The stuff bridges - and engineers - were made of

Maurice O'Brien • Published 3 Dec 2009 10:00 0 Comments

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AS A Royal Engineer's son, the highlight of long summer holidays was having the run of various army camps; and open days.

Open days were fabulous because you got to sit in tanks, handle Bren guns, parachute, watch maps being made, and even play football with National Servicemen who'd temporarily abandoned fledgling professional careers with the likes of Arbroath or Hamilton Accies.

And then there were Bailey bridges. Bailey bridges fascinated me. Every open day the Sappers would build a Bailey bridge, often against the clock. Sometimes they built two, with teams racing each other. Royal Engineers had always built bridges, some won VCs in the Great War for building them under enemy fire.

A Major Charles Inglis designed a 108ft footbridge which could be built and in place on the Western Front in 13 minutes.

Donald Bailey's bridges could take 70 ton loads, including heavily armoured tanks on transporters, and were highly portable, their component parts manageable enough for six-man teams to put together under bombardment. They were used after D-Day, crossing the Rhine and, along with the Sappers, were singled out for acclaim from Montgomery for their part in the Allied victory.

Many built then in northern France or remote parts of Africa and the Far East are still in use today.

I thought of Bailey when those 16 bridges were being washed away or declared unsafe in Cumbria. It was another week before they got a mention in the papers.

What took so long? Health and safety zealots worried about risk assessments? Shortage of parts? Or were the Royal Engineers simply too busy elsewhere? They probably don't get much time for open days in Helmand Province.

- THE 2001 amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act declares a public official who "does any act in relation to his office or position for the purpose of corruptly obtaining a gift, consideration or advantage (for himself, herself or any other person), shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both".

So how come, with or without yet another new law to add to the raging torrent of legislation since 1997, we're told only four members of the Commons and Lords have apparently been advised to keep an overnight bag packed ready for a dawn knock on those flipping front doors?

- SCEPTICS of the climate change and European variety should be feeling smug after four people were arrested in Sicily over a 153 million euro EU-funded wind farm scam.

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