The bridge design that helped win World War II
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- Опубликовано: 20 июн 2024
- It’s a simple innovation that helped win a war.
The Bailey bridge was Donald Bailey’s innovative solution to a number of wartime obstacles. The allies needed a way to cross bodies of water quickly, but bombed-out bridges - or an absence of crossings entirely - made that incredibly difficult. That was only compounded by new, heavy tanks that needed incredibly strong support.
Bailey’s innovation - a modular, moveable panel bridge - solved those problems and gave the allies a huge advantage. The 570-pound steel panel could be lifted by just six men, and the supplies could fit inside small service trucks. Using those manageable materials, soldiers could build crossings sufficient for heavy tanks and other vehicles.
As impressive, the Bailey bridge could be rolled across a gap from one side to the other, making it possible to build covertly or with little access to the other side. Together, all the Bailey bridge’s advantages changed bridge construction and may have helped win the war.
Further reading:
John A. Thierry’s contemporaneous history of the Bailey Bridge provides a great overview:
www.6thcorpscombatengineers.co...
This Army Manual is a great look at how the Bailey Bridge worked:
archive.org/details/Departmen...
A number of good papers about the Bailey Bridge are also available, though they sit behind a paywall. You can read Bailey’s account of his bridge:
www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi...
Denys Begbie and Gwilym Roberts’ paper is a great summary of the Bailey Bridge’s achievements.
www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi...
The same goes for CJH Joiner’s history:
www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi...
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The Bailey Bridge is one of many creative designs used in war - check out our earlier video about the dazzle ships of World War I. ruclips.net/video/zDbq7y20wpw/видео.html
-Phil
oK
Funny bots
umm... newer and modernized china's bridge are more likely to collapse than older ones....
@vox in 0:52 it says Hohenzollern, Germany. You mean the city shown there? That’s Cologne (Köln). Hohenzollern is the Name of a former aristocratic family.
243 people be like: _Dude, I can do bettah than Bailey Bridge!_
Ah yes, another piece of information that i can randomly mention in a conversation
Lol XD
lol
Hey don't call me out like that, dude 😂
XDDD
Copy cat box copies vice
Concorde: "the snoop drooped"
Bailey Bridge: "the snoop droppedn't"
🤔😂😂😂
take my like, wif...friend
Good wisdom Fubuki
i came rushing to the comments to see if anyone else noticed
Ok
*“The snoot didn’t droop.”*
._.
oh no its back
4:10
Rip the droop snoot
Did it BOOP though?
The snoop droot.
What a reference!!!
The concept is so amazing that even now, in case of an urgent need, the civilian govt, when it calls in the army to help build bridges, they make these, overnight! This is in India that I am talking about. And in some of the more inhospitable terrains, instead of having concrete bridges, these Bailey bridges serve as the mainstay!
The ones being used now are the more modern Mabey Universal bridges. The panels are bigger and they use more modern materials and manufacturing methods. But they are very much based on the original Bailey design.
@@JumpSeeker it's only on youtube and reddit where you can find people with this amount of knowledge on extremely specific subjects
@@norked8849 I only know about this because my grandfather worked in the design team at EBE (later MEXE) designing these bridges and later confounded Mabey.
Kolkata Majherhat bridge breaking down and its instant solution xD
@@Browndwarff you need to get out more. There's plenty of incredible people you walk past casually. Sure there's more people from around the world online but those people exist in public as well.
In Malaysia, this kind of Bailey Bridge will be built when a existing bridge is no longer fit for usage, while waiting for the government to approve funds to rebuild the original bridge.
Which take ages or in another words...the next election.
our country is corrupt
There is nothing more permanent than temporary
I remember crossing one in Jerantut when I was a small kid
Got one near batu gajah...
I'm surprised he acknowledged his meme: the snoot droop. Man what a callback.
Lol certainly!
