No, No, This Is Not One Of Our "A Little Musical Critique"s
Where we ruthlessly deconstruct a song and analyse it under a scanning electron microscope, usually to the weeping and heartbreak of the songwriters and musicians involved. So, Paul and Art, you can rest easy today.
Not saying we won't home in on one of your songs tomorrow, but you're getting off scot-free today. I recall that we took Genesis to task on one of these. Who else has been a victim? Ah, yes, The Beatles - "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" I seem to recall. Art!
Conrad the diabetic has to be wary, there's marmalade and marshmallow present
ANYWAY for today's Intro I wanted to focus on -
Bridges. The physical structure, not the