Echelons “from the other world”: how military ambulance trains cheated death. Hospital trains of the First World War
During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army widely used ambulance trains - trains designed for the evacuation and provision of medical care to the wounded and sick during hostilities (military sanitary train), which included carriages specially equipped for transporting and treating victims , as well as auxiliary cars, such as operating rooms, kitchens, pharmacies, staff cars, morgue cars, etc. Sanitary cars were used as part of ambulance trains in wartime in three typical special formations: freight cars and heated cars in combat zones actions; temporary military ambulance trains are in the near rear, as well as rear hospitals. In appearance, the ambulance cars did not differ from the passenger car; Inside they, as a rule, had: sections for infectious and non-infectious patients, arranged across the entire width of the car; departments for medical and service personnel; a kitchen with a stove and a cube for heating water, as well as a toilet and a common corridor along the wall of the carriage. In order to maintain cleanliness and hygiene, the floor was covered with linoleum, and the walls were painted with light-colored oil paint. Furniture, floors, ceilings and walls were made with smooth surfaces, without corners, with a smooth transition from one surface to another. Upholstered furniture, as it is difficult to disinfect and clean for placement in sanitary cars, was not used. During the Great Patriotic War, millions of lives of Soviet soldiers and civilians were saved by military ambulance trains, which carried out not only evacuation and first aid, but also acted as mobile hospitals equipped with operating rooms.
The sanitary car presented in the museum's exhibition was designed in 1925 and built at the plant named after. Egorov in Leningrad in 1937. After the start of the Great Patriotic War on June 24, 1941, the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR ordered the formation of 288 ambulance trains. For these purposes, 6,000 passenger cars were converted, mostly four-axle ones, which were used to transport wounded and sick soldiers and officers. The ambulance car, converted from a classy wooden commuter carriage, has a wooden body covered on the outside with 1.5 mm thick metal sheets. There are 10 three-tier shelves installed along the side walls with mounts for stretchers and devices for eating in a supine position; dressing; medical staff compartment; shower; toilet and other service premises.
Restoration work on the ambulance car was carried out at the car depot at the Ozherelye railway station of the Moscow Railway. The sanitary railway carriage was donated to the museum by the Federal Railway Troops Service in 1995.
Car weight – 42 t
The total length of the car (along the axes of the couplings) is 21.4 m
Car length (body with vestibules) – 20.2 m
Width – 3.14 m
Body height – 2.9 m
Height from the rail head – 3.75 m
Car base – 8.2 m
Carriage bogies - TsNII type
Hitch devices – automatic coupler with buffers
Capacity – 30 people.
During the years of the Great Patriotic War, military ambulance trains saved millions of wounded soldiers, making their way from the “cauldrons” and the hottest places of the front line. The story of the “happy” train, commanded by the father of actor Tabakov, unknown details of the work of fascist sabotage groups and the heroism of doctors.
Military hospital train No. 1078 was receiving wounded Red Army soldiers when German planes flew in from out of nowhere and began dropping bombs on it. Everything was mixed up in dust and smoke. When the smoke cleared a little, the nurses ran to the screams and moans.
“We laid the wounded man down and just began to carry him to the remains of our train, when the bombs howled again. The wounded man looked at us with distraught eyes. We fell on him, covering him with our bodies so that he would not see the diving planes. We persuaded him so that he would not be afraid , we didn’t abandon him, and still carried him to the carriage,” recalled nurse Marina Lyashchenko-Simetskaya.
Temporary Military Medical Train No. 1078 was formed on the second day of the war, on June 23, 1941, on the basis of the Military Medical School under the command of military doctor S.I. Tikhonov and Commissioner D.F. Butyaeva. And immediately the medical workers who served on the first Soviet ambulance train were faced with Nazi atrocities.
This is what Olga Sergeevna Razumovskaya, the head nurse of that same train, told about this: “I was very overwhelmed with the loading of the wounded in Vasilkovo near Kiev. Early in the morning, when we loaded the wounded into the carriages, a very heavy bombing began. The wounded in my carriage were unconscious - some crawled under the bunks, between the springs, while others, on the contrary, crawled out of the car and fought in a fit against the rails. With difficulty, I managed to hold them down a little and calm them down, and then, with the help of the orderlies, it was very difficult to pull them out of the car. under the beds, because it was simply incredible how they got between the bed springs.”
Saboteurs and traitors against ambulance trains
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, saboteurs and saboteurs began to “work” in our rear. Here are just two evidence of their inhuman “exploits”.
“Before my eyes, the Germans bombed a hospital train,” says Great Patriotic War veteran Ekaterina Kovalenko. - When everyone was evacuated from Dnepropetrovsk, I was part of the ambulance train. We stood at the Nizhnedneprovsk-Uzel station, waiting for the green light to be given. And we only had to drive a little bit - near Novomoskovsk, in the Oryol region, there was our evacuation hospital. But the dispatcher at the station turned out to be a pest: not only did he not release our train, which was standing on the tracks between two fuel trains, but he also signaled to the German aviation who should be bombed.”
