The pioneers of the German army built the Argonnenbahn as a light railway powered by steam and benzene locomotives to transport troops and to supply the front with building materials, weapons, ammunition and supplies. In the opposite direction, it was used to transport the wounded from the Toter-Mann-Mühle (Dead Man Mill) to the Field Hospital No 5 in Senuc, on wagons prepared for the transport of the wounded in accordance with the wartime medical order book.
Trench railways
Wounded soldiers were transported on the trench railways, which had been laid by the pioneers, using four-wheeled wagons, which were pulled by horses or pushed by paramedics from the reception and triage zone at the medical shelters of the battalion to the terminus of the Argonnenbahn at the Toter-Mann-Mühle (Dead Man Mill). For this purpose, there were 20 waggons, each equipped with an iron frame as a support for 2 stretchers each on coil springs.
Route of the Argonnenbahn (red) and Förderbahn (blue) superimposed onto a modern map
The Americans captured a lot of light railway from the Germans and restored the destroyed rails and started using the railway themselves. The track came from Dun sur meuse, past |Aincreville and Bantheville, to Romagne. Romagne was a junction, straight on, through the main street, to Varennes and Vauquois and right into the bois de Romagne to Sommerance.
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