and resultant damageVideo of German soldiers using a rail plough.
Andrew Grantham's blog
Military railway equipment Area denial weapons Ploughs Railway weapons
A railroad plough is a rail vehicle which supports an immensely strong, hook-shaped plough. It is used for destruction of sleepers in warfare, as part of a scorched earth
A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, which usually includes obvious weapons, transport vehicles, commun ...
policy, so that the track becomes unusable for the enemy.
In use, the plough is lowered to rip up the middle of the track as it is hauled along by a locomotive. This action breaks the wooden ties (sleepers) which forces the steel rails out of alignment, making the line impassable by later rail vehicles. Bridges and signalling equipment also suffer serious damage.
Deployment
A similar device, which ripped the rail off the ties, had been used by railway troops of the Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, Romanization of Russian, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the earl ...
in World War I, during their retreat from Galicia
Galicia may refer to:
Geographic regions
* Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain
** Gallaecia, a Roman province
** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia
** The medieval King ...
and Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
. Railroad ploughs were in use by the Czechoslovak Army
The Czechoslovak Army ( Czech and Slovak: Československá armáda) was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary.
History
In the f ...
during the German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 193 ...
in 1938,(entry for 24 September 1938) (Retrieved: 15 November 2007) and by German ''
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 previou ...
'' armed forces retreating northward through Italy and westward from the Eastern Front in World War II.
The German author Arno Schmidt (1914–1979) in his post-war novel ''Leviathan'' uses the image of a railroad plough as a symbol of evil.
Surviving vehicles
See also
* Sherman's neckties – A railway destruction tactic used in the American Civil War by the Union to prevent the Confederacy from using the tracks by making them difficult to repair. * Nero Decree – Hitler's unfulfilled plan to destroy German infrastructure, during retreat, to avoid it being used by the Allied forcesReferences
External links
{{Commons category, Railroad ploughsSchwellenpflug, the rail wolf used by Germans in retreat.
Andrew Grantham's blog
Military railway equipment Area denial weapons Ploughs Railway weapons