RESTORATION OF THE RAILWAY NETWORK IN BAYEUX, NORMANDY (PART 3) [Allocated Title]

Additional, complementary coverage of 72nd Field Company Royal Engineers' work on assembling a new road crossing over the Caen-Cherbourg railway at St Loup Hors, Bayeux.

I. At the site of the old bridge destroyed by Royal Air Force bombing on D-Day, sappers have strung white tape over the sixty foot wide gap as a means of determining the alignment of one of the two Class 40 Bailey bridges due to be launched across it from the northern end with steel rollers on the opposite side. The assembled Bailey bridge is slowly pushed across the gap with the help of steel rollers and is secured to a jack (which will be used to lower it onto its final resting position).

II. Both Baileys are seen in position as sappers use pneumatic drills to demolish a projecting section of the old bridge's remaining fabric and begin clearing rubble off the railway with the help of a heavy bulldozer. Watched by engineers and French civilians, the commanding officer of 7th Army Troops Engineers, Lieutenant-Colonel Lloyd, and the Mayor of Bayeux formally open the crossing by breaking the tape and driving across both Baileys; a mobile excavator is seen demolishing the German-built bypass in the background.

35mm