Expedient bridging
 

I barely touched the subject of expedient surfaces in my thread on that subject as I didn't want to overwhelm...or bore anybody with the plethora of surfaces available in WWII. I will be returning to that post time and again to present a fuller discourse on that subject. Today I want to ever so lightly touch on bridging which is a study unto itself. We are all familiar with the concept of spanning a gap above the surface (Bailey bridging) and spanning a gap by floating upon it using FBE (Folding Boat Equipment) which was often used in rafting across a waterway and pontoon floats, both inflatable and rigid hulled for treadway bridges. I'm using the title "Expedient Bridging" as a lead in to some interesting pictures I have where none of the aforementioned equipment is used. Sometimes Engineers had a field problem concerning a gap to be crossed with no or insufficient bridging kit available. The boss said they got to get across so here are some field solutions:

First pic: LVTs as pontoons in the South Pacific
Second pic: local fishing boats as pontoons, a German solution in Norway

When one Ark Bridgelayer is insufficient, use two stacked one on the other! Pictured in Italy, can anyone ID the vehicle on the top?

And a pic of a CMP crossing a Bridge (also in Italy), laid by a Valentine Bridgelayer:

Looks to be either a Sexton sans 25pdr or a defrocked Priest as I don't see a barrel protruding from the vehicle. I have a picture of a Churchill tank crossing the same two ARKs.

Here's one for you Tony, can you identify either of the two vehicles in this picture?

Sherman repaying the favour
 

Here are two pictures, the first is probably familiar to most MLUers. It shows trials with a Sherman traversing an obstacle on a 79th Armoured Division Churchill ARK, we all know the contribution that the Churchill ARKs made to the war effort. Perhaps not as well known is the second picture where a Sherman is repaying the favour to a Churchill tank. Anybody know what this Sherman Armored Ramp carrier is called?

Twaby Ark
 

Derek

This is either the Twaby Ark or one of the similar vehicles derived from it. Not proceeded with as the Churchill was an easier shape to deal with.

Chris

LVT-1s in photo 1
 

The vehicles used to support the roadway in photo 1 are Amphibian Tractors T33 or LVT(1)s. These were the first of the LVTs to see service in large numbers and were quite primitive by later standards having no suspension whatever only guide rails for the track to run on. They had no road wheels or idlers, not even a return idler only a shoe that could be pushed out to tension the track which had rollers on the link pins that ran on the rails.

There are still quite a lot of them to be found abandoned on various Pacific islands such as Gasmata and they seem to have been treated as very expendable.

David