WI more Armored Trains in WWII

Apparently putting guns atop trains has quite a history.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/28gr18/what_is_the_point_of_armored_trains/

The OP speaks of them as if they could have been decisive factors in both defensive and offensive operations, and since I don't think I've even heard of them at this point I'm willing to ask the question: what if more people cared about armored trains - say, the Poles had more in wake of the German invasion or the Russians before Barbarossa? Could've they been decisive factors in war? Or are they just slightly prickly trains at best?
 
Armored Trains can be bombed by medium bombers at medium and high altitude and can not escape due to their only mode of transit on its rail-track.

As long as the Armoured Trains are under Air CAP protection...
they can provide a node of resistance against attacking forces.

Once air cover is lost or contested... enemy airstrikes with machine and cannon fire, with bombs and rockets, against a target on a railtrack ....

still vulnerable...
 
They are useless in mobile warfare because they are limited to where they can move, they are limited in what they can carry and can be immobilised by cutting tracks around them.

They had uses in COIN warfare which mostly revolved around controlling railroads and roads in general anyway. They could be used there because insurgents lacked heavy weapons and trains could bear heavier weapons, protection and troops to bear against them.
 
Armoured trains are a really good way of protecting railways against irregular forces and cavalry raids. The Soviets actually built new ones in the 1960s/1970s, and used them in Chechnya.

Offensively, or where the front line is mobile, they're almost totally useless. Probably actually a detriment, since they take up space that could be used for supplies.
 
Armored Trains can be bombed by medium bombers at medium and high altitude and can not escape due to their only mode of transit on its rail-track.

As long as the Armoured Trains are under Air CAP protection...
they can provide a node of resistance against attacking forces.

Once air cover is lost or contested... enemy airstrikes with machine and cannon fire, with bombs and rockets, against a target on a railtrack ....

still vulnerable...

The Finnish Army had two armored trains during WWII. They were used against the Soviet attack during the Winter War and then to support infantry attacks in late summer 1941, but after that they were explicitly mostly used as mobile AA units to protect rail yards, etc.

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Devvy

Donor
And the British version:

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(yes it really was a miniature armoured train along the English south coast)
 
The Finnish Army had two armored trains during WWII. They were used against the Soviet attack during the Winter War and then to support infantry attacks in late summer 1941, but after that they were explicitly mostly used as mobile AA units to protect rail yards, etc.

So tl;dr with air defence capabilities they're still useful on the offensive?
 
So tl;dr with air defence capabilities they're still useful on the offensive?

They were somewhat useful on the offensive when the Finns lacked armor, etc, in the attack phase in 1941. But such usefulness was limited because the withdrawing Soviets did often break up the tracks along their way. This is August 1941:

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After that, the armored trains were really only good for essentially carrying a battery or two of AA to where it was needed reasonably quickly. But then the Finns did not really advance in last part of the war, and when they did, in Lapland against the Germans, there was no railway to use.
 
Armored Trains can be bombed by medium bombers at medium and high altitude and can not escape due to their only mode of transit on its rail-track.

As long as the Armoured Trains are under Air CAP protection...
they can provide a node of resistance against attacking forces.

Once air cover is lost or contested... enemy airstrikes with machine and cannon fire, with bombs and rockets, against a target on a railtrack ....

still vulnerable...
Slovaks built 3 of them in 1944 and used them successfully during Uprising. Interestingly Slovaks never obtained air superiority in the area however with help of Czechoslovak Fighter Regiment armed by La-5FN managed to contest German air superiority.
Of course Slovaks had advantage of using trains in defensive, in mountainous terrain with plenty of railway tunnels. Trains were sometimes damaged by Stukas but repaired. To repair railways was even more easy.

Depends on conditions really but seems Soviets as well as Germans used their trains widely during WWII.
 
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