Orderly Levitsky Leonid Semenovich talked about how the saboteurs worked in our rear: “During the loading of the wounded, two fighters appeared in the air - one ours and the other German. A German plane shot down our pilot just above the Vasilkovsky airfield, and after a while This wounded pilot was delivered to us. When the German "Messer" turned back, from the rocket launcher, from the ground, he was given a signal with a green rocket. A local resident stood near us, who said: “Don’t spend the night in the carriages, children, as this was given to him. a signal of news that military trains are here - they will bomb you."
The next day, at 7 o'clock in the morning, military ambulance train No. 1078 was attacked by 18 German bombers.
“The first nine planes reached the railway and began bombing us, and then another nine arrived - this continued until 11 o’clock in the afternoon,” the war veteran recalled.
Mobilization
On June 24, 1941, the People's Commissariat of Railways (NKPS) ordered the railways to form 288 military ambulance trains. Six thousand cars were allocated for them and a staff of railway workers was appointed. The military hospital train (VSP) consisted of specially equipped cars for the seriously and lightly wounded, an isolation room, a pharmacy-dressing station, a kitchen and other service cars. In addition to the VSP, the so-called sanitary flights played a huge role in the evacuation of the wounded. They moved short distances, and were formed mainly from covered freight cars equipped for transporting the wounded. Military ambulance trains were serviced by train crews, which included conductors, train carriage masters, a train electrician and a power plant driver.
On July 17, 1941, military hospital train No. 87 set off from Saratov on its first voyage. And here is a rare photo - its chief, captain of the medical service Pavel Kondratyevich Tabakov, is posing against the background of this train.
Soon the wounded Red Army soldiers will call this train “Happy”, and after another 64 years a documentary film will be made about VSP No. 87, in which the son of military doctor Tabakov, the famous actor and director Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov, will take part. The legendary train made 135 trips into the thick of military hell and during all this time lost only the tail car and one person killed! At the same time, thousands of soldiers' lives were saved on train No. 87.
Baptism of fire
On September 1, 1941, at the Novo-Alekseevka station, "Schastlivy" came under fire from enemy aircraft for the first time. VSP-87 paramedics continued to provide assistance to the victims. The train personnel met the second raid with rifle fire.
“Particularly memorable was the loading in Taganrog on October 3, 1941, in the conditions of panic that gripped the city due to the approach of fascist troops. Simultaneously with a small group of wounded (50 people), our train was supposed to take out workers and personnel of eight hospitals.
However, the wounded began to be transported on motorcycles and cars directly from the battlefield. Soon their number increased to 147. I learned that the wounded were left on stretchers in one of the hospitals, and immediately took measures to remove these patients, and they were all taken by train,” Pavel Tabakov later recalled.
***
Read also on the topic:
- 5 myths about the beginning of the war from military historian Alexei Isaev- Thomas
- Pobeda or Pobeda: how we fought- Sergey Fedosov
- The Red Army through the eyes of the Wehrmacht: confrontation of spirit- Eurasian Youth Union
- Otto Skorzeny: "Why didn't we take Moscow?"- Oles Buzina
- "Comrade Sergeant"(Military memoirs - their author, Hero of the Soviet Union Sergei Stepanovich Matsapura, went through the Great Patriotic War from its first day to the last in the rank of sergeant - Military literature
- Letter from 1941(feat of the crew of the BT-7 tank) - Ivan Kolosov
***
Exploits of railway workers
Despite the clear identification marks of the Red Cross, Nazi pilots from the first days of the war hunted for military ambulance trains. In 1941 alone, there were 224 attacks on these trains.
On December 5, 1941, the military commandant of the Voroshilovgrad station gave the order: “Send sanitary flight No. 5 with the locomotive E 709-65, in which Ivan Kovalenko worked as a driver, to Depreradovka for wounded soldiers and commanders.” Since Depreradovka was almost continuously subjected to fire raids, the flight stopped at the appointed place. The wounded - more than 120 people - were brought here through ravines and gullies so that the enemy would not notice. When it was possible to leave, terrible news came: enemy troops had entered Depreradovka - the escape routes were cut off.
“I decided that we would fight our way! We pumped water into the boiler, filled the furnace with coal and set off. As we approached Depreradovka, we noticed a group of Nazis on the platform. “Open the blow-off valve!” I ordered my assistant. The Nazis running towards the train were doused with hot steam water there were screams and groans, then random shooting, but the ambulance had already passed the station and jumped out of the enemy ring,” the driver of the ambulance train, Kovalenko, later recalled. Another feat was accomplished by railway workers on the Kupyansk - Valuiki section. An ambulance flight with wounded soldiers, following to the rear, was attacked by enemy planes. There is nothing to defend ourselves with - there is no provision for installation of anti-aircraft guns on military ambulance trains. The enemy knew that he could act with impunity.
