German Track Protection Train Blucher, later Pz 52 by JeanLucCaptain on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Top Photo: this is the Nazi German Track/Line Protection Train Blucher sometime in 1944, armed with a T-34 and T-70 tank turret and a quad 2cm Flakvierling on the forward gun car. The armour protection and armament were not deemed suitable for front line combat, and this is why its a "track protection train"

Bottom Photo: It was rebuilt and upgunned later in 1944 and renamed Panzerzug 52 as it was now deemed suitable for front line combat. a Panzer IV H turret replaced the front turret making it capable of killing tanks at a good distance, the middle turret had been stripped of its gun and turned onto an observation copula for the Gunners and Track observers, and the rear Flakverling remains in place for AA as well as ground fire support.

Source of the Photos and much of the info below:

after 1941 the Axis armies had an inevitably big problem that went with their big victories:

you have captured massive swathes of territory, all supplied by endless KM of rail lines, coal is much cheaper and available then petrol or diesel and your available truck fleet simply CANNOT ever support a massive combined arms force far from the rail lines, especially in the soviet union where massive distances and lack of usable roads/terrible weather outsides the cities makes wheeled transport impractical at best and impossible a lot of the time.

Even worse Trucks require their own supplies of spare parts and fuel and drivers. all which needs to be brought thousands of KM across mostly empty land by those same trains in any case.

Also you know its gonna be a primary target for sabotage and guerrilla warfare, so what do you do? you do what every army has done before and since: You start putting guns and armour on trains.

the German Army and Rail Command has actual regulations for the suggested composition of both "maksehift" and ACTUAL armoured trains, there was a very clear distinction, that is summarized below:

Makeshift Line protection trains where constructed out of need to guard the increasingly vulnerable rear areas from partisan attacks that plagued the Axis occupation forces ESPECIALLY on the Eastern Front where large scale partisan warfare to disrupt enemy supplies and moral was an established part of Soviet Doctrine in case of attack.

This is a armoured train that bridged the gab between a "makeshift" and ACTUAL PanzerZug Armoured Train. In germany the "proper" PanzerZug still only had an average armour thickness of 30mm but were far more resilient and better armed then the makeshift versions and had better crews specifically trained to operate them to best effect.

For those wondering, a Track/Line protection train was the German Term for "makeshift typically lightly armed/armoured" armoured trains that had weapons and protection and other characteristics that made them unsuitable for front line use but useful for track protection/anti partisan duties or defensive duties. in these two photos we see that the after being upgunned and its armour probably improved somewhat "Blucher" was reclassified as a proper PanzerZug as Panzerzug 52, deemed suitable for front line use.

Track Protection/Makeshift trains typically had home made armour and weapons, usually little more then railroad ties, rails and other cheap readily available substitutes for proper armour plating. A popular combination being a sandwich of NOT armour grade steel outer and inner walls with concrete/sand or some other filler. this type of protection was sufficient to deflect rifle fire