Rail Road in M C

[Hans Boersma]

I am not aware of any plans for major rail movement of units and their equipment up to the front

For the Dutch railway movement was an integrated and rather vital part of their war plans; in the eighties they bought 400+ extra flatcars for this purpose (in addition to some 300 they already had) and built or modified train stations with special ramps for loading armoured vehicles.

Maybe their situation (maldeployment) was unique as they had only one armoured brigade (+) permanently stationed in Germany - so whether this calls for rail movement across the board remains a judgement call (I for one would like to see it as it would portray the Dutch situation better and I can also imagine it would add an interesting aspect to the game [supply]).

Of the 2 2/3rd divisions in the Netherlands all tracked units were to travel by rail to their war positions - some 600 kilometres. Movement by road was of course possible, but after 600 km in an YPR, M113 or Leopard (tried in manoeuvres) you can imagine these units wouldn't exactly be fit to ride into battle on arrival.

Can't say much about other armies except that the Germans used rail movement too; the reason the Dutch bought extra flatcars was because it was very doubtful if the ones they would lend from the Germans would be available in time.
I also seem to recall that the various REFORGERs used quite a bit of railroad movement through the Netherlands, but I don't have any specifics on that. In 1985 not all US Divisions had POMCUS in place anyway.