MILITARY BRIDGES
Bridging has always been an important part of actual warfare. In my
school days I studied "Cæsar" from a textbook which is not much in use
nowadays and which had very copious notes, prominent among which was a
description, with drawings, of a bridge made by the Roman Legions in
Gaul. And a fine bridge it was, too. How its details came to be known
was partly through the description given by Cæsar himself and partly by
a study of certain old timbers found in the bed of the Rhone, which
timbers were believed to be relics of the very bridge which the great
Julius himself had had built.
This bridge of nearly two thousand years ago appeared to be built of
baulks of timber fastened together in very much the same manner as that
adopted by the engineering units of the great armies of to-day.
Every observant person has noticed how tall poles and short sticks tied
together with ropes can be fashioned into the firm, strong scaffolding
from which workmen can in safety raise great tall buildings. That mode
of construction can always be used to form a bridge.
Equally well known, no doubt, are the gantries built over the footway
while a large building is in course of construction. Generally of huge
square baulks of timber, they are intended to carry very heavy loads of
materials and to save the public passing beneath from any possibility of
damage through heavy objects falling from above. Those gantries furnish
us with an example of another sort of construction in wood which can be
and is often used in bridging.
When the Germans retired in Northern France they blew up all bridges
behind them, and before the Allies could use those bridges they had to
repair them. If only for foot-traffic, a contrivance of poles, lashed
together after the manner of the builder's scaffold, is ample in most of
such cases and by its means a strong and safe bridge can be made upon
what is left of the old bridge in the course of a few hours. For light
vehicles a similar structure but made stronger by more lashings and of
poles closer together will suffice, but for heavy traffic, with guns and
possibly railway trains, recourse has to be had to the heavy timberwork
exemplified by the builder's gantry. This takes longer to make, since
the timbers are big, heavy and not easy to move about: they are,
moreover, not simply laid beside or across each other and tied, but are
cut the right lengths, and one is notched where the end of another fits
into or against it. The baulks are connected by bolts and nuts for which
holes have to be drilled or by rods of iron with a sharply pointed prong
on each end stretching across from one baulk to another, one prong being
driven into each.
With the long-thought-out military operations of modern warfare it is
just possible that steelwork for repairing certain particular bridges
might be prepared in advance and simply launched across when the time
arrives, but that is manifestly impossible except in certain cases and
under particularly favourable conditions, such as railway facilities for
bringing up the new bridge close to the site where it is to go.
Nearly every military bridge therefore has to be more or less improvised
on the spot. In a highly developed country scaffold poles or baulks may
be found or brought up by road or rail, in less civilised lands their
equivalents may be cut and prepared from neighbouring forests, but all
armies have, as a recognised part of their organisation, certain
engineering "field companies," and "bridging trains," which carry with
them large quantities of material carefully schemed out long in advance,
so shaped and so prepared that it can be fashioned into almost anything,
much as the strips of a boy's "meccano" can be adapted to form a great
variety of objects.
First, there are pontoons, large though light boats or punts, about 20
feet long, constructed of thin wood with canvas cemented all over to
give additional strength and water-tightness. Each pontoon rides upon
its own carriage upon which there are also stowed away quantities of
timbers of various sorts, anchors for holding the pontoons in place,
oars for rowing them, ropes of different kinds, and so on.
Each pontoon, moreover, is divided about the middle into two pieces
called respectively the bow piece and the stern piece. The two are
normally coupled together by cunningly devised fastenings but they can
be quickly separated, in which state they form two shorter boats.
Other carriages carry more timber and material intended for the purpose
of forming "trestle bridges" but which is also usable in connection with
the pontoons.
Of this material the chief sorts are "legs," long straight pieces which
form the uprights; transomes, heavier beams which can be fitted across
horizontally between two legs so that the three form a huge letter H or
a very robust Rugby goal; "baulks" which are light timbers tapered off
towards each end for the sake of lightness and of such size that they
fit snugly into notches which are cut in the upper surface of the
transomes; and planks called "chesses" for forming the floors of a
bridge.
