WW2 Bailey Bridge still in use

Not posted here for a while, but thought I'd share with you this find on a recent battlefield recce in Belgium, following the Canadians in the Breskens Pocket (October 1944).

The bridge was built by a RCE unit in 1944 and is still in use.

 

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And a video to prove you can still use it!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeqanHiAPng

 

It is amazing! Obviously built to last. Thanks for posting

 

It was a Royal Canadian Engineers unit - not discovered which one as yet.

Thanks Jeff, a look in the door was long overdue!

 

This is the Google Earth link to where the bridge is.

 

Hi Paul,

I'm unable to open the Google link. Can you add it as an html link? We'll be on a Canadian Battlefields Tour in the spring which includes the Breskens Pockets so would be interested to know if we will be near it. Thanks!

 

Great photos, Paul - just goes to show how something which was once a familiar sight is now a thing of fascination.

I remember as a very young child in the late '50s/early 60s there was a Bailey bridge on a main road in Wiltshire. My Dad explained that it had been 'temporary' since the War. We passed it every year on our way to holiday and I called it the 'bang-bang bridge' because of the noise made by traffic passing over it ( well, I was only 5 or 6 at the time.... )

 

'Standard' Link to Google Maps:
51°14'25.45"N 3°29'0.98"E - Google Maps
But it's much more fun on GE.

~A

 

100 foot triple beam...........helluva bridge. Back in the day, before the canal banks eroded I am sure that would have accomodated a sherman. The three beams on each side is as big as it could go........1 for troops and jeeps, 2 for trucks and arty and 3 for tanks.

Nice find!!!!!

Brad

 

"You mean those precisely engineered steel parts that are the marvel of the civilized world?"

British colonel (played by michael caine) talking to an american major (elliot gould) from "A bridge too Far."

 

Reminds me of some years ago when I went on a Holts Tour to Arnhem. Our guide was Major-General Tony Jones, who as a young Sapper officer was first across Nijmegen Bridge.

He hated that 'Ever built a Bailey Bridge before, son?' scene in 'A Bridge Too Far' - 'I'd have said Of course I have, you bloody fool - what d'you think we've been doing all the way from Normandy !?'

He wasn't joking, either......

 

Actually, a triple triple was the biggest you could get. That was 3 beams across by 3 beams high. Paul, I'll try to track down which RCE Fd Coy built that.

John Sliz

 

This area was in the 3rd Cdn Division's area and during the crossing of the canal, the 16th Field Coy, RCE was in support. Whether they built the bailey at the time or not, is the question. I am willing to gamble that it was one of the 3rd Div's engineers (6th, 16th and 18th Fd Coys) or the Corps troops who built it. I'll keep looking.

Is there anything else you can tell me? A number or a name? Engineers loved naming their bridges.

 

Wouldn't it be great if those who built it and are still alive could take a trip to and reunite at the bridge.

 

No, sadly nothing else on the bridge to identify it.

 

Got it, I think.
page 339 of the RCE Corps History Vol II, "...the 16th Field Company had to put a 100-foot class 40..." (which a triple single is) "...in place over a minor 32-foot water gap south of Aardenburg..."
I think that the canal rises and falls or is wider than it was in 1944. Also, all the other bridges in the area at the time were double-double.

Anyhow, this is my best guess.

John Sliz

John