I absolutely hate broken bridges
I just can't get over them
Was curious about your username so clicked on your channel. Your channel is a hidden gem
You have a really amazing channel man
Oh my god you made my day
Lol
I love your channel bro
This brings back memories! When I did my military service here in Sweden 1997-98 I did it as an engineer. Our company was a specialist bridge building company. We soldiers really appreciated this design as it was easy and fast to build. And even though we had some modern equipment at our disposal (like Volvo tractors) we usually used only hand power. Pushing out one of these bridges by hand over whatever obstacle we were facing was a mighty feeling. In Sweden the bridge is known as "balk-bro 2" ("girder bridge 2") which was a constructed name to fit the stamped parts that said "B B m.2".
Fatta!
Säkra!
Lyft!
Those were the commands when lifting one of the bridge panels. 3 people on each side holding onto the wooden lifting bars going through the panel. You really had to think about where you placed the people and match up their lengths so that the load was distributed evenly. And don't have your foot under the panel when you set it down, as one of my comrades did...
There's an old Bailey Bridge near where I live in Wales. It's a bit rusty and they don't vehicles cross it, but it's STILL STANDING TO THIS DAY.
Su’mae. My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather, David Williams, was from Wales. He and his Irish bride, Margaret, came to the American Colonies in the mid 1700's and worked as indentured servants to pay their passage.
@@cjpreach Bore Da to one 64th of you :P
There's a Bailey Bridge across a small river in New Brunswick Canada that's been there forever. My in-laws cross it all the time.
PAVARATTIAARDVARK ! ! ! (I'm just down road from the Brooklyn Bridge, still standing)
@@SgtMjr Haven't been that way in a few years now, but there has been a Bailey bridge on what is now called Old Finch Ave, just north of the Metro Toronto Zoo, for decades.
As a former Army Engineer Officer, thank you for telling this story so well! We still use them today and it’s a testament to how incredible the design is. These bridges are more durable than you would believe. Only thing to add to this great video is how easy it is to train Soldiers on how to deploy the BB- essentially you can train non-engineers (like Infantry or Armor Troops) in a few hours and they can help rapidly deploy one, even in a combat zone. Bravo Vox 👏
Engineers UP. Former Marine Officer and Bridge Platoon Commander 7th Engineers. After reading about 291st Engineer Battalion, their salient point was they could destroy a bridge then replace it in 24 hours. This gave battlefield commanders flexibly in maneuver. So I developed lifting a MBG end of bridge with a CH53 to place near an abutment and pushing into position with either a tank, truck, LAV, then follow with components to span a 60 foot gap with 60 ton load. We built 56 bridges in one year and can say my Marines were were outstanding deploying those bridges.
@@jedibusiness789 great add and Semper Fi! Combat bridging is the part of the equation that professionals understand the value of and amateurs overlook. Alternatively put, “amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics”; Combat bridging combines both! Several of the “temporary” bridges (not BB) my unit deployed in Iraq are still in use today, 12 years after. Essayons!
Here's another interesting trivia: The US later reverse-engineered the Soviet PMP floating pontoon bridge (now one of the most popular of quick-assembly bridges) after seeing the Egyptians using it in the Yom Kippur war.
*the more you know.gif*
Passingly similar tools but each is incapable in certain situations thus why both assets is best.
yes it is a great piece of kit, although requires a lot of trucks to move it. Canada mostly used the raft version for that reason.
Why reverse engineered? Copy is a simpler word.
@@parrotbrand2782 reverse engineering is the process of looking at a finished product and figuring out how it works so you can make your own. copy, in this scenario, implies that they already have the schematics, like how all the AKs are copies because countries just bought the data package from the USSR and modified it slightly. without the plans, they were copying it, but it's an important distinction.
You thought building IKEA furniture was bad, imagine having to construct friggen 200ft long bridge in the middle of the night in the middle of a war.
weird, i dont have the funding of the US army and an entire platoon of manpower helping me build this cupboard
@@LEGIONCABAL On the plus side, nobody is shooting at you while you're building your cupboard.
@@robertsettles2180 Wait, did they actually build the bridges under constant fire? There's like, zero cover on that bridge. And the video implied the problems faced with bridge building were lack of materials, heavy equipment, and geography itself (variable river widths), not building bridges while getting shot at.