Probably the most dramatic incident of the war was when the British,
having been apparently beaten by the Turks in Mesopotamia, driven far
back and their General and many troops captured, suddenly turned the
tables upon their enemies, driving them from Kut and sending them
fleeing helter-skelter to Bagdad and then beyond. Now the capture of Kut
and then of Bagdad were both made possible by the rapid bridging of the
Tigris, and without doubt this is the sort of material which was used.
Let us see how it is done.
An army arrives at a river across which it is decided to throw a pontoon
bridge. The pontoons are unloaded off their wagons and launched into
the water. One is rowed out and anchored a little way from the shore,
while upon the bank parallel with the river is laid a "transome." On the
centre of the pontoon is a centre beam with notches in it like those in
the transomes and from the one to the other "baulks" are passed.
Meanwhile a second pontoon has been rowed into place and more baulks are
passed from the first pontoon to the second, while chesses are laid upon
the baulks to form a platform or floor.
Thus, pontoon by pontoon, the bridge grows until it has reached the
further bank.
If pontoons are scarce and the loads to be carried by the bridge are
light they are divided in two, and instead of a row of pontoons joined
by "baulks" there is a row of "pieces" joined by baulks. Pieces arranged
thus form a light bridge, pontoons a medium bridge, while pontoons
placed closer together form a heavy bridge. Which shall be built depends
upon the number of pontoons available in relation to the width of the
river and the nature of the traffic which will have to pass over.
An alternative arrangement is to make the pontoons up first into groups
or rafts and then bridge from raft to raft instead of bridging between
pontoons.
There is still another way of making the bridge, and that is to put it
together alongside the bank, afterwards swinging it across the river
like the opening or shutting of a door. Anyone can see that there must
be many advantages in this latter method when it is practicable, since
more men can work at once and with greater safety, for all will be near
the bank.
It is evident that such a structure depends for its security entirely
upon the anchors. Those which are carried for the purpose are like those
of a ship but there may not be enough or they may not suit every kind of
river-bed. They are often improvised therefore. Two wagon wheels lashed
together, with heavy stones clipped between them, are said to be a very
effective anchor. Under certain conditions a net filled with stones is
surprisingly effective. Two pickaxes tied together form a good imitation
of the conventional anchor, as also does a harrow sunk and held down by
stones thrown upon it.
Trestle bridges are made in quite a different way. The trestles are
formed of two legs or uprights with a transome between, a shape which
resembles, as has been already remarked, a very robust Rugby goal. The
transome is connected to the legs by a special form of band which
permits it to be fixed at any height without having to drill any special
holes for the connections. The legs are so shaped at their ends that
they can be shod with steel shoes provided for the purpose, enabling
them to get a good foothold even on shifty soil. The trestles are put
together ashore, and each is taken out in a boat or on a pontoon to the
place where it is to stand. Then it is launched feet foremost into the
water, the boat being on the side away from the shore, so that a rope
from the trestle to the shore will enable men on land to pull the
trestle into an upright position.
[Illustration: AN INCIDENT AT LOOS.
This picture gives us some little idea of the devastation caused by
modern weapons. It also shows the inventiveness of the soldier who makes
his rifle into a battering-ram. Incidentally we see a kind-hearted
soldier rescuing a little girl from danger. This incident really
happened.]
Thus trestle after trestle is added until the bridge has grown right
across the water to the further bank. The trestles cannot fall over
sideways because of their own width, they cannot fall forwards or
backwards because of the "baulks" which pass between them and carry the
floor, but as a precaution diagonal ties of rope are always added here
and there along the bridge, that is to say, two trestles are tied
together with two ropes, each rope passing from the bottom of one
trestle to the top of the other, a form of tying which is very effective
and very easy and simple to carry out.
One interesting thing to notice is the form of the "baulks," in which
connection I would like to remark that when I use the word without
inverted commas I mean it in the ordinary sense as implying a big heavy
timber, but when I use the commas I mean it in its technical sense as it
is used in military engineering. In this latter sense it describes the
timbers specially provided for the purposes just described. Large
supplies of the ordinary heavy baulks could not be carried with an army:
but strength is required nevertheless. Hence the military engineers have
invented a form which combines strength with lightness.
