The Basis of Future Operations
and explosives factories, on which everything depended, were at a standstill for days on end. There was plenty of coal, but the railways could not bring it to them. Things became so bad that I had to have daily reports on the supplies to the powder factories.
The Director of Railways, Colonel von Oldershausen, and his Chief of Staff, Major von Stockhausen, were personalities and applied themselves to their immense task with the greatest intelligence. They remained throughout in the closest touch with the military railway authorities in the allied countries, and with the transport ministers of the German States. The existence of the various German railway administrations made the problem much more difficult. We were paying the price of failing to secure greater uniformity before the war, and to insist on all the States keeping to the same standards, Bavaria, for example, had considerably fewer heavy locomotives per kilometre than Prussia. A Bavarian engine required quite different spare parts to a Prussian one. A great deal could have been done to improve matters without any alteration of the Imperial constitution.
Transport difficulties were also increased by the fact that there was no unity of control or management of canal and river navigation. Hitherto this had not been developed, though it was urgently necessary. This omission must be made good. A special Inland Water Transport department was established, and at my request the Admiralty assisted us by recruiting the necessary men.
The transport situation, which had been very bad in the winter of 1916-17, improved later. The railways were severely taxed in the winter of 1917-18 but not so badly as in the spring. The Minister of Labour on hu side did all he could to improve matters.
Coal and iron are the bases of all war industry. We had both in our country. We were able to improve our position considerably, even in our dealings with the neutrals, by our possession of the Longwy and Briey basins, the Belgian coal-fields, and parts of the coal areas of Northern France and Poland, which latter we managed jointly with Austria-Hungary. We began to mine
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