The following brief report on German "road trains" is taken from Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 17, January 28, 1943. [DISCLAIMER: The following text is taken from the U.S. War Department publication Tactical and Technical Trends. As with all wartime intelligence information, data may be incomplete or inaccurate. No attempt has been made to update or correct the text. Any views or opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the website.]

GERMAN MOTOR VEHICLE ROAD TRAINS Aerial reconnaissance over western Germany in May 1942, showed the use of a motor vehicle road train by the Germans. The train observed appeared to be about 260 feet long and to consist of one very large tractor and seven trailers. The trailers each seemed about 25 feet long. Speed of the train was estimated at 8 to 10 miles an hour. Comment: Road trains have been observed in Germany during recent years. They usually consisted of a tractor (wheeled prime mover) and two or three trailers; no more than four trailers per train were ever observed. It should be noted that the practical use of a long train as described in the paragraph above would be restricted to highways like the Reichsautobahn in Germany, which are very wide, have easy grades, no cross traffic, few and very gradual curves, and avoid all towns.

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