Pfft easy
@@awijaya2116 Lookup the "Amazon Bridge" as a good example of building a bailey bridge under fire.
When multiple attempts of Poly Bridge finally works
Fact
I really want to get this game because it's similar to a piece of software I used in school called "west point bridge designer" but epic games keeps pumping out games so quick that I think it'll eventually get there being free
@@Chris-oo8ue as a speedrunner of the game, it’s absolutely worth it to get it. If you think it’ll come out soon for free, wait, but if not, PB2 is wonderful!!!
Ahh yes the winner and losers of WW2
Loser: Hitler
Winner: A bridge
Losers: basically everyone other than the US
@@jholotanbest2688 yep
@@jholotanbest2688 idk i think Canada and Mexico survived pretty well
@@jholotanbest2688 losers : everyone who didn't participate much
@@darealist690 Economically the only real winner was the US
remember boys, never approach a bridge that sounded like accordion.
Lol
or piano
Or had music playing
Or a violin.
Or don’t go near a bridge that makes don’t starve sounds in general
Army Engineer Officer here, the Bailey Bridge is still used today, and we spend weeks learning bridging and train on assembling the very same process to cross gaps. It’s cool to see this historical explainer, but it’s especially cool to have built this and know it’s still effective.
I was a 12C Bridge Crewman in the Army. We built this, the MGB, and the assault float bridge. This brought back some memories. Thanks. If you haven't look up these videos and how they're put in place. It's pretty awesome. We would have races.
@@donaldpoe8166 ESSAYONS!
Yes You are correct Me and my team made 20 bridges from 2018
Essayons
i actually used to go over a Bailey bridge. In 1947 the Shardlow bridge in Derbyshire was washed away and replaced by a Bailey bridge. we had relatives in Derby and used to cross the bridge on the way to visit them. the traffic flow was limited and so was the speed . i used to both love traveling over the bridge and was scared it would collapse. it was replaced in 1957 when i was 10 and i was most disgruntled.
HE SAID IT. HE SAID THE THING! 4:10
"The snoot didn't droop."
"the snoot dropped"
0:49 this is Cologne Germany with it's Hohenzollern Bridge
information like this is underrated. the development of the jerry can is another such topic, its so interesting
Shortly after the war, they built a new roof over the train station in my home town. Since building materials were scarce, they used these Bailey bridge panels to build the structure for the roof. Today it's still in use, and the station has even become an architectural monument.
World's deadliest tank: Churchill
Tiger Tank: *sad tank noises*
@@YahyaAhmed-yt7fg whooosh
The tiger couldn't go like 50 miles without breaking down as it was super unreliable, also later churchill designs were more heavily armoured than the tiger. For example: the churchill mk 7 in the bovington tank museum has 6-7 inches of frontal armour, with the sides also being heavily armoured. In addition, due too the churchill's track design, it could get to places alot of other tanks could not, and its reliable suspension meant that it actually get somewhere without having issues. And let's not get started on the centurion, the best tank of the war I my opinion and many others
@@loganmarriott514 Centurion didn't get used in WW2 tho did it
@@woodchip543 it was sent into Europe in the final months ww2, so it was technically used in ww2
Bob Semple be like
Hold my tractor
There were still alot of Bailey bridges active across liberated Europe til the end if the 70s.
I learned to assemble them in the late 80’s in military training.
I was in the CDN Armed Forces back in the 80's. I was a Field Engineer. We made many of those. The Bailey Bridge is still in use today. When the Red Hill Expressway In Hamilton Ontario Canada was made, a Triple/Double Bailey was constructed as a temporary bridge for one of the roads that crossed over where the Expressway was being made. It was neat to see that they were being used in civilian applications.
I worked supporting the School of Combat Engineering in Chilliwack, they had a training one on the parade square and several for putting across the various rivers and creeks nearby.
In Central America we still build Bailey bridges after permanent bridges are washed out following hurricanes. They have a particular clack-clack sound when you drive over them.
My Dad was in the Royal Engineers during WW2. His unit built many of these bridges including a Bailey pontoon bridge over the Rhine.
