Been gathering kits together to do a railhead diorama in this coming year. I have two Panther A and some 50 ton flat cars. When the la there de-trained in vicinity of the jump off point to break through to Kovel was it at a rail yard/ station that could facilitate the unloading of equipment or was it a turn 90 degrees to the side and drive off the railcar slowly?
Wild guesses:
I do not think the Germans unloaded tanks from railroad wagons by driving over the side.
Nailing together a ramp from local timber or timber they brought to the site would simpler
and safer for the equipment.
Looks like it could happen
H.P.
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I interpreted the question as jumping off the side, Soviet style out
in the countryside somewhere,
not driving onto a loading platform level with the wagon deck.
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I should have read the post more carefully 
Here’s a faster way
H.P.
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Your interpretation or mine,
only @Gregory_J_Copplin
knows the answer
The tank on its back must have driven off at an oblique angle, not 90 degrees …
My apologies it was open ended. Turning 90 degrees could mean a side to pull onto but i was also wondering because i have read it in armor books that the Germans occasionally did jump off the side Soviet style. Just wasn’t sure if that was the case for Kovel or if they actually had a plan to break through. Guess it is more of a hasty vs methodical(ish) approach.
Wheeled support/logistics vehicles, if they brought any, would have a hard time jumping off …
@Uncle-Heavy thats what i thought as well. I know from the German newsreels they had halftrack 250 / 251 with them. Makes me wonder if it wasn’t a regular station and they took time to unload.
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They would naturally try and unload at a proper platform if possible. However I seem to remember reading somewhere that one panzer unit was caught in open country by a Soviet attack and had to detrain by piling whatever they could find in the way of wood or WHY against the railway wagons so they could drive off.
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In my book on Wiking there is one photo of a Panther from Wiking detraining at Cholm. It is driving off the flatcar onto a platform that looks slightly lower - having turned somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees.
FWIW
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I need to go dig through a few of my reference books that are somewhere in my library. I just can’t remember if they discuss in detail the loading and unloading prior to Kovel.
I certainly have no idea. But in real life witnessed armored vehicles in Germany being driven along the wagons from one to the other from the platform at the rear of the last wagon.
Zimi offers the other option:
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@18bravo i have two of the three Zimi kits sitting in my closet. Glad they came out with some different combos. The box art for the other two vehicles shows them near a platform as well.
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