Bailey Rafts

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by SDP, Jun 9, 2012.

  1. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    John

    Langdon mentions the two Comets in one load in Chapter 29: The Aller Bridgehead:12-14th April 1945 on page 149 of his book 'The Sharp End'.

    Why the confusion one v two Comets per raft? I guess 'fog-of-War' or a simple mistake in preparing the manuscript for his book. Note that his book was only published a year or so ago by his Grand-daughter who had originally prepared it with Langdon way back (Langdon died in 2003) i.e. Langdon (rip) would not have been able to proof read the final copy prior to printing.
     
  2. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    I've just read a little further down the page (page 149) of Langdon's book and it states......."As soon as Cpl Brindle had joined Elstob and myself we took up defensive positions"......Circumstantial evidence I know but again implying two Comets per raft.

    My overall thoughts are that, taking into account everything stated in the preceeding few posts it was:
    (i) One tank per Class 40 Bailey Raft and with only the one raft available
    (ii) Langdon and Elstob Comets were over first and then joined by Brindle
    (iii) Langdon or Elstob went over first.
    (iv) The raft used by Elstobs Comet is the one shown on the IWM image BU3435 (another Eureka moment from my point-of-view as that is my fathers Comet and the one depicted by my ww2talk.com avatar :D)
     
  3. JDKR

    JDKR Member

    Steve - Don't know why I hadn't done it before but I have just scanned and enlarged BU3435 and the two half-tracks are both M16 variants with quadruple .50" guns. These vehs would have belonged to 58 LAA Regt and probably to its 172 Bty, which was in action at Essel on 14 Apr against a variety of German aircraft including FW190, Me109, Ar234 and Me262. The photo must have been taken on 12 Apr as that was the only day the ferry was in operation.

    John
     
  4. idler

    idler GeneralList

    von Poop and Aixman like this.
  5. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    We built then at Pegasus. Along with "Tidal" Pontoon bridges. Tiger Urquhart CRE. Forbid tanks and armoured vehicles to cross the bridge at first. It was thought that if the bridge was to go under the weight of armour, it would cut off the Airborne

    Got a mention for the platoons deeds on that effort in the short RE history...
     
  6. Old Git

    Old Git Harmless Curmudgeon

    Apologies for necro-posting in this thread but I've just come across a tidbit of info that reminded me of this thread, and the other just like it, and so I thought that, for the sake of completeness, I'd update it with some relevant info I've discovered! I've just been flicking through "Royal Engineers Training Memorandum, No. 16", dated June 1945. On page 7 / 8 it says this about Class 50 / 60 rafts...


     
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  7. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Fascinating. Makes it all the more important for me to try to establish exactly what happened at the Aller crossing.
     
  8. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Damned fine page, Idler.
    (And the Owner has just tweeted to remind me to have a look at the other articles in his 'Equipment' series, near the bottom of that page - he has a point!)
     
  9. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    70 years ago today. 12th April 1945. Then they met the Tiger on the Ostenholz road (Esselerdam)(thread 'Battlegroup Fehrmann Tiger v three British Comets' refers).
     
  10. S54

    S54 Junior Member

    Any chance of posting that pic SDP?
     
  11. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Andy

    There's a copy in post #6 although it's got a different title (it was only later that John Russell - JDKR - identified it as BU3435). It reminds me that I really must get to the IWM photo archive in Lambeth and get a copy of the original!

    Steve
     
  12. S54

    S54 Junior Member

    Steve

    Sorry I couldn't find the pic of your dad's Comet!

    Andy
     
  13. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Andy

    Apologies for any confusion. The photo is of the same raft - there was only the one used at the Aller - but with a load that crossed the river later in the day before the Bailey Bridge became available. Now....if there is a photo out there that shows the raft with a load of Comet(s), that would really be something......
     
  14. Old Git

    Old Git Harmless Curmudgeon

    Spotted something in a war diary today and immediately thought of this thread, hence the necroposting!

    13 Fd Sqn RE was sister Sqn to 612 Fd Sqn in 11th Armoured and so we can assume that whatever lessons learned by 13 Fd Sqn were passed on to 612 Fd Sqn. I would assume then that Johnny Langdon's book is right and two Comets were most likely transported at a time on a 50/60 ton Raft.

    Pete
     
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