The driver A. Fedotov braked sharply, contrary to all instructions, thus saving hundreds of lives - all the bombs fell in front, but the train survived.
A minute later, the bombs finally hit the train, four cars caught fire at once, and the wounded began to burn alive. Then the locomotive and conductor crews uncoupled the cars and began to knock out the flames from them. In the fight against the fire, fireman Samsonov died, driver Fedotov received burns, and the clothes on chief conductor Efimov caught fire, but members of the train crew continued to fight for people’s lives. The planes only stopped bombing when they ran out of their deadly cargo. Soon the fire was finally extinguished. The path was corrected and the military ambulance train moved on.
Sanitary trains were required by the medical service of every front, every army. The echelons were formed, among other things, at the expense of citizens - this required huge funds for those times - 170 thousand rubles per train. Military hospital trains transported millions of wounded and sick during the war. They were a kind of hospitals on wheels, where doctors and nurses worked all day long at operating rooms and dressing tables.
Specially equipped for the transportation and treatment of victims, as well as auxiliary cars, such as operating theater cars, kitchens, pharmacies, staff cars, morgue cars and the like.
On May 8 (20), 1877, the first ambulance train in Russia departed from the Nikolaevsky station platform. One of the residents on this train was F. F. Shperk, who would later write an essay entitled “ Sanitary train No. 1 named after the Empress and its 16-month activities during the war of 1877-1878.» .
The largest number of sick and wounded were evacuated by ambulance trains during the Great Patriotic War. Millions of lives of Soviet soldiers and civilians were saved by military ambulance trains, which not only carried out evacuation and first aid, but also acted as mobile hospitals equipped with operating rooms. According to the testimony of war participants, fascist German troops used the Red Cross emblem as a cover for their armored trains, while the red cross on Soviet trains did not bother the German pilots who attacked them.
Railway ambulance transport is represented by military ambulance trains ( VSP) and military sanitary flights ( VSL).
- VSP designed for evacuation in the front-line rear area and in the rear of the country with continued treatment along the way. They are formed, as a rule, on the basis of all-metal passenger cars. Evacuation capacity is about 500 people.
- VSL designed for evacuation in army and front-line areas with provision of medical assistance along the way. It is formed from freight covered wagons with wooden bodies. Evacuation capacity is about 900 people.
Medical trains today
As of 2010, there are five mobile consultation and diagnostic centers based on railway trains in Russia: “Health”, “Saint Luke”, “Therapist Matvey Mudrov”, “Academician Fedor Uglov” and “Surgeon Nikolai Pirogov”. The diagnostic train consists of eight converted passenger cars. There is a pharmacy on the train where you can purchase the necessary medications immediately after the examination. One car is equipped with diesel generator units, ensuring complete autonomy of power supply.
Hospital trains in literature and cinema
- Feature films “Mercy Train”, “For the rest of my life”, “There is no ford in fire”
- Documentary film "The Road to Stalingrad".
- Fragment from the feature film "Papa"
See also
Write a review about the article "Sanitary train"
Notes
Links
Literature
- Military hospital train // Soviet Military Encyclopedia (8 volumes) / N.V. Ogarkov (chairman of the chief editor of the commission). - M.: Voenizdat, 1978. - T. 6. - P. 391. - 671 p. - 105,000 copies.
|
Excerpt characterizing the Hospital Train
Pierre continued in French to persuade the officer not to punish this drunken, insane man. The Frenchman listened silently, without changing his gloomy appearance, and suddenly turned to Pierre with a smile. He looked at him silently for several seconds. His handsome face took on a tragically tender expression, and he extended his hand.“Vous m"avez sauve la vie! Vous etes Francais, [You saved my life. You are a Frenchman," he said. For a Frenchman, this conclusion was undeniable. Only a Frenchman could accomplish a great deed, and saving his life, m r Ramball "I capitaine du 13 me leger [Monsieur Rambal, captain of the 13th light regiment] - was, without a doubt, the greatest thing.
But no matter how undoubted this conclusion and the officer’s conviction based on it were, Pierre considered it necessary to disappoint him.
“Je suis Russe, [I am Russian,”] Pierre said quickly.
“Ti ti ti, a d"autres, [tell this to others," said the Frenchman, waving his finger in front of his nose and smiling. "Tout a l"heure vous allez me conter tout ca," he said. – Charme de rencontrer un compatriote. Eh bien! qu"allons nous faire de cet homme? [Now you'll tell me all this. It's very nice to meet a compatriot. Well! What should we do with this man?] - he added, addressing Pierre as if he were his brother. Even if Pierre was not a Frenchman, having once received this highest title in the world, he could not renounce it, said the expression on the face and tone of the French officer. To the last question, Pierre once again explained who Makar Alekseich was, explained that just before their arrival. a drunken, crazy man stole a loaded pistol, which they did not have time to take away from him, and asked that his act be left unpunished.
The Frenchman stuck out his chest and made a royal gesture with his hand.
