Echelon
Echelon (French - échelon, English - echelon, Russian ечелон) - depending on the context, the term is used to denote:
part of an army's layout; i.e., when moving, the first echelon of the army follows the vanguard, then the second, etc.
a train set with cargo and people transported to a single destination (also used when talking about trains in a military sense), i.e. a train set intended for special purposes.
In the military sense, echelon refers to the arrangement of parts of military formations in a tactical, operational, or strategic order, intended to perform various tasks in different directions (areas) or different spheres of a theater of operations.
More information sources
Category: Tactical units. Arts Buck's Encyclopedic Dictionary of History. https://vesture.eu/Category:Taktisk%C4%81s_vien%C4%ABbas
Echelon (military affair). Wikipedia. https://ej.uz/qgwi
Related objects
Lugaži railway station
Located 3 kilometers from the city of Valka, on the Valka - Inčukalns (A3) highway, on the left side (there is a sign).
During World War II, the Riga - Valka railway line was of particular importance. It served the German army as the main supply artery of the Leningrad Front. Lugaži station was established in 1942 as a Valka substation for the formation of military echelons. It had 12 tracks. The tracks between Lugaži, Valka and Valga stations were also strategically important, forming a triangle between themselves so that armored trains could be turned in the opposite direction. Near the Pilēnieši house (behind the station) there is a collapsed guardhouse, which German soldiers used to monitor prisoners of war - railway workers.
Today, the station building can only be viewed from the outside.
At the Lugaži railway station, since March 25, 1992, a monument has been erected to more than 600 citizens of the Republic of Latvia who were deported to Siberia on March 25, 1949 and before. This is the work of architect Aivars Kondrats, based on the design of the Jānis Sīmanis monument. It is designed as a stone split in half, symbolizing the hearts of the divided Latvian family, in essence also the entire nation with its culture and morals, reminding us of one of the darkest pages in the history of the Latvian people.