If you stand a plank upon its edge, supported at each end so as to form
a beam, its strength will vary as its width and as the _square of its
height_. If then you double its width you only double its strength, but
if you double its height you multiply its strength _four_ times. If you
halve the width of a given beam you halve its strength, but if you then
double its height you quadruple that half, in other words, without
making the beam any heavier by these two operations you double its
strength. Moreover, if you support a beam at each end and pass a load
over it or spread a load permanently upon it, its greatest strength is
required in the middle. You can shave away the ends without making the
beam as a whole any less strong. So these "baulks" are made like planks,
very oblong if looked at endwise, also thinner at the ends than in the
middle. But if by chance they tipped over on to their sides they would
for that very reason be very weak, and that is why the notches are
provided in the transomes and the centre beams of the pontoons, in order
that the "baulks," having been laid edgewise in them, cannot tip over.
Thus a considerable saving is made in the weight of the bridging
material to be carried.
It sometimes happens that when a trestle is dropped into the water one
leg will fall into a depression in the river-bed or will sink more
deeply if the bed be soft, leaving the whole structure lop-sided and
useless. That, however, is easily overcome, since it is provided
against. A little iron bracket, which is carried for the purpose, is
clipped on to the leg which has sunk near its top and on to it is hung a
pair of pulley blocks--one of those little contrivances which everyone
has seen at some time or another by which one man pulling a chain
quickly can raise, although slowly, a heavy load. By this means the end
of the transome is raised until it is horizontal and the legs have
assumed an upright posture, when the transome is refastened to the leg
in its new position. Thus we see the advantage of clamping the transome
to the leg rather than fixing it with any arrangement of holes. The iron
band, which is fastened on to the transome and which grasps the leg, is
so arranged that the greater the load the more tightly does it hold, so
that it is perfectly safe under all conditions.
The trestle bridge has a great advantage over the floating bridge if the
height of the water varies at all, as for instance, with the tide. The
former remains still, while the latter goes up and down, requiring a
special arrangement to be contrived for connecting it to the shore.
Under some conditions a suspension bridge is the most convenient form of
all, particularly if the banks are high and strong, or if the current be
very rapid or the river-bed very soft. In such cases steel wire ropes
are stretched across the water between two trestles. The latter may be
made in the way just described, but more often they have to be stronger
and are built specially out of big strong timbers securely fastened
together. Their form does not matter much so long as they are strong and
stiff, high enough to carry the ends of the suspension ropes and of such
a shape as not to block the entrance to the bridge itself. The higher
they are the better, because, according to the natural laws which govern
such things, the more sag or dip there is in the ropes across the river
the less severely will they be strained. They need to be very strong, as
the whole weight of the bridge and its load falls upon their shoulders.
The pull of the suspension ropes, moreover, tends to pull them forward
into the water, so they must be held back by other strong ropes called
guys, and the action of these two sets of ropes entails the unfortunate
trestles bearing really _more_ weight than the actual weight of the
bridge and load. The guys, too, require very strong anchorage or at the
critical moment they may give way, when the whole contrivance, with
possibly valuable guns or ammunition on board, will be precipitated into
the water. The men may be able to swim but the guns will sink.
Having, then, constructed a trestle upon each bank, securely guyed it
back and connected the suspension ropes to it, the next operation is to
attach smaller vertical ropes to the suspension ropes at intervals, to
support the ends of the transomes. Then upon the latter are laid
"baulks" and upon them the flooring as usual. Or if ropes be not
sufficiently plentiful, timbers may be lashed on to the suspension ropes
instead, the transomes being fastened to them.
That is all that is absolutely essential to a suspension bridge, but one
so formed would be rather flimsy and unstable. It needs to be stiffened
by diagonal timbers at suitable places and often it has props placed
upon the bank reaching out as far as their length will permit over the
water to steady and consolidate what to commence with is rather too much
like a spider's web. Those little strengthening dodges can be laid down
in no books. They need to be left to the judgment of the men in charge
to do what is necessary in the best way they can with the materials
which happen to be at hand.
