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There was an article in "Model Rail" about transporting military vehicles by rail a while ago. Over here, we have two types of transport car - both 4-axle. The "Warwell" (depressed centre, used for heavy and tall cargo such as tanks to get them within the loading guage) and the "Warflat" (basically a heavy-duty flatcar). Both types have screw-down jacks at each end to stablise them for loading/unloading. Many years ago, there were specialist 4-wheel flats designed to double as a loading ramp and equipped with a demountable axle at one end - they would be lifted, the axle unhooked and rolled out as a unit, the buffers at both ends folded back out of the way, and the end of the car lowered onto the ground. Earth or ties were used to protect the rails from the vehicles being loaded, the Warflats/Warwells would be rolled up to the ramp, and the vehicles would be driven onto the cars. The British army still uses Warflats/Warwells - the design hasn't changed much since the 1940s - though now they lay spare ties between the rails and use a couple of prefabricated ramps (I think these are usually part of a prefab bridge, though I could be wrong) to load the cars in place of the old 4-wheel flats with removable axles. <br /> <br />The cars DSchmitt mentioned in France could well be US-built - I know a lot of equipment was shipped over to the UK and then dispatched onward to mainland Europe after D-Day, these were mostly slightly-shrunken (to fit our loading gauge) versions of US designs. Hope this helps!
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