| The Bailey bridge was first developed at what was known as the SRDE - the defence establishmen at Christchurch which was in Hampshire at that time - Donald Bailey was Knighted after the war and lived and died in nearby Bournemouth - now Dorset in 1985. The main manufacturing was done in Lancashire - like Gerry - I too croseed many of them - the most scary being in the mountains in Central Italy when our Churchill tank was disabled and we were on a Transporter when we came upon this 40 Ton bridge - so the whole crew dismounted to guide the driver of the now near 55 ton unit across the bridge - not thinking that if anything untoward had happened - we were on the wrong side of the gorge ! |