The railway difficulties were not confined to the rolling-stock. The upkeep of the tracks had been neglected, and now both tracks and personnel were terribly overburdened. Great difficulties had been experienced during the building of the Siegfried Line, and the outbreak of the war multi-and so on) came by sea even for inter-Continental supplies. Normally, for instance, German coal went by sea io Italy. On the other hand, the cessation of land fighting in the west and the considerable booty from the rich rolling-stocks of Holland, Belgium, and especially France brought the Germans great relief, though technical difficulties, such as differences in gauge or brake systems, set a limit to ihe use of foreign rolling-stock in Germany. The destruction of rolling-ock during the hostilities was nct considerable.
Before the collapse of the Western Front many neutral countries, even in the east, like Hungary, undertook exports in their own goods wagons only up to the German frontiers, as in the first few months of the war the Nazis used to "retain" neutral wagons for a couple of months for their own use. This period of resistance is over, and h their armed might, whole transport system of tat their disposal. Their difüculties in the east remain nevertheless very considerable, even if these countries are used only as main supply bases; the situation might be-me critical in the event of a com-ned use of Eastern Europe as a lo front and larder. plied them. Military transpórt hampered the normal goods distribution. The black-out, especially during the winter, intensified the troubles: the shunting of goods trains, for instance, took five times as long.
The Nazis are resorting, of course, to all sorts of devices to improve the situation—quicker loading of wagons, renewed use of obsolete engines and wagons, restriction of the use of trains for private purposes, and so on,—but all these devices give relatively little help.
Moreover, the inefficient rail-stem not only hampers the Nazi war effort; itis a constant reminder to the German people that are at war, just as the terrible the unheated coaches, and the windows were a nightmare for many' years after the lust war had ended.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.