Landships II

kieffer · Commander in Chief

pontoon bridges and other water ferrying

baldwin · Hero

Speaking of bridges I have a copy of the Engineer magazine for 1919 in which there is a very detailed article on the Portable Military Bridges;the Inglis System written by Prof.C.E.Inglis (Major,RE,OBE) in which he describes these experimental bridges.Included in the article are a series of photos showing tanks being used.
I have posted copies to PDA hopefully he can pass these on on Landships

Rectalgia · Legend

I've seen pictures of French sappers somewhere working on a very substantial pontoon bridge. Pontoon bridges were used on the Suez canal. Oddly enough, Australian tunnelling companies did a certain amount of bridge-building but those could have been panel bridges I suppose - but memorable because it was under fire (1st and 3rd Tunnelling Companies at various times, late in the war). That is heavy yet precise work - not a lot of fun amid shot and shell, I'm sure.

P.S. The Turkish army group attacking the Suez canal defences in March 1915 hauled assault boats/pontoons across the "burning sands" (many, many miles) to get them into action.

[edit, make that February 1915 - elements of the Turkish VIII Army Corps attempted to project their 75th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Division across the canal at Tussum and Serapeum on 3-4 February, with their 4th and 8th Engineer Battalions rapidly breaching the (massive) canal berms at the two locations and manning the pontoons (as assault craft in the first instance) that they had dragged across the Sinai desert for the crossing. They were repulsed by the Punjab Regiment, the Rajput Rifles and the 2/10 Gurkha Rifles - with a section of the 3rd Field Company, Australian Engineers tucked in there at El Qantara getting involved too - yes the first AIF formation to come under fire (a non-AIF expeditionary force saw action even earlier, against German possessions in the Oceanic region).]

-- Edited by Rectalgia on Saturday 30th of October 2010 06:16:25 AM

kieffer · Commander in Chief

two pictures, one again the Neutrals, their 'pontonniers' building a bridge.
In Flemish/Dutch speak that's 'een brug slaan'. So much for your Fl.Dutch language lessons. Second picture troops pulling back at Suvla Bay, I presume their 'pontoon' is towed by a ships winch or something or may be a steam launch.
By the way, it seems there are more pictures of blown up bridges than newly engineered ones, well I think Steves adagium comes close to that point, as militatry engineering has two sides.

regards, Kieffer

LincolnTanker · Commander in Chief

Happy New Year all,

�

Hi kieffer just found this site about a captured Turkish�pontoon,�built by the Hilgers Aktiengesellschaft Company in Germany, some decent photos.

�

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-NHSJ06_06-t1-body1-d1.html

�

Turkish pontoon in the yard at the Nelson Gas Works, 2 July 1915. F N Jones Postcard, Ken Wright Collection.

Rectalgia · Legend

Happy New Year Chris. Thanks for that link - most interesting, passed on to the RAE community locally who will similarly find it informative, I'm sure. I think the RAE Corps history might have a bit of background and further detail about the action at Tussum and Serapeum but unfortunately I've not read it first hand. Good Lord the Corps shop was flogging complete sets (4 volumes) of the histories "on special" recently for about the price of a bottle of a�ejo tequila - I really must get myself sorted out and buy one.

Steve

Tankcommander · Colonel

Happy N-Year to all,

Some other photo's of WW1 "water works"

�Country/Date unknown

Br pontoon.jpg

GE pontonbridge 1914 Namur.jpg

German Pontoon bridge 24 Aug 1914, region of Namur (Belgium)

DJ

gemsco · Captain

Well, how about the Belgian pontoons ???

They were in use before the war. During the war they were motorized
Tracted by British Lacre tractors. Unit was known as "Equipages automobiles de pont" gemsco

kieffer · Commander in Chief

gemsco wrote:
Well, how about the Belgian pontoons ???

They were in use before the war. During the war they were motorized
Tracted by British Lacre tractors. Unit was known as "Equipages automobiles de pont" gemsco

�Hi Gemsco,

during the siege of Antwerp some kind of floating bridge was built on the Schelde river. Who actually constructed that one, the military or was that bridge built by civil engineers?

Kieffer

kieffer · Commander in Chief

-- Edited by kieffer on Tuesday 3rd of January 2012 09:21:59 AM