Shot on 7 December 1944: A British soldier beckons forward a lorry; a signpost is marked 'TCP' (Traffic Control Post). A sign points the way to Kalewa. Lorry crosses a Bailey bridge with a ditched lorry in the foreground. Chinese (?) soldiers putting logs behind truck wheels to try and prevent the vehicle slipping. One lorry towing another, which is carrying pontoon sections. Alternative angle. More shots of lorries on a difficult road. View of the River Chindwin with a Bailey bridge under construction. Another angle with men boarding a pontoon ferry. Ferry moving. Wide shot Chindwin and ferry. A lorry tows a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun onto the ferry. View from the river.

Shot 8 December 1944: lorry and gun off ferry. Another floating Bailey section approaches. Indian Engineers. High and wide shot over the riverbank. View of the far bank. Work on the bridge.

Shot on 9 December 1944: shots of the launching of a Bailey bridge. Running out ropes. Sign 'Le Havre landing stage'. An African soldier erects the sign. More hauling on ropes. Sikh engineers hauling.

Shot on 10 December 1944: Views from the water. Floating Bailey sections. Looking along the bridge as another section is floated up. Indian Engineers hauling. Colonel F Seymour Williams, the chief engineer, with pipe hammering in a sign reading 'Grub Bridge'. A jeep, bearing the rhino insignia of 11th East African Division and carrying the divisional commander Major-General Fowkes, drives onto the bridge as men applaud. View of the complete bridge.

Film taken by an American cameraman showing the construction of the floating Bailey bridge on the River Chindwin at Kalewa, Burma.

Notes

This piece was shot by an American cameraman, Sergeant Roman, of the SEAC Photo Unit (US). The construction of this bridge, with sections assembled upstream and floated into position, was one of the most outstanding feats of military engineering during the Second World War.

Original documentation for this item is included with that FUB 17.