TOP SECRET 3 ANNEX THE ABILITY OF THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM OF THE U.S.S.R. TO SUPPORT SOVIET STRATEGY IN THE EVENT OF GENERAL WAR 1953–56 Introduction The Soviet transport system still suffers to a large extent from the deficiencies which in World War II led the Germans to calculate that it would not be able to bear the strain. Moreover, the fact that in World War II the United Kingdom transport system, although generally supposed to have had some surplus capacity for war, was subject to heavy strains, points to the significance of transport as a possible weakness in the pursuit of modern war by a heavily industrialised Power.