Scenes of War - Railways and Transport
In the occupied territories the German railway had 24,000 km of standard-gauge and 4,000 km of narrow-gauge track. Between 8,000 and 9,000 locomotives and approximately 18,000 railway wagons were available. The railway formations included about 178,000 persons in 1918, among them 75,000 civilian railway employees. Prisoners and inhabitants of the rear-area regions were employed for the extensive construction work. By mid-1918 there were on the various German theaters of war 7,760 standard-gauge and 940 narrow-gauge locomotives; the number of available railway wagons is reported as approximately 180,000.
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