Book Of Interest – John Bushby 

Although not a railway history volume the book ‘Oxwich To Omaha, American GIs in South Wales’ by Phil Howells (self-published, no ISBN, revised edition 2021) has much to recommend it on a num-ber of counts. Firstly, it is more about South Wales and the Bristol Channel/Severn Estuary area as a whole with Avonmouth, Sharpness etc. so it is more a case of South Wales plus. Secondly, a lot of information concerning rail movements and US Army locomotives can be found although this requires searching through the text, nor are the maritime/shipping aspects neglected which is of major relevance as the major South Wales docks were owned by the Great Western Railway. Perhaps most important is that the book is based on extensive research in the US National Archives. Consequently, it is a who, what, where, when and how book rather than the more usual anecdotal accounts of the ‘Yanks’ derived from ‘oral history’ and ‘family tradition’ which are often recorded decades later, uncorroborated and of doubtful provenance. This book contains masses of detail based on documentary evidence and should interest anyone interested in Britain’s railways in WW2 and/or the US Army presence in Britain during the same period. Copies of the revised 2021 can be obtained through Amazon for £12.99 which is extremely good value given the sheer amount of data included. South-west England and South Wales were the main concentration areas for US ground forces under the BOLERO programme in the build-up to D-Day and they were critically dependent on the railways. Nothing comparable seems to be currently available elsewhere. MILITARY RAILWAY STUDY GROUP https://www.mrsg.org.uk/ 

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Oxwich To Omaha: American GI's in South Wales Paperback – May 29, 2020 by Phil Howells Early on the sixth of June 1944, as the Normandy Beaches were under assault and Force ‘L’ and Force ‘B’ were converging in the English Channel, another US armada with Royal Navy escort was ploughing its way around Lands End. Yet despite the passage of 76 years, very little has been written about the Bristol Channel Pre-Loaded Build-Up Force and the 42,000 troops transported to Omaha and Utah - until now. Included in the overall 5,000 ship tally of vessels taking part in the biggest amphibious operation of all time, the fleet carrying among others the 2nd and 90th Infantry Divisions and major parts of the PESBG and the 5th and 6th ESB’s plus seaborne elements of 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions has never featured highly in the extensive narratives that have gone before. But now having drawn on the detailed NARA archives in Maryland plus many original unit histories, Phil Howells has been able to detail this much overlooked part of the D-Day story. Moreover, through researching this element of ‘Operation Neptune’, the author has been able to lay before the reader the extensive Concentration, Marshalling and Embarkation plans in South Wales and the twelve months of ‘Operation Bolero’ that preceded the sailing, including the construction of camps, depots and hospitals in the six counties; the formation and training of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade on Gower and the Provisional ESB Group – plus recording the huge amount of troops and cargo that poured into the ports of the Bristol Channel. Utilising aerial photographs and US Corps of Engineers plans, 'Oxwich to Omaha' is a valuable addition to any library devoted to D-Day specifically and the Second World War in general. https://www.amazon.com/Oxwich-Omaha-American-South-Wales/dp/B089CSNFSL

 U. writes... 

Grandpa Karl worked as a locomotive fitter for the German State Railway until 1. April 1941 , then he had to move to the army.

Till end of war in 1945 , he worked at the " Atlantikwall " in Belgium and France and drove trains at different places in Europe .

Due to his profession,  he got his certificate of discharge in June 1945 and than he started to work for/with  the 740th railway op bat. at Bonn /Germany  , where a railhead was build. The permit on the photo is from this time.

Later , till he retired in the late sixties,  he still worked in repairing ( steam )  locomotives for the new build German State railway in Cologne.

Thanks U glad to see Grabdpa Karl's IS card

great photo at Wisconsin Historic Society https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM100569

Trains to the Trenches: The Men, Locomotives and Tracks That Took the Armies... by Andrew Roden

Again the Engineers and MRS units worked together on these rail bridges ...

Thanks to Richard for this great post! He writes...a number of these locomotives were captured and operated by MRS units during the war and afterward. My last photo (Photo #6) shows one of these MRS operated locomotives.

 In addition, several more of these locomotives were built shortly after the war under the supervision of the MRS 757th Railway Shop Battalion when they operated the Henschel Locomotive Building Plant at Kassel, Germany.

The attached article describes the German wartime built Type 52 'Kondenslokomotive' 2-10-0 steam locomotives that were equipped with the special condenser tender. These locomotives were a sub-group of the standard German Type 52 Kreigslok (also known as the Kreigslokomotive) wartime built 2-10-0 steam locomotives and were specially made to operate for long distances on the Eastern front railways without having to stop for the resupply of water. 

The condenser tender enabled the locomotive to condense its exhaust steam back into water and then continue to use this water in the boiler to produce further steam. In a normal steam locomotive the exhaust steam is discharged to the atmosphere and lost. 

The German operated railways on the Eastern front had difficulty supplying sufficient clean and treated boiler water to its steam locomotives. The Kondenslokomotives locomotives were designed to reduce this problem and to enable the locomotives to operate over longer distances. In addition, the water tanks were subject attacks by the Soviet partisans and air force and were easily damaged and put out of use. 

This article is an in depth technical description of the locomotive and its special condenser tender. It was written for USA railway mechanical engineers, but it does contain some information related to the German methods used for Eastern Front wartime locomotive operation. The stated operating range of 1000 Km (660 miles) was reported by other railway sources to be lower and in the range of 640 Km (400 miles). For comparison, the typical operating range of a standard mid-size steam locomotive during wartime operation would be approximately 80 Km (50 miles) before it need to obtain water. 

 These condenser locomotives, and the standard German Type 52 Kreigslok 2-10-0 steam locomotives, were operated by both the Wehrmacht’s own railway operating units and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (the German State Railway) staff. All Type 52 locomotives were built using a much simplified method of construction to reduce construction time and materials and were designed to have a light axle load in order to operate on many of the lightly built Soviet railway lines. 

Approximately 180 of the Type 52 condenser locomotives were built by Henschel at their Kassel Works during the war and a number of additional ones built afterward. For comparison, several thousand of the standard Type 52 Kreigslok 2-10-0 steam locomotives were built by both Henschel and by other locomotive builders, including companies in the occupied countries. 

 A number of the Type 52 Kreigslok condenser locomotives operated on the Western Front railways, including in Belgium and Italy and some remained in operation after the war. Several were captured and used by the US Army Railway Operating Battalions in Germany during and after the war. In addition, one of the captured locomotives was sent to the USA after the war for examination. 

The standard Type 52 Kreigslok 2–10-0 steam locomotives remained in operation in Germany and on the state railways of many countries throughout Europe into the 1970s. Some continued in service in several Eastern European countries into the 1990s and a number remain in existence today. 

 The original article was printed in the December 29, 1945 edition of the USA magazine 'Railway Age’ which was the main USA railroad industry publication.

 

The attached photos #1, #2 & #6 were copied from the Italian model railway website Märklinfan Club Italia’. The remaining photos were copied from the internet.