Forty-and-eights
| Forty-and-Eights | |
|---|---|
 "Forty and Eight" boxcar at theNational Museum of the Air ForceatWright-Patterson Air Force Base | |
| Capacity | 40 men or 8 horses or 20 tonnes (19.7 long tons; 22.0 short tons) of supplies |
| Operators | French ArmyandWehrmacht |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 7.9 tonnes (7.8 long tons; 8.7 short tons) tare |
| Braking system(s) | Air |
| Coupling system | Buffers and chain |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm(4 ft8+1⁄2in) |
Forty-and-Eight boxcars(French:Quarante et huit), commonly referred to asForty-and-Eights,were types ofFrenchboxcars(voiture) used by theFrench ArmyandWehrmacht.British and American troops were transported to theWestern Frontin the boxcars marked with "40-8" to denote their capacity: 40 men or 8 horses.
History
[edit]
Introduced in the 1870s, the boxcars were pressed into military service by the French Army in both world wars. Between 1940 and 1944 occupying German forces used forty-and-eights to transport troops,POWs,horses, freight, and civilian prisoners toconcentration camps.Following theAlliedlanding at Normandy in June, 1944, the Germans were pushed eastward towards the Rhine. Trains of forty-and-eights were frequenttargets of opportunityfor Alliedfighter-bombers,with carloads of prisoners occasionally being victimized. As France was liberated forty-and-eights were used to transport Allied soldiers and materials to the shifting front through War's end in 1945.
Merci Train boxcars
[edit]In 1949, France sent 49 forty-and-eights to the United States laden with donations from citizens of France in thanks for the U.S.' role in the liberation of France, one for each of the then forty-eight states and one forWashington, D.C.,andHawaiito share. Called theMerci Train,it was sent in response to theFriendship TrainAmerica had created two years earlier to aid France in the dire immediate aftermath of World War II; 700 boxcars worth of donated supplies were collected across the U.S. and shipped across the Atlantic via donated transport.
External links
[edit]
Media related toForty-and-eight boxcarsat Wikimedia Commons
