During World War II, the railway was strategically important for transporting troops, vehicles and supplies.<\/p>\n
During that war, one of the most important railway junctions in Nazi-occupied France was in Benestroff<\/strong>, a town in northeastern France located 28 kilometers from the border with Germany, on the railway line of R\u00e9ding to Metz-Ville. This railway junction, located to the west of the town, had a splendid roundabout for steam locomotives<\/strong>, built between 1929 and 1930 by the Alsace and Lorraine Railway Administration, becoming part of the National Company in 1938. of French Railways (SNCF).<\/p>\n During the World War II, the French region of Moselle, where this railway junction was located, was annexed by Germany<\/strong>, so both the junction and the depot came to be managed by the German railway company Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) from July 1, 1940 until the end of the war.<\/p>\n In its heyday, the Benestroff roundabout housed up to 40 locomotives, and the railway junction played a very important role in sending German troops to France<\/strong>. However, during the war these facilities began to lose their importance, probably due to the intense Allied bombings that occurred in this region.<\/p>\n Benestroff was liberated on November 19, 1944<\/strong> by the 104th Infantry Regiment of the US Army, passing the railway junction to be managed by the 718th Railway Operations Battalion of the US Army.<\/strong> strong> After the war, the facilities returned to the hands of SNCF, to be finally abandoned in 1956. Last Saturday, LostintimeNL<\/a> published a video showing the ruins of the old Benestroff locomotive roundabout<\/strong>, today surrounded by trees:<\/p>\n
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