If you cannot bridge ur differences in diplomacy, at least you can still make a bridge to get your tanks on their lawn
I used to build those when I was in the army in the 1980s! Memories ... not fond ones. Physically exhausting! At least I didn't have to build one under enemy fire ...
I was a mechanic, but after our sappers got "gassed", everyone else in the company had to go disassemble it to be ready for the next cycle. I also got to drive the bridge truck to haul it off and as soon as I got back to camp, we broke down and moved. Got to our next AO and immediately went on guard duty. It was something like 38 hours with no sleep. Certainly was training for what to expect if the worst happened.
As a 12Bravo I built these in Korea Germany, Canada
Ft silly ft Riley ft Ord
And the first time in
Fort lost in the woods
Missouri
There's still a Bailey Bridge in Palermo, Italy!
2500 to be exact.
As a former combat engineer officer, I came to appreciate the hard work it takes to assemble these by joining in and assembling a couple bridges. This video touches lightly on how you extend span length and load carrying by going single double (side-by -side panels) or double-double (two, side-by-side panels stacked) for which you need a crane. I wonder where they all went. Are they sitting in some depot like Sierra Army Depot? I has been said Donald Bailey breached the patent on the Callender-Hamilton bridge. The only similarity is the pin system to which we best get rid of all threaded bolts.
The structural designs are totally different.
Thank you for making this video. My Grandfather built Bailey bridges in WWII. You video helps me understand what he did. I wish he was still around to tell me more...
I wish you'd talk about the modularity more. These bridge pieces could be used to span a small ditch or gully, or be stacked and layered to make incredibly huge spans. They're like full size Meccano.
Mad how wars have helped us innovate new technologies into this world.
My grandmother was a bridge builder in the world war.....thank you for bringing this story my dads cry cause he remembers it well thank u
When I was an Army ROTC cadet, we spent a weekend in 1983 at Fort Belvoir (Combat Engineer's Officer School) where we were taught how a Bailey Bridge was assembled. They really were pretty straight-forward to assemble. The instructors noted that a number of these "temporary" bridges were used in Europe for decades after WWII.
Out of all the ones built after D-Day in Normandy, the last one was only decomissioned in 2001.
Introduced into Papua New Guinea in WW2, the Bailey Bridge is currently still in use today. Some of them leftover remnants of the war. A testament to it's sturdiness.
I think - just from reading the comments - that this bridge still has a place serving as an emergency bridge all over the world. And there is no doubt it is in every country's military playbook as a tool when needed. A design that has proven useful for the ages - like the arch.
I had the privilege of putting one of these together in 2009 at Fort Leonard wood Missouri during training , was an awesome experience.
Did the same in 1988 and then again in 1992 at Fort Leonard Wood. Built them in Germany in between those dates.
Awesome content! Vox, thank you for the information delivered so professionally...
In my native Costa Rica this type of bridge is almost a national symbol.
The 1986 edition of FM 5-277 Bailey Bridge, still gives the history of the bridge and Donald Bailey
Can I just say, this is one of the best written/produced/directed videos I've seen on Vox!
I loved it all, the AE work on this is just.. EVERYTHING!!
Watching From Kenya🇰🇪🇰🇪
Bridge Simulator grind really payin' off 😥
Bailey do be smurfin
I read an eyewitness account from a Black Watch officer in Holland in 1945. Thet Black Watch advanced and by evening reached were a bridge across the canal which was blown, saw the germans on the other bank. Called the Royal Engineers who started building a Bailey Bridge, at 0430 it was ready , by 0500 all across the bridge and on to the next village were they found the German troops having breakfast.
Wow, My Grandfather built these Bailey Bridges in Europe during WW2. First in Africa, then Italy to France and Belgium and finally Germany! He was building a bridge for General Patton over the Rhine River and was taking strafing Fire from the Luftwaffe while they built it.
Truly interesting! Perhaps part of the reason there have been so many WW2 "bridge" movies. Thank you, Vox!
I grew up close to one of those bridges in Germany! It was the main bridge in our town until about 2010!
