Bailey pontoon bridge over the river Maas at Maeseyk, 27 January 1945

Photograph, World War Two, North West Europe (1944-1945), 1945.

A Bailey bridge was a portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge, that engineers could quickly construct without heavy lifting equipment. The wood and steel bridge elements were small and light enough to be carried in trucks. The Bailey provided an excellent solution to the problem of the German destruction of bridges as they retreated.