European Train Travel in Wartime

[magoctopus]

Hi - I'm trying to find the route and schedule (presumably it took a while!) for traveling from Berlin to (eventually) Portugal in 1940. If anyone has any thoughts about where best to go for the source material, that would be great. Thank you!

[SJAB]

A lot would depend on when in 1940 and your nationality. If from a neutral country, say the USA, with the correct paperwork, prior to the German invasion of France, I would assume you could travel from Germany into France, then to Portugal in not too long a time on standard trains. Though going through Switzerland, would maybe be even quicker, in fact most likely normal train travelling times. I believe a number of Americans were still travelling around Europe, fairly un-hassled. Once France had surrendered, again I believe it would be possible, though perhaps a bit more fraught. Remember the US did not enter the War until December 1941.

Sorry I can't be of more help, good luck with your project.

P.S. you could even travel via Holland and Belgium in the early part of the year. Really it all depended on who you were and where you were from. As for times of trains, you could use the present day train times as a guide, altering them slightly for speed/distance travelled. It depends on how much detail you are going to use.

[magoctopus]

Thank you! This will be in August, and the character in question has (false) Irish papers. I want to get fairly detailed, because it's a bit of a race against time scenario for escaping Europe - a chase is on - and I'm assuming it would take at least several days to get to a coast from which one could sail to Ireland - I'm assuming one couldn't do it from Spain although, embarrassingly, I don't know. If so, that's great. I'm guessing that either way, getting through the necessary bit of France at that time was dicey but still do-able if from a neutral country.

[SJAB]

Well, the Germans were trying to recruit IRA members to act as spies

This BBC site gives some details about Stephen CARROLL-HELD.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3264257.stm

So it is quite possible your character could bluff his way across the country. Spain, though it had a Fascist government under Franco, it was neutral during WWII. Any escaping Allied prisoners, once they made it to Spain, were repatriated.

[pdr]

Let's see. August. Irish papers

Make sure he travels 1st or 2nd class. The 3rd class carried many German soldiers. Officers travelled 1st and sometimes 2nd.

The trains are corridor trains with compartments holding 6 people. The seats are prickly plush, with overhead luggage racks for small bags and cases. Smelled either dusty or very polished clean. There would be black-out blinds. Some compartments were for non-smoking and marked as such.

There would be frequent stops. Checkpoints with soldiers wanting papers and looking at every passenger. Also there would be stops to clear the lines. Trains were frequently blown up or derailed so the train travelled slowly with stops to 'okay' the line ahead.

His clothes had better be carrying Irish tailors' labels and he better speak correctly. People on the train would report anyone they thought suspicious. The soldiers on the train would check anyone foreign not once but many times.

The National Railway Museum at York (UK) has a little information on European timetables. http://www.nrm.org.uk/home/home.asp I'm not sure now if they do e-mail queries. It was postal queries when I needed to check timetables.

[waylander]

Sailing to Ireland would not be without its difficulties. AFAIK there were not regular boat services from Ireland to anywhere other than England. Plus at that time the U-boat war was already underway and the sea lanes would be heavily patrolled by the Royal Navy and RAF as well as the Luftwaffe.