Bailey Bridges

Thers a Bailey Bridge on the Range road as you go down towards the firing point at Beckingham Ranges/Camp in Notts or Lincs.

I don't suppose anyone has a picture?

 

It seems the one on Stanford Battle Area (as seen in Dad's Army) has gone, or will be going (see last para): Ministry of Defence | Defence News | Training and Adventure | New training area recreates Middle East in Norfolk

Real reason for bumping the thread was to boast that there's one near me:
IWA Peterborough Branch
I think this is it on GoogleMaps
Shall have to take the better half out for a romantic walk...

 

fascinating subject, one I've done a bit of reading/research on. Donald Bailey has to be one of the most unsung inventors of the war, especially considering before the war when he presented the idea the War Office told him to go away and stop wasting their time!

I'm not sure if its already being mentioned but there is a small, early Bailey at Christchurch, near the MEXE (Military Experimental Establishment). I also saw a bridge constructed out of Bailey sections over the A3 somewhere around Richmond/Twickenham.

Something else I looked into a while back was a file in TNA containing a report into the feasibility of carrying Bailey Bridges by Dakota. Full of loading manifests, diagrams, photographs and the like.

 

On operation Market garden we were forced to stop at Euvelwegen. A monastery.. We had run out of everything. While there we built a little bailey over a stream for the Monks there..... A quickie; I wonder if it is still there .

I know that the buildings are no longer occupied by the "White Brothers" and is now I believe, a home for those with learning difficulties?????
Sapper

 

I love Bailey's, never had the pleasure of building a real one though. I'd love to have a go. Whilst visiting the RE museum once they took pity on my affliction and let me have some of the 1/6th scale model Baileys, (built by Basset-Lowke during the war) used to help train the sappers under class-room conditions on how to build Bailey. I remember when I got home that night I started bridging the Kitchen, my wife walked in took one look at it all and said... "that better be gone by morning"... why do women never understand!

I'd love a full kit of 1/6th scale Bailey I can't think of a better way to spend Sunday morning than in the garden with the boys building all manner of Bailey erections. So if anyone knows where I can get my hands on a 1/6 Bailey Kit let me know, I know what they go for and I have the cash waiting!

Incidentally, it seems like a little known fact that after the breakout from Normandy the British dash up through France and into Belgium was very much faster than the much vaunted 1940 Nazi Blitzkrieg in the opposite direction. This was in no small part due to the Bailey and Meteor equipped Cromwells of the Recce units. To paraphrase that famous quote from Zulu, "Great British Steel, with a bit of guts behind it". I love Bailey!

I've just remembered something, I have heard that the Americans also made some Bailey during the war (although nowhere near as much as we made) but, due to some confusion over interpreatation of dims, the US stuff was incompatible with the British stuff. To avoid confusion, should the potential for it ever arise, the British stuff was painted brown whilst the US stuff was OD green. Can anyone confirm of deny?

 

Got some pictures here of 2 that where build in Arnhem over the
river Rhine.

operation market garden-john frost bridge

 

OG - was this the instruction manual?

I was also able to make a flying visit to our local example; this is the one that has been raised in the last few years to open up the drain for rivercraft. It turns out it is somebody's drive so there's no access onto the bridge itself but I got a few shots:

 

Instruction Manual, LOL, who said it came with an instruction manual! Where's the fun in that! I figured most of it out by trial and error before picking up the 1944 publication of 'Bailey Bridges: Normal uses' and also a Thomas Storey hardback which also gave chapter and verse.. If memory serves me correctly by 1945 we had SWBB, (Standard Widened Bailey Bridge) and by 50 - 53 we were on EWBB, (Extra-Wide Bailey Bridge). Each has it's own peculiarities and these mods were driven by tank designs.

BTW Fantastic pics, really like the one from underneath showing the braces. I bet Sapper remembers tightening those things by hand!

 

We built the one at Weert. and prepared to blow it, as we were isolated there and there was a counter attack pending.
.
WE built the Pegasus bridge, the Tidal one. Under quite heavy fire. Most of ours were assault bridges, consolidated by the follow up forces.

Somewhere on the net is a picture of some civilians crossing a partly destroyed bridge over the canal at Weert.... with planks laid out for them to cross. Just a group of civilians with a boy amongst them. I was under the bridge in a boat at the time.... I have never found that photo again.
Sapper

 

Somewhere I've got a post-war manufacturers handbook for the Bailey, its a veritable goldmine of information and data

 

That'll be the Thomas Storey book!

 

Hi, im currently trying to list details of the bailey bridges built by 555 field company of the 53rd welsh division on to my website 555 field company royal engineers - Home help and comments are greatly appreciated.

 

Afternoon all,

Can anyone confirm that the photos attached are definitely of a Bailey bridge? It appears so from my limited knowledge of the subject but it would be nice to get it confirmed. The bridge is over the River Darent, near Eynsford in Kent, and I noticed it yesterday whilst on an unrelated survey job.

Ta

CS

 

That'll be the Thomas Storey book!

thats the one!

 

Its really enfuriating but I found a photograph somewhere on the forum once of a Bailey bridge in the Argenta gap; that an M10 Tank destroyer had toppled off from. I don't suppose anyone has seen it? It was only after that I realized it was the same tank I had read about in the guards war diary (it may have been an ark bridge)

 

Afternoon all,

Can anyone confirm that the photos attached are definitely of a Bailey bridge? It appears so from my limited knowledge of the subject but it would be nice to get it confirmed. The bridge is over the River Darent, near Eynsford in Kent, and I noticed it yesterday whilst on an unrelated survey job.

Ta

CS

Looks like one to me and here is another to compare.



Bailey Bridge

Regards
Tom

 

Looks like one to me and here is another to compare.



Bailey Bridge

Regards
Tom

Thanks Tom, that does look exactly the same. I suppose, however, that Bailey kit was still being built post-war and it may be difficult to distinguish between wartime and post-war kit.

H

 

Capt S,

Have a look at this website.

Mabey & Johnson - Quick, simple, reliable bridges

Regards
Tom

 

Thanks, Tom, there is some good stuff on there.