The Springbok Bailey Bridge

Crossing the River Po in WW II

The Bailey Bridge is considered by many to be 1 of the 3 major reasons the Allies won World War II. Englishman Donald Bailey designed the interlocking bridge, which allowed the allies to cross the many rivers in Europe without delay.

Bailey bridging is comprised of many interchangeable and lightweight modules that fit together without the aid of heavy equipment or cranes. The bridge can be "launched" from one bank to another, and is easily modified for desired length and strength.

The Design of the Bailey Bridge

Donald Bailey, a junior civil servant, had always designed model bridges as a hobby. With the commercial success of Erector sets and Tinker toys in mind, he produced a working model of an interlocking bridge. However, he ended up submitting the design to the War Office. After many experiments and versions, with the original concept and design unchanged, the Bailey Bridge was ready to span the shores of Sicily 2 years later.

The Allies used the bridge to cross the Rhine, the Meuse, and the innumerable rivers that run east and west from the Appenines, saving them months of time.

Using the Springbok Bridge to Cross the Po River

The Po river separated the 8th Army from Hitler's Europe. Allies chose the probable crossing point of Pontelagoscuro, 6 kms beyond the industrial city of Ferrara. The mammoth task of bridging this barrier had been entrusted to the South African Engineer Corps troops, their skill recognized by the 8th Army command after their work in Terni, Italy.

With information from hundreds of aerial photographs, troops carved an exact replica of the site out of the sands Adriatic coast. Undisturbed by enemy action, troops built a Bailey Bridge over the 800 feet of simulated river width. Once completed and tested, troops marked every single part, dismantled the entire structure, and loaded more than 60,000 identified pieces, weighing 1900 tons, into over 600 trucks.

Sporadic fighting was still going on in the city when troops bypassed Ferrara and reached the river bank. The area was littered with tangled remains of the original road and railway bridges, water-filled bomb craters, abandoned bodies, animal carcasses, crumbled brickwork and smashed wooden ammunition carts.

The 8th Army gave priority to the Royal Engineers to float a pontoon bridge for the advance tanks to cross, and then set to work on the Bailey Bridge.

It was a day and a half of clearing before the first base plate was in place. For 6 days, over 1000 men clung to the structure in high winds, rain and heat, working ceaselessly on the bridge.

Named the Springbok bridge, the Bailey bridge opened the artery for the Churchill tanks of the 8th Army to spread over the valley of the Po up to and beyond the Austrian border.

Within days, Italy surrendered; within weeks the war was over.

Modern Uses of the Bailey Bridge

Today, with hardly any modification, Bailey bridging forms part of every civilian emergency force. In 1983, the major U.S. Interstate 95 bridge was restored to traffic in 2 weeks - the permanent replacement took 8 months. After 9/11, a Bailey bridge-turned-ramp brought heavy equipment into Ground Zero. The versatility of the system seems endless - a Bailey bridge even gives access to the ice-bridge anchored in McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.