Very interesting video! When we talk about wars, most thing about weaponry and completely forget, or is not even aware, that the infrastructure and supply chain is what makes all possible. Hence, part of the military strategy is usually to destroy/interfere with the enemies'.
I think the coolest thing about Bailey bridges is the amount that are still being used today. I can think of a dozen that are being used on public roads in my area alone.
Very interesting! They used this type of bridge for temporary rerouting of traffic a few years ago while working on the huge "Turcot" interchange rebuilding/modernizing project in Montréal, Canada. I did not know about the Bailey Bridge concept back then, but I thought it looked like a very sturdy bridge and just loved the concept.
we in india still have many baily bridge intact
The plant where these were made was located 2km from where I live and a early prototype still stands on some nearby marshland.
I built those during army service as a combat engineer. The transoms weighed 450 lbs. And the panels weighed 400 lbs. It was a lot of work and we spent the night working on one just to dismantle it in the morning.
my grandfather helped build many of these in Italy during WW2... still see the design used as temporary bridges on highways while road crews replace older ones.
Well, it’s so important that’s still in use here in Honduras.
0:50 "Hohenzollern, Germany" that is Cologne or was that somehow called Hohenzollern?
edit: ok the bride itself is called Hohenzollernbrücke
Yup, it's the Hohenzollern bridge in Cologne... which notoriously survived every allied bombardment during the war, only to be blown up by the Wehrmacht as they withdrew across the Rhine on 6 March 1945.
Yeah, I was thinking "Hohenzollern isn't even anywhere near Cologne"
I knew I'll find a "correction comment" if I search long enough^^
After hurricane Katrina in 2005 they used a bailey to span damaged portions of the interstate 10 bridge over the lake allowing access to New Orleans from the eastern side. The bailey was in place for about two years while the new spans were constructed. Signs were posted to reduce speed. Pretty harsh to ride over in a Corvette. The bailey did the job and got the city going.
I had to learn how to build a Bailey Bridge in combat engineer school at Fort Leonard Wood. Thank goodness the US Army uses the Medium Girder Bridge and the Ribbon Float Bridge.
“Now, who here likes a good story about a bridge?” Buzz Killington
You could have added Bridge after "Hohenzollern, Germany" in 0:50 , because it seems that the city is called Hohenzollern, which it isn't (that ist Cologne).
We never learned about these bridges! I wish I could've included the Bailey Bridge as a powerful Ally tool in my history essay. Thanks for the video!
In Eindhoven in the Netherlands, where I went to university, the spans in the roof over the tracks and platforms of the Central Station are Bailey bridge panels, an interesting peacetime use of the system to quickly rebuild in a time of scarcity after the war, which still serves its purpose to this day. If you didn't know you wouldn't notice they were there, but if you are aware it's instantly recognizable.
In mol (Belgium), there is still a ww2 Bailey bridge, that is still in use for normal traffic. But then again, Dutch people probably aren’t surprised by this, since they probably think our entire roadsystem is of the Middle Ages 😜
Was this done shortly after the war or just an inexpensive/innovative way to do the job many years later?
@@foamer443 In 1956, when steel was still relatively scarce, but most bridges had already been rebuilt, so there was a surplus of Bailey Bridge panels. It is now a national monument, in the past decade they did huge renovations and added a new passageway under the tracks, taking great care to jack up the existing structure while they excavated underneath.
Proud that this was designed and built in Sheffield. There are still some over the river Don now
Vox: "I'm going to take someone's niche scholarship and make it a #1 trending book on Amazon."
Thanks for doing a video on military history.
Cool! I've seen one used in forest trails. It was painted and looked like new but dated from the war.
Good video vox. I like history Greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪
Hopefully France will build a bridge to you guys soon xD
Love stories like this 🙌
Bailey Bridges are genius design. I have carried out a condition assessment on a Bailey bridge built by British Garrison in Hong Kong using War Time surplus material few years ago. The Bridge was approx 30m span with 30 ton vehicle loading capacity (actually tank load according to the design manual). The local authority worries the bridge was too old and unable to cope with local development (too many heavy traffic now). The bridge was in good condition with proper maintenence works at the time of inspection, which looks exactly the same type shown in this video.