– Vous m"avez sauve la vie. Vous etes Francais. Vous me demandez sa grace? Je vous l"accorde. Qu"on emmene cet homme, [You saved my life. You are a Frenchman. Do you want me to forgive him? I forgive him. Take this man away," the French officer said quickly and energetically, taking the hand of the one who had earned him for saving his life into the French Pierre, and went with him to the house.
The soldiers who were in the yard, hearing the shot, entered the entryway, asking what had happened and expressing their readiness to punish those responsible; but the officer strictly stopped them.
“On vous demandera quand on aura besoin de vous, [When necessary, you will be called," he said. The soldiers left. The orderly, who had meanwhile managed to be in the kitchen, approached the officer.
“Capitaine, ils ont de la soupe et du gigot de mouton dans la cuisine,” he said. - Faut il vous l "apporter? [Captain, they have soup and fried lamb in the kitchen. Would you like to bring it?]
“Oui, et le vin, [Yes, and wine,”] said the captain.
The French officer and Pierre entered the house. Pierre considered it his duty to again assure the captain that he was not a Frenchman and wanted to leave, but the French officer did not want to hear about it. He was so courteous, kind, good-natured and truly grateful for saving his life that Pierre did not have the spirit to refuse him and sat down with him in the hall, in the first room they entered. In response to Pierre’s assertion that he was not a Frenchman, the captain, obviously not understanding how one could refuse such a flattering title, shrugged his shoulders and said that if he certainly wanted to pass for a Russian, then let it be so, but that he, despite then, everyone is still forever connected with him with a feeling of gratitude for saving his life.
If this man had been gifted with at least some ability to understand the feelings of others and had guessed about Pierre’s feelings, Pierre would probably have left him; but this man’s animated impenetrability to everything that was not himself defeated Pierre.
“Francais ou prince russe incognito, [Frenchman or Russian prince incognito," said the Frenchman, looking at Pierre’s dirty but thin underwear and the ring on his hand. – Je vous dois la vie je vous offre mon amitie. Un Francais n "oublie jamais ni une insulte ni un service. Je vous offre mon amitie. Je ne vous dis que ca. [I owe you my life, and I offer you friendship. The Frenchman never forgets either insult or service. I offer my friendship to you. I say nothing more.]
There was so much good nature and nobility (in the French sense) in the sounds of the voice, in the facial expression, in the gestures of this officer that Pierre, responding with an unconscious smile to the Frenchman’s smile, shook the outstretched hand.
- Capitaine Ramball du treizieme leger, decore pour l "affaire du Sept, [Captain Ramball, thirteenth light regiment, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for the cause of the seventh of September," he introduced himself with a smug, uncontrollable smile that wrinkled his lips under his mustache. - Voudrez vous bien me dire a present, a qui" j"ai l"honneur de parler aussi agreablement au lieu de rester a l"ambulance avec la balle de ce fou dans le corps [Will you be so kind as to tell me now who I am with. I have the honor of talking so pleasantly, instead of being at a dressing station with a bullet from this madman in my body?]
Pierre replied that he could not say his name, and, blushing, began, trying to invent a name, to talk about the reasons why he could not say this, but the Frenchman hastily interrupted him.
“De grace,” he said. – Je comprends vos raisons, vous etes officier... officier superieur, peut être. Vous avez porte les armes contre nous. Ce n"est pas mon affaire. Je vous dois la vie. Cela me suffit. Je suis tout a vous. Vous etes gentilhomme? [To be complete, please. I understand you, you are an officer... a staff officer, perhaps. You served against us . This is not my business. I owe you my life. This is enough for me, and I am all yours.] - he added with a hint of a question. Je ne demande pas davantage. Monsieur Pierre, dites vous... Parfait. C "est tout ce que je desire savoir. [Your name? I don’t ask anything else. Monsieur Pierre, did you say? Great. That’s all I need.]
When fried lamb, scrambled eggs, a samovar, vodka and wine from the Russian cellar, which the French had brought with them, were brought, Rambal asked Pierre to take part in this dinner and immediately, greedily and quickly, like a healthy and hungry person, began to eat, quickly chewing with his strong teeth, constantly smacking his lips and saying excellent, exquis! [wonderful, excellent!] His face was flushed and covered with sweat. Pierre was hungry and gladly took part in the dinner. Morel, the orderly, brought a saucepan with warm water and put a bottle of red wine in it. In addition, he brought a bottle of kvass, which he took from the kitchen for testing. This drink was already known to the French and received its name. They called kvass limonade de cochon (pork lemonade), and Morel praised this limonade de cochon, which he found in the kitchen. But since the captain had wine obtained during the passage through Moscow, he provided kvass to Morel and took up a bottle of Bordeaux. He wrapped the bottle up to the neck in a napkin and poured himself and Pierre some wine. Satisfied hunger and wine revived the captain even more, and he kept talking during dinner.
