The French railroads run again.

The French railroads run again. At the heels of the Allied armies which drove the German invaders from France, an army of 15,000 U.S. Transport Corps soldiers under Brigadier General C.L. Burpee rebuilt within five months from "D-Day" (June 6, 1944) 2,400 kilometers of double and single track railways which had been hammered in turn by the British Royal Air Force, the U.S. Army Air Forces and the German Luftwaffe, as well as being destroyed during the ground fighting. Of the 11,800 locomotives possessed by the French railroads before the war, only 2,800 were running September 1, 1944. By November 2, the number in service increased to 4,200 and by December 31, the figure is expected to reach 6,000. In addition, nearly 400 U.S. locomotives lent to British railways prior to the landings in Normandy were shipped to France and Belgium. The rebuilding with permanent of temporary structures, and in the order of their importance to traffic, of the 4,000 bridges destroyed by war is being carried out seadily. Two of the most important, the Maintenon viaduc between Paris and Chartres and the railway bridge at Orleans, are scheduled to be ready for traffic bt the end of November, 1944. American soldiers load gasoline cans on French railroad cars for shipment to the front lines. The tank cars in the left background are Italian, French, Belgian, Dutch and German rolling stock taken from the Nazis by the Allies. They are begin cleaned and filled to be sent to the front.