According to the design manual, the rectangular steel frame can be configured in various version.
1. LHS/RHS - single side frame.
2. LHS/RHS - double side frame
3. LHS/RHS - double side x double deck frame
The more the frames, the longer the span of the bridge or the higher load capacity of the bridge. Very handy structural engineering application during war-time.
MEXE was in Christchurch, Dorset. Opened in 1919 all that is left now is the guardhouse, there is a small section of the Bailey Bridge on the roundabout outside. It should not be forgotten that this establishment also designed many of the most extraordinary pieces of equipment for the army and also systems for the armed forces to follow to give them a tactical advantage.
When You Buy Supplies From A Ship: Cargo
When You Buy Supplies From A Car: Shipment
It's silly, but ngl, it does make me feel proud to be British thinking about how two of the three most important engineering developments of WW2 (usable radar, and this bridge) were feats of British engineering!
More than that. Don't forget cracking Enigma and huge contributions to the Manhattan project.
The most important were nuclear power and the combustible engine (Jet) in my opinion but theres nothing wrong about feeling proud about those you mentioned.
What a great history lesson! I really enjoyed that. I had heard of the Bailey Bridge but didn't know anything about it. Now I do. Thanks. Great video!
Impressive historical video!
On the lighthouse video I asked if the snoot drooped in the comments, and the only like the comment got was from Vox themselves. Thank you for the continued education on snoots and how they do and do not droop. Love y'all 😆
A few of these are still standing here in borneo presumedly built by Australian troops.
My grandad made Bailey bridges in the Korean war but he'd never tell me about it. Thankyou for this video I now have a.better understanding of what he did.
My fathers unit assembled those Bailey bridges during WW2 - ROYAL ENGINEERS 20th FIELD SQUADRON great informative video thank you !
Would build pontoon bridges too !
the churchill. the only tank so slow, your supply lines reach berlin before you do
I always like the editing
Large Bailey bridges are still used in Papua New Guinea outside the city of Lae on Busu road. There’s also an arched Bailey bridge in Holsworthy NSW Australia.
My great-grandpa helped build these bridges!!!
man that bridge holds a heavy load how does it manage to stand
do it
@@perishernandez9051 do it
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life… He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."
@@retrovirus_exe hey thats my line
Spent several weeks learning to deploy the Bailey Bridge at Fort Belvoir, VA. Took quite a bit of engineering to launch successfully.
Seeing that illustration of a dangerous fish inside an Allied field manual from WWII @ 4:39, now I'm intrigued... Next video topic! As for this one, great presentation on the Bailey Bridge
Interesting
4:10
"They call it the "droop snoot""
"Droop snoot?"
"Yes, the snoot would droop"
.."The snoot drooped"
Vox why? This should be illegal to be this detailed and informative. Thank you for your creativity
Excellent job, keep it up
I want a sports car
Porsche : we got chu
I also want a tank that fires 80mm rounds at a max range of 2km
Porsche : you're not going to believe this
Ah yes I love these kind of videos talking about logistics in WW2
The germans didn’t apparently lol
I love straight forward, simple and elegant design. Something that does the job it's meant for, how it's meant to do it and does it exceptionally well.
*chef's kiss*
Bravo Donald Bailey and everyone else that made that possible.
Im from Costa Rica and this design has been part of our country´s development because thanks to the bailey bridges we have connected the roads through all the country, there´s even one in my hometown that is like 70 years old.
People watching This Like:
-in bed
-not in full screen
-Reading Comments .
True that. And I subbed you.
Almost....
Not in full screen yes
Reading Comments yes
In bed no
I'm doing my school work
You’re the first comment lol
No
I love when Vox tackles these ideas, keep up the great work!
I know right This is the most interesting thing I've seen in a while
this bailey bridges still use present days in my country for build new roads, replace broken bridges and temporary bridges when build new ones, because simple to built and did not need complex foundation to support
Did anyone else notice that the diagram about 2:24 has eight lifting the section? Excellent bridge, video and content.
“The snooze didn’t droop” best line from the video