RAILWAY SANITARY TRANSPORT- special or adapted railway transport intended for transporting the wounded and sick. From the railway carriages used for these purposes form a military rank. trains (VSP) and military personnel. flights (VSL), which are military medical institutions. services that provide treatment to the wounded and sick and provide them with welfare services along the way.
Thanks to a number of advantages (large capacity, speed, relative convenience in accommodating evacuees), the railway station. t. is considered the main means of evacuating the wounded and sick from the active army to the deep rear of the country (see Medical evacuation).
For the first time, the evacuation of the wounded and sick along the railway. was carried out in Austria and Italy during the Austro-Italian-French War (1859). First military rank. the train was created in Germany (Württemberg) in 1862. In an ever-increasing size, the railway. transport was used to evacuate the wounded and sick during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), in the Austro-Prussian (1866) and Franco-Prussian (1870-1871) wars. Passenger and freight cars were used to transport the wounded and sick.
In Russia Zh. s. t. was first used to evacuate the wounded during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. According to the “Regulations on Military Hospital Trains,” permanent and temporary VSPs were formed in 1876. Permanent VSP consisted of adapted passenger cars, which could accommodate from 200 to 300 wounded and sick, a kitchen car, a laundry car, etc.; temporary VSP - from freight and passenger cars adapted for transporting wounded, in which, depending on the number of cars, it was possible to accommodate from 200 to 400 wounded and sick.
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. formation of military rank. trains were carried out on the basis of the “Regulations on Military Hospital Trains” of 1904. According to this provision, permanent VSPs were created from adapted 3rd class passenger cars. They included carriages for the seriously wounded (18 seats each), in which the passenger seats were replaced with special machines for installing stretchers in two tiers, as well as carriages for accommodating the lightly wounded (32 seats each). In addition to these cars, the permanent VSP included 10-15 adapted freight cars, which made it possible to increase the train capacity to 420-450 seats. Temporary VSPs usually included 7 passenger and approx. 28 freight cars, with a total capacity of 400 to 600 seats. Due to the insufficient number of VSPs, “heating” trains were widely used to evacuate the wounded, usually consisting of freight cars equipped with two-tier bunks and, in winter, stoves.
According to the “Regulations on Military Medical Trains”, put into effect in 1912, permanent VSPs, by design and purpose, were divided into field and rear ones. For them, a permanent part of the train was provided, which included cars for accommodating the train personnel, as well as cars equipped for a kitchen, a pharmacy-dressing station, a warehouse, and the so-called. a variable part, consisting of passenger (or freight) cars, which were included in the train and were appropriately equipped only for the period of the VSP flight with the wounded. Field VSPs were intended to transport the wounded over short distances, within the rear area of the army, the front. Rear VSPs were also used to evacuate the wounded to the interior of the country. The regulations also provided for the formation of temporary VSP in cases of shortage of field or rear military personnel. trains
The principles of use and organization of the work of military ambulance trains were regulated by the “Temporary Regulations on the Evacuation of the Wounded and Sick,” approved in 1914.
After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, by order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs in 1918, all ranks. the trains came under the jurisdiction of the military department, and by decree of the Council of Labor and Defense of 30/111, 1921, signed by V.I. Lenin, the then existing 154 dignity. the trains were transferred to the disposal of the Main Sanitary Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (GSU RKKA).
During the Civil War, VSPs were used not only for the evacuation of the wounded and sick, but also as reception centers, hospitals on wheels, and dressing stations.
In 1923, the Commissariat of Railways developed an “Album of drawings of devices for transporting the wounded and sick in military ambulance trains”, and in 1925, an “Album of drawings of equipment for rolling stock of rear and field military ambulance trains” (appendix to the “Rules”) compiling and equipping rear and field military medical trains"). The procedure for using VSP in the army, front-line and interior regions of the country was determined by the “Manual for sanitary evacuation of the Red Army” (1929).
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in the Red Army for the evacuation of the wounded along the railway. d. it was envisaged to have permanent and temporary VSP. The equipment, procedure for formation and organization of work in them were regulated by documents agreed between the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR and the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR and put into effect in 1941: “Regulations on military sanitary trains”, “Rules for the compilation of permanent and temporary military sanitary trains and rolling stock equipment for them”, “Instructions for loading and unloading military hospital trains”. In addition to these documents, the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army introduced in 1942 the “Manual for the organization and operation of military sanitary trains”, which determined the functional responsibilities of officials and the organization of medical treatment. work in VSP.
Permanent VSPs were used mainly for the evacuation of the wounded and sick from front-line hospital bases to hospital bases in the interior regions of the country. They were formed, as a rule, from four-axle passenger cars. In passenger cars intended for transporting the seriously wounded, the internal equipment was replaced with special devices - machines on which stretchers for the wounded and sick were placed in two or three tiers (Fig. 1). Depending on the type of machines, the carriage could accommodate from 20 to 30 people.
In total, the permanent VSP received from 400 to 500 wounded and sick.