But very often warfare has to be carried on in the most outlandish
places where armies can only travel light, and where, hampered by
bridging material of the conventional sort, they would have no chance
in catching up with a fleet and agile native enemy. Yet bridges are
needed even more under those conditions perhaps than under any other.
There are many examples of this in the wars just beyond the frontier in
Northern India. Then ingenuity has to make good the luck of prepared
material and the bridges are made of those materials which happen to be
procurable.
An army in India once wanted to cross a river, where no materials of the
ordinary kind were available. The river, however, was lined with tall
reeds. A reed has for centuries been a favourite example of weakness and
untrustworthiness, so how can reeds be made to form a safe bridge? This
is how it was done.
Great quantities of reeds were cut and were made up into neat round
bundles about a foot in diameter. Ropes were scarce too, but these
likewise were improvised by twisting long grasses into ropes. It is
surprising what good ones can be made in this way, and they served their
purpose well. Many bundles having thus been made numbers of them were
tied together so as to form rafts. Each bundle in fact was a small
pontoon, and the rafts which were thus constituted differed only in size
from the regulation rafts made of pontoons.
While this work was being done two ropes were got across the river and
secured on both banks: then rafts were floated down in succession, each
one on arrival being tied up under the two ropes. Finally a track of
boards was laid over the centre and the bridge was strong enough for
men in fours to walk over it.
Had it been necessary, the floor could have been made of brushwood,
interlaced so as to form a kind of continuous matting or of a layer of
branches covered with canvas. Floors for bridges can be made in many
ways.
A dodge which soldiers in the British Army are taught is how to make
boats for bridging purposes out of a tarpaulin or piece of canvas,
supported on a framework of light wood poles or twigs. The outline of
the boat is first drawn roughly on the ground. Then three posts are
driven in on the centre line of the boat and to the top of these three a
horizontal pole is tied, thin, flexible branches stripped of their bark,
being fixed by having their ends stuck in the ground on either side. The
ends are driven in on the outline already marked out so that when done
the branches form a framework like the ribs of a boat upside down. Other
branches are intertwined among these so as to bind them together and
finally a tarpaulin or canvas sheet is laid over all. A number of boats
formed after this fashion can be used as pontoons to support a bridge,
or several can be made into a raft and towed to and fro--a sort of
floating bridge.
Another scheme is to make a number of crates like those in which
crockery and other things are often packed. These are of very simple and
easy construction, consisting of sticks slightly pointed at the ends
driven into other pieces which are perforated with suitable holes to
receive the ends. The only tools necessary are an axe (or even a
pocket-knife will do) to sharpen the ends and an auger to make the
holes. Almost any sort of wood can be made to serve. The cover for this,
and indeed for most of these improvised rafts, is tarpaulin or canvas,
the latter of which, being the material used for so many purposes, is
almost sure to be available in some form or other.
For instance, every one of those familiar "General Service Wagons" has
its large canvas cover. In fact, a general service wagon, taken off its
wheels and wrapped up in its own canvas cover, makes quite a serviceable
boat, pontoon, punt, barge or whatever you like to call it.
Then there is an ingenious type of little bridge which can be quickly
and easily made where bamboos or similar light canes or sticks are
available. The only tool required in making this is a couple of poles
ten feet or so in length. To commence with, these poles are laid side by
side upon the bank with one end of each pointed out over the water,
overhanging it by about four feet. Two men then climb along these, while
others sit upon the inshore ends to keep them from tipping into the
water.
Seated, then, on the outer ends of the poles the men drive some bamboos
or whatever they are using into the water, after which they tie a
crosspiece to the uprights, so forming a light trestle. Then the poles
are pushed forward until they overhang another four feet beyond the
trestle just made, the other men, of course, continuing to sit upon the
rear ends. And so the bridge grows until it entirely crosses the
stream.
Between the trestles other light poles are laid and tied, forming the
floor upon which men can cross in single file.
Another type, known as the "hop pole" bridge is made of slightly heavier
poles which are tied together in threes so as to form isosceles
triangles. Each triangle forms one trestle.
