Corduroy road on the march to the Volkhov, April 1942
Here, one can sense the difficulties involved in bringing necessary supplies to the battle lines along the Volkhov. One hardly dares to imagine the plight of soldiers on both sides who had to fight in such a quagmire—or what they endured if they were severely wounded.
In terms of construction, the photograph illustrates the immense labor required to build such tracks, as the longitudinal and transverse timbers had to be laid and secured by hand across difficult terrain. The fact that such corduroy roads have served as trade routes through impassable marshland for millennia highlights the timeless nature of this primitive yet vital infrastructure. During the fighting along the Volkhov, these causeways often provided the only viable route for horse-drawn units to advance through terrain fiercely contested by the Red Army.
The visually distinct text was created in July 2026 with the help of the AI Gemini. - Page translated with Google.