Temporary VSPs were intended for the evacuation of the wounded and sick over short distances, Ch. arr. from army hospital bases to front hospital bases (see Hospital base). They consisted of a permanent part and a variable part, given only for the duration of the train with the wounded and sick. The temporary VSP could accommodate up to 860 wounded and sick.
For the lightly wounded, ordinary four-axle passenger cars were used, each of which could accommodate 46 people with normal loading, and 60 people when using the upper (luggage) shelves.
In 1942, in addition to permanent and temporary VSPs in armies and fronts, it was allowed to form BSL. They were used by ch. arr. for the evacuation of the wounded and sick within the army and front-line rear areas. The basis of the BCL was a permanent part of the cars, which included cars for the pharmacy-dressing station, kitchen, food warehouse and sanitary equipment warehouse, for personnel and office.
The variable part of the VCL included from 20 to 40 two-axle freight cars, which were pre-equipped with conventional military flooring. Each carriage could accommodate 20 to 30 people. The carriages for transporting the seriously wounded were equipped with removable suspension devices - Kruzhilin springs (Fig. 2), on which a dignity was installed. stretcher. Each carriage accommodated 12-16 people. Depending on the number of cars, the capacity of the VCL was 500-600 wounded and sick or more.
The procedure for the formation, equipment and use of VSP and JI aircraft is determined by the relevant documents. VSP are intended primarily for the evacuation of the injured and sick over long distances from hospitals in the active army to the rear of the country and their treatment along the way. The VSP usually includes cars for the seriously wounded, lightly wounded, an isolation ward, a pharmacy-dressing station, cars for material and household services for evacuated injured and sick people (kitchen, food warehouse, clothing warehouse, etc.), as well as for VSP personnel.
To form VSP and BCL, they use the existing fleet of passenger and freight cars. When re-equipping passenger cars for transporting severely damaged vehicles, all longitudinal shelves and partitions between them are removed.
The middle transverse shelves are equipped with safety belts and tray tables (Fig. 3). A dressing room can be equipped in one of the carriages for the seriously wounded.
In carriages intended for lightly wounded people, only safety belts and tray tables are additionally installed.
Items for caring for the wounded (vessels, ducks, etc.) are stored in the toilet. Flexible hoses are additionally installed on the washbasin taps, through which water is supplied for washing vessels and ducks.
The dressing room is equipped in an all-metal interregional carriage, from which the seats are removed. The pharmacy is provided with the required amount of medicines, pharmacy furniture and items (assistant tables, cabinets for medicines) and other equipment that ensures its normal operation.
In the dressing room, appropriate honey is installed. equipment (tables, cabinets for medicines and instruments, anesthesia equipment, operating table, etc.) ensuring the provision of the established volume of medical care to evacuees along the route.
The isolation car is equipped in an open-type all-metal passenger car. All longitudinal sofas, shelves and partitions separating them are removed from the carriage, with the exception of longitudinal luggage racks. The carriage is divided into two halves (for different infections). In the outer compartments of each half there is an electric stove, a cabinet for medicines and a tank for dirty linen. In the toilets, instead of toilets, toilet seats with buckets are installed, and vessels, ducks, and disinfectant solutions are also stored there. For disinfection of equipment and premises of the car there is a hydraulic remote control. When loading (unloading) the wounded and sick on stretchers in the carriages, the sliding partition located between the toilet and the vestibule is opened.
The VSP has a telephone switchboard and a radio center, with the help of which communication between the on-duty medical staff and the train command and control is ensured with all departments both at stops and while moving.
VCLs are formed from freight cars and consist of a permanent and variable part. The permanent part includes wagons for a pharmacy and dressing room, a kitchen, VSL personnel and wagons for sanitary and household needs. The variable part of the cars is assigned only for the period of the VCL trip with the wounded and includes cars for the seriously and lightly wounded, as well as an isolation car.
Regular personnel using standard medical records. VSP equipment can provide treatment for the wounded and sick, as well as the provision of first medical and qualified medical care for life-saving indications.
The volume of medical care in the VSL due to the short-term stay of the wounded in the camp and due to the lack of inter-car transitions during movement may be limited to emergency first aid measures.
Loading of the wounded and sick into the VSP and VSL should be carried out within a limited time. As devices to speed up loading in the absence of loading platforms (sanitary ramps), you should use standard prefabricated walkways, as well as gangways, ladders, temporary ramps made of sleepers and rails.
In order to create conditions that facilitate servicing the injured and sick on the way, it is necessary to place them in VSP or VSL cars, taking into account the nature and severity of the injury or disease.
In order to avoid loading non-transportable injured and sick people into VSP or VSL, such loading is preceded by evacuation medical transport. sorting (see Medical triage), edges is carried out in a triage hospital (see), evacuation center (see) or other treatment. institution. By the time the VSP or VSL arrives at the loading station, part of the injured and sick to be evacuated is concentrated in advance in a railside receiver, which is intended for their temporary placement before loading onto the VSP or VSL.