The two poles which form the sides project a little above the apex so
that in fact we have an isosceles triangle with a V at the apex. To the
root of the V another pole is tied loosely and the whole trestle is
pushed feet first into the water. Then, by pushing the pole, it is
forced into an upright position in which it is secured by the pole being
firmly fixed to the shore and strongly lashed to the root of the V
where, before, it was only loosely tied. A second trestle is then in
like manner fixed in front of the first one, connected to it by a pole
just as the first is connected to the bank. And so the thing grows. To
all the upper ends of the V's a light pole is tied to form a handrail.
In this case, of course, the floor of the bridge is nothing more than a
pole, but with the assistance of a handrail it is quite easy to walk
along a single pole.
And that reminds me of a simple type of suspension bridge which, an
engineer officer once assured me, is actually copied from one habitually
made by some of the Indian natives. It consists of three ropes upon one
of which you walk, while the other two form a handrail upon either side.
The three ropes are held at intervals in their correct relative
positions by little wooden frames formed of three sticks tied together,
one rope being tied to each corner of each triangle.
On the banks stakes are driven in and tied back with cords to give
additional strength, and to them the ends of the ropes are secured. One
drawback to this form of bridge is that the ropes are naturally far from
level and one has to walk down a steep hill to commence with and up
again at the other end. I once saw a specimen of this kind of bridge
across a wide ditch, a part of the old defences of Chatham, and an
elderly gentleman who was with me, a man of considerable proportions,
insisted upon trying it for himself. He took but a step or two when his
foot began to slide downhill along the foot rope faster than he dare
move his hands along the hand ropes, with the result that he was very
soon in a very uncomfortable position. Thus he remained, to the
amusement of all his friends, until two stalwart Royal Engineers came to
his aid and "uprighted" him.
In crossing a swamp something in the nature of a bridge is sometimes
required. Canvas laid upon branches often makes a good road over what
would otherwise be impassable.
Rapidly moving detachments of cavalry are provided with what is called
"air-raft equipment," which enables them to get their light "Horse
Artillery" guns across rivers which would be impassable otherwise. It
consists of sixty bags like huge cylindrical footballs except that the
outer covering is canvas instead of leather. These are blown up partly
by the mouth and partly by pumps provided for the purpose until they
are just about as tight as a football should be. Then they are laid out
in rows of twelve, each row being fastened together by the bags being
tied to a pole running lengthwise of the row. Cords are attached to the
bags for the purpose. The five rows are then placed parallel and
connected together by two light planks called wheelways placed across
the rows and tied thereto.
This arrangement is capable of carrying light guns or ammunition wagons.
The men are expected to ride through the water, but if necessary
something can be laid upon the raft, between the wheelways, to form a
floor upon which men and even horses can ride.
As part of the equipment there is a small collapsible boat with oars and
by its means men first cross, carrying with them a line by which,
afterwards, the raft can be hauled to and fro.
Rafts can be made, too, of hay tightly tied up in waterproof
ground-sheets or tarpaulins or canvas. Indeed, given a little ingenuity
and the need to use it (for it is very true that necessity is the mother
of invention), it is surprising what a large variety of things can be
pressed into this service.
Of course, barrels can be made to form excellent pontoons, but there is
one clever little way of using them which is more than usually
interesting, and with that I must conclude this chapter which has
already exceeded its appointed limits.
Imagine two poles perhaps ten feet long, placed parallel. Between them,
at one end, a barrel is lashed: at the other end is a plank forming with
the poles a T. A man can then sit upon the barrel and paddle about, for
the poles and planks will steady the barrel just as the outriggers and
floats steady the narrow canoes or catamarans of which we read in books
of travel. For that reason a bridge formed of such is called a
"catamaran" bridge. Of course, if there are only a few barrels to be had
they can be fitted out like this and then combined into a raft. Or if
there are enough of them they can be anchored at intervals and poles or
planks laid from one to another so as to form a continuous bridge. Or a
single one may be used as a boat. I can almost fancy I see some of my
readers who have access to a pond rigging up an old barrel in this way,
just to see how it goes.