WWII Bridge. Name of Crossing. ID Wanted [ Bailey Bridge ? ]

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by morrisc8, Jan 1, 2014.

  1. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    I'll side with you on that. All of your original photos as you say are shot towards the left bank (or west or south-west side) which is the flood plain for that loop of the Rhine. The Triumph Bridge looks to be near by though and there's another bombed out bridge as a clue ...? Good video of the Victory Bridge celebrations.
     
  2. morrisc8

    morrisc8 Under the Bed

    Could do with an Air recon photo of the bridge in 1945. :rolleyes:
     
  3. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Hello,

    My first thought on seeing these floating bridges was that it must have put a stop to any kind traffic on a river. The Triumph Bridge was used in a Royal Engineers training video and apparently shows how they were able to quickly dismantle a section to allow the passage of barges on the Rhine.

    "Description

    A British military training film produced by the Directorate of Army Kinematography, approved December 1945. In March 1945 the American Army crossed the Rhine and constructed a Class 40 Bailey Pontoon Bridge at the great inland port of Duisburg. The Royal Engineers were later faced with the problem of restoring river traffic with the minimum dislocation of crossing road traffic. This film shows how the problem was solved by floating away and winching back into position, two sections of the pontoon bridge as required by road and river movements. The film is silent with visuals supported by sub-titles.
    "

    I can't find it on YouTube, but the film is available for purchase from the Australian Archives and the IWM

    http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/F05104/

    http://m.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060006177

    Having said all that I still don't know where the Triumph Bridge was located.

    Regards ...
     
  4. ploughman

    ploughman Junior Member

    Is it possible that there were 2 bridges?

    The Gerows Bridge for Road traffic, this may have been the original crossing.
    Which was later superceeded by the Rail bridge featured in the Film clip, the Victory Bridge.
     
  5. morrisc8

    morrisc8 Under the Bed

    If we add the Triumph Bridge that will be 3 Any more?.
     
  6. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Keith,

    Here's something to confound your mind. The Life photo (Bourke-White) was taken in July of 1945. The number seen at the bottom of the Triumph Bridge sign could signify 1285 Engineer Combat Battalion.

    Comparison-1.jpg Comparison-2.jpg

    Regards ...
     
    Owen likes this.
  7. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    A few final thoughts before this thread slips away to oblivion .... :)

    The simplest explanation I can come up with is that the Gerow Bridge was renamed to the Triumph Bridge sometime later ...? The second line of the sign I believe says "Class 40 Floating Baily". Not much can be made out in the 4th line other than possibly "Rhine River" on the end. All that can be seen in the last line is "1285 ENGR". Owen's original link for the full sized photo is here.

    There's a description of the planning and preparation for the bridge at Rheinhausen in a short history of 1285th Engineer Combat Battalion (page 4) which I'll add along with a post card of the original road bridge, the Admiral Graf Spee, which was blown during the German retreat. Also included is an interesting photo of a U.S. Army man observing the area from an elevated spot. The large sized detailed photo if clicked on is available here.

    Not very relevant, but interesting are photos from a family album during the 1950s. As can be seen the young boy shown was raised in this very neighbourhood.

    http://www.im-hochfeld.de/bilder_privat.html

    Regards ...
     

    Attached Files:

    Owen likes this.
  8. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I'm sure it'll come back to life one day with an amazing nugget of info/photo etc.
    I've enjoyed the thread so far.
     
  9. morrisc8

    morrisc8 Under the Bed

    bridge gun 3.jpg bridge gun 2.jpg bridge gun.jpg This is the field gun near the bridge and you can see the sunken boat. any one ID the Field gun.
    bridge gun 3.jpg Original neg from my collection.

    Original neg from my collection [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2017
  10. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I was going to say,
    57mm Gun M1

    The US version of the 6 pounder.
    Looks like it has folding trails & a straight top gun shield rather than a wavy topped one , which makes it look different to any others I can find on the internet.

    edit: It's airborne 6 Pounder.
    Have seen it named 6 pdr Mk4 on Mk3 (airborne) carriage
    see pic here.
    http://www.testofbattle.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3271&sid=a79f1cc0fb7153412cfdaf0a1efafcac


    [​IMG]
     
  11. morrisc8

    morrisc8 Under the Bed

    Thanks Owen for the ID of the gun. :)
     
  12. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

  13. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    17th Airborne

    One area we haven't explored is the 17th Airborne connection. Keith's original photos were probably taken taken by a 17th Airborne paratrooper. Our resident expert Oz perhaps could shed some light on the subject. Attached is a photo of a flag raising at Duisburg stolen from his site.

    17th AB-Flag Raising-Duisburg.jpg

    Wills thanks for the Critical Past reminder. I checked but couldn't find anything specific other than footage for the Victory Bridge.

    Regards ...
     
  14. 17thairborne

    17thairborne Member

    Cee just forwarded this link to me. I must say I am astounded, though not surprised, by the manner in which everyone on the forum collaborated to identify subjects and share information. What a great group! I am happy to be a new part of this experience.

    oz
     
  15. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    I photgraphed this US 57mm AT gun at Bütgenbach, Belgium. The gun was used by the 1st U.S.Infantry Division in the battle for Domäne Bütgenbach, during the Battle of the Bulge Dec 44, and it has a wavy gun shield.
     

    Attached Files:

  16. idler

    idler GeneralList

    That's odd, because the actual gun is one of the 'dual prpose' ones for tank or carriage mounting. That trapezoidal bracket above the breech is for the recoil buffer when it's fitted in a tank. I wouldn't have thought US guns would have had that feature as they didn't want them for tanks.
     
  17. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
    Another example of a US 57mm AT Gun used near Bütgenbach, Dec44.
     
  18. GuionsGuy

    GuionsGuy New Member

    I found a picture in My grandpa's collection that shows the Victory Bridge sign, just like the Life photo but it shows the most of the lower left corner which refers to what looks like the 333 eng. In his pic there are no guard railings. there seems to be a tank and a few civilians looking across. I can't see much of anything in the background. Grandpa was Private Guion (Guy) Gibson Co B. 524 MP Bn. 44 and 45
     
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  19. GuionsGuy

    GuionsGuy New Member

    [​IMG]
     
    Cee likes this.
  20. ikanbilis

    ikanbilis New Member

    Hello all,
    I am Ian and I have just come across these photo of my Father in Law who sadly passed away recently aged 99.

    He was Walter Broom. Number 5777687 and he served with the 244th Field Company Royal Engineers as part of the 53rd (Welsh) Division, from landing at Arromanches through to Hamburg including the liberation of S'hertogenbosch.

    You probably have worked out the location of the bridge by now but I thought these may be of interest.

    The pictures are of the "Triumph Bridge" I know that because he has marked them on the back and I am pretty sure that the bridge is at Rheinhausen as mentioned elsewhere on this thread.
    He is the Sargent shown outside his billet, which is the single windowed white building shown just below and to the right of the tower in picture "triumph2a"

    Regards Ian
     

    Attached Files:

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