On the way to get treatment. measures (dressings, blood transfusions, drug therapy, etc.) are carried out at the place of placement. Only for more complex manipulations are the affected and sick people transferred to the dressing room (operating room).
On a flight from the rear to the active army, the SP and VSL can be used to deliver the necessary medical supplies to the troops. property.
Bibliography Arolovich S. M. The work of a doctor on a military hospital train, Military San. case, No. 3, p. 50, 1942; Baru E.S. Sanitary meetings in the army area, ibid., No. 5-6, p. 50, 1943; Bogatyrev M. F. Operation of the front-line ambulance train during the days of the Great Patriotic War, Sov. honey. No. 10, p. 28, 1942; Military medicine during the Great Patriotic War, ed. E. I. Smirnova, V. 2, p. 346, M., 1945; Zaglukhinsky V.V. Instruments of sanitary tactics, field cover, portable and transportation means, M., 1912; Kapitonov G.I. and BaranovskyG. Ya. Kit for installing sanitary stretchers in covered freight cars, Voyen.-med. zhurn., No. 10, p. 77, 1975; T and m about f e e in with to and y P. P. Vehicles for sanitary evacuation, M.-L., 1940; V o s e H. Der Verwundetentransport aiif der Schiene, Schweiz. Z. Militarmed., Bd 46, S. 65, 1970.
F. A. Ivankovich.
During the Great Patriotic War, military ambulance trains (MSTs), rightly called “hospitals on wheels,” were of great importance for the timely evacuation of wounded and sick soldiers. Their flights were often accompanied by enemy air raids and artillery shelling. It happened that the personnel of these trains entered into open battle with the enemy.
Already on June 24, 1941, the People's Commissariat of Railways instructed the railway departments to form 287 VSP (149 permanent and 138 temporary). However, due to the increased scale of transportation of the wounded and sick, their number had to be significantly increased. Instead of the 149 planned, by the beginning of December, 286 permanent VSPs were formed. Thus, by the specified period, the fleet of permanent and temporary VSPs totaled 424 trains. 60 VSP, i.e. almost 14% of their total number was assigned to the management of the distribution evacuation point (REP-95) stationed in Vologda. The REP hospitals received wounded and sick soldiers from the Leningrad, Karelian and Volkhov fronts. During the period of the most fierce fighting, up to 45 thousand wounded and sick were simultaneously accommodated in the evacuation hospitals of the evacuation point, located mainly in the Vologda region.
At the beginning of July 1941, an extremely unfavorable situation developed in the North-West direction. Nazi troops captured almost the entire Baltic region, and battles took place on the territory of the Leningrad region. Under the current conditions, the flow of wounded to the rear increased sharply. The situation was complicated by the fact that by the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, the armies of the Leningrad Front (23rd, 42nd and 55th) had only 3-4 field mobile hospitals.
During these days, 9-10 sanitary trains arrived in Vologda every day. Often along the route they were subjected to artillery shelling and enemy air raids. Thus, on August 29, 1941, VSP-110 (train chief A.S. Rozhkov, commissar M.P. Mokretsov) evacuated 754 wounded from Leningrad to Vologda. The report on this flight states: “From 12:30 to 21:00 the train was subjected to continuous bombardment. A direct hit from the bomb set fire to two carriages, both of which burned down. Three corpses were recovered from the carriages. All the other wounded people in the carriages were saved.” The documents testify to the courage and self-control shown by military paramedic Taisiya Ostanina and carriage conductor Alexander Kuznetsova. The first, despite enemy shelling, continued to provide assistance to the wounded, and the second, using the hand brake, prevented the train from crashing when it lost control and was going downhill.
On this day, VSP-110 managed to pass the bombed Mgu station, and already on August 30, the Mginsky junction, from where trains went in three directions (to Moscow, Murmansk, Vologda), was in the hands of the enemy. Military ambulance trains assigned to FEP-50 (Leningrad) were cut off from it. Taking into account the operational situation, the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army transferred them to REP-95. It was they who now had to evacuate the wounded and sick from the Leningrad and Karelian fronts, as well as from the 4th, 7th and 54th armies.
On September 8, the blockade ring closed around Leningrad, and in the midst of the preparation of Soviet troops for the relief of the blockade on October 16, 1941, the enemy went on the offensive in the Tikhvin direction. At that time, an evacuation center and one of the REP-95 triage hospitals were located in Tikhvin. VSP-312 arrived here on the ninth flight. Before the team had time to begin loading the wounded, fascist planes attacked. The ice car and storage car were damaged, and a fire broke out in the power station car and three cars for the wounded. The head of the train, military doctor 2nd rank N.P. Danichev and Commissioner P.S. Makhonin were the first to rush to eliminate the danger, captivating others with their example. Nurse Alexandra Evstigneeva especially distinguished herself: she managed to pull three wounded people out from under the wreckage of a carriage, bandaged their wounds and delivered them to a safe place.
