Bridging the Rhine for 12th Corps - March 1945

I found the loose clamp just two or three metres from the concrete slabs - and took it home rather than have the Rhine devour it again...

 

Nice thing to have, especially as the last person to touch it before you was probably the sapper who first put it in place!

 

Had already been wondering, how many cans of WD40 you'd have needed to loosen those bolts...

 

… someone must have loosened them a long time ago when they took the whole structure down... then that someone threw aside the bracket for me to pick it up 76 years later, after floods whashed away the soil covering it all...

 

Might be worth going over the site with a metal detector.

 

... I gave that up many years ago... it is thrilling but you end up with a lot of rusty junk for which you have no place. And no chance to display it. I wonder what to do with the bracket... well, I have a box in the cellar where it will find a resting place. I found a whole Bailey panel close to the this spot (mentioned and shown further up in this thread) - again just by talking a walk. This ended in the local museum - because it has a story to tell, it is something identifiable and can be related to photos of the bridge.

 

If you look closely at this pic, lower right corner, you can see these brackets in use holding the Christ Church Cribs in place.

 

Old Git - the upload of you picture apparently did not work. I can't open it...

 

How odd, I can see it perfectly. It's also one of the pics you posted earlier, I just cut and pasted the image link into my reply. Let me download it and upload it again.

 

I can also see it in the quoted reply from Owen... very strange behaviour.

 

You certainly have a sharp eye, Old Git.
Do you take a special interest in Bailey equipment?

 

Yup, a bit of a Bailey nut. Currently trying to write a book on Bailey!

 

BTW Alberk, if you don't want that bracket I'll happily take it off your hands. I'm pretty sure I can find a use for it.

 

… I'll consider it... but please let me talk to the local museum people first, ok? I doubt that they have any use for it - or can appreciate it - but you never know...

 

I am attaching an excellent thread created by Trux - he describes the crossing of the Rhine by 12th Corps in great detail:
Crossing the Rhine.

 

Thanks for this excellent thread. I need to dig into the reports and then I might have a question or two.

Going to post a question in a separate thread so this can focus on the engineers' work.