Equipment that can never go wrong

[holdfast]

Having observed elsewhere that not all equipment works all the time, I have recently spotted this in the obituary of a retired sapper officer who commanded the armoured engineers in Germany in the 1960s:

"He endured no shortage of ribaldry from those in the armoured division who had waited for hours in the dripping woods for the sappers to build their bridge, after an infamous attempted ad-hoc river crossing failed with an Ark, a drowned AVRE with its trailer and the remains of two No.5 bridge-layer launched bridges collapsed and blocking the River Leine. This caused a record-breaking exercise damage bill."

I should add that the Leine was notoriously difficult and unforgiving as it was not very wide but had very steep sides. I seem to recall that the Leine had its moments in 1945 as well.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Ouch, not a good day!

[paulr]

 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Sh*t 'appens

[holdfast]

I have been reminded, by someone who was there 55 years ago, that it all started because the Ark had just been withdrawn from service. Recall that the Ark was a tank chassis without a turret, with a drawbridge at each end. It drove into the gap and dropped the bridges to produce a level bridge. A terribly clever chap said that the new AVLB could do all that the Ark did, and more. So he was invited to bridge the Leine, which the Ark had been just the right dimensions for. The result is as described at the first post. However the Ark was not reinstated, nor was a replacement ever created.