In these October days, the evacuation of the wounded from the Karelian Front took place under no less difficult conditions. Thus, near the Virma station north of Petrozavodsk, while transporting the wounded of the 7th Separate Army, VSP-1014 was attacked from the air. The head of the train, military doctor 2nd rank I.A. Novikov reported: “...On October 4, 1941, the joint venture was again attacked by two Junkers-88s, intending to destroy the train... But with rifle and machine-gun fire, one bomber was shot down and fell 8 km from the joint venture, the other had The controls were interrupted and he was forced to land, the crew was captured.” For the excellent performance of the command’s assignments for medical care and protection of the wounded, 8 people from the train personnel were awarded high state awards; the Order of the Red Star was awarded to the head of the train I.A. Novikov, Order of the Red Banner – technical quartermaster 2nd rank G.D. Trofimov and Private P.V. Rokotov, medals “For Courage” - military doctor 3rd rank S.G. Wunsch, nurses V.S. Yakubovskaya, A.M. Golysheva, L.P. Sorokin, medal “For Military Merit” - foreman of conductors K.G. Prefix.
In May 1942, the established practice of operating military sanitary trains was summarized and enshrined in the Manual on the organization and operation of military sanitary trains, which, by order of the GVSU No. 190-a, came into force on May 28, 1942. It, in particular, stated : “The head and commissar of the train are responsible for the political and moral state, high discipline of the crew and the sick and wounded transported, for the safety of the property, equipment and rolling stock of the military hospital train entrusted to them, and for the entire operation of the train as a whole.”
At the end of the summer of 1942, the situation near Tikhvin remained difficult. Chief Surgeon of the Volkhov Front A.A. Vishnevsky wrote in his diary on September 2: “There are a lot of wounded in Tikhvin, many have not really been surgically treated, the heads of the hospitals are asking permission to evacuate some of the wounded directly to Vologda to the REP. There are not enough ambulance trains again.” In such a situation, the timely evacuation of the wounded was significantly complicated by the order of the People's Commissariat of Railways No. 1127 of October 24, 1942, which provided for the dispatch of military hospital trains from administrative stations only to the seventh line in case of violation of the railway operating schedule. At the beginning of 1943, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks canceled this order and restored the previous traffic schedule. Military ambulance trains were again given the right of priority dispatch along the entire route. Empty VSPs went to the front in fourth place, immediately after the military echelons.
This order of movement was especially important for the REP-95 military ambulance trains serving the Leningrad direction, since flights to Leningrad were not only long, but also dangerous. On January 18, 1943, the blockade ring was broken, and after 19 days the railway line on the Zhikharevo-Shlisselburg section was put into operation. REP-95, located in Vologda, received the opportunity of direct rail communication with Leningrad, but in practice it was fraught with great difficulties. On March 8, the enemy significantly intensified the actions of his aviation and artillery here, so train traffic was often interrupted. The evacuation had to be temporarily suspended. It resumed only on May 23 with the commissioning after numerous inspections of the bypass railway line along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. Transportation of the wounded to the rear was carried out by REP-95 military ambulance trains, since the few FEP-50 military ambulance trains were transferred to other fronts after breaking the siege of Leningrad. German aviation did everything to disrupt railway transportation on the Leningrad-Tikhvin line. During the period from the second half of March to June, about 2,000 German aircraft carried out 61 group raids on trains, stations and other objects on this section of the railway. In such conditions, it was very important for the VSP command to prepare the train personnel for any surprises on the upcoming trip, to provide for possible extreme situations.
A striking example of the selfless fulfillment of duty can be the actions of the sergeant-at-arms VSP-162 L.A. Kozina. On February 18, 1944, during an air raid, the eighth carriage was engulfed in flames as a result of a direct hit from two incendiary bombs. Lidiya Alekseevna herself was wounded by shrapnel in her shoulder and thigh, received multiple shrapnel wounds to her face, and burns to both eyes. Nevertheless, she remained inside the burning carriage to provide assistance to the wounded, and managed to carry out five seriously wounded soldiers. For her courage and heroism, she was presented with an award by the train command.
VSP-312 was deservedly considered one of the best. His work experience, by decision of the GVSU, became the property of all medical service personnel. In 1943, the political department of REP-95 published a small book “VSP-312”. In order to promote the team’s achievements more widely, writer V.F. was sent here. Panova. She recalled: “The train was one of the best in the Soviet Union, and the command decided that the train staff should write a brochure about their work - to transfer experience to the staff of the ambulance trains. The Perm branch of the Union of Soviet Writers sent me to help them as a professional journalist...” This, already the second, brochure about VSP-312 was written, but they did not have time to publish it - the war had ended by that time. Bound in red velvet, the manuscript became an honorary exhibit of the Military Medical Museum of the USSR Ministry of Defense. After the war, based on his memories of this military hospital train, V.F. Panova wrote the story “Satellites”.