War Diary 756th Field Company, Royal Engineers, April 1944
1 April 1944 TAVERHAM.
The Company competed in the inter-Company shooting Competition and obtained third place.
2 April 1944
The Commandant Royal Engineers inspected the Company’s Mechanical Transport which was then in very sound condition after two months rest and maintenance.
1 – 30 April 1944
Training was carried out to programmes as at Appendices 65 to 68. See Appendices attached to the War Diary. These Appendices were either not photographed at Kew, or were missing from the file.
19 April 1944
Three vehicles were sent to GORLESTON for the Divisional Exercise WASH.
22 April 1944
No. 1 Platoon built a Single Single 70 foot Bailey Bridge with stores laid out in 24 minutes 45 seconds.
27 April 1944
His Majesty the King inspected the Division and visited the Divisional Royal Engineers for approximately 20 minutes.
No. 1 Platoon demonstrated the method of clearing mines and obstacles from a road. His Majesty was most interested in the class II Bulldozer which was, at the time, rapidly filling a deep bomb crater. The remainder of the Company was formed up for his inspection as he left the demonstration ground at BECCLES.
29 April 1944
No. 2 Platoon built a Single Single 70 foot Bailey Bridge for the Divisional Royal Engineer competition in 24 minutes 40 seconds.
24 – 30 April 1944
No. 3 Platoon were sent on detachment to Southwold under command of the Officer Commanding to construct a 63 foot long footbridge across a gap cut in SOUTHWOLD Pier.
The bridge was designed by the Officer Commanding to be made out of 2” tubular scaffolding.
Little building space was available and the bridge was erected vertically in the air and then lowered through 90 degrees across the gap. From the time building commenced to the completion of the launch was six days. A small party of six men was left for a further week to dress the bridge and paint it etc.
The whole operation was entirely successful. Details of the bridge which was designed to take a dead load of 150 lbs sq ft with a factor of safety of 1.3 are given on the attached drawing at Appendix 69. (Unfortunately, the drawing was either missing from the file, or was not photographed during the research visit to Kew due to pressure of time).
To contact the author by e-mail with any queries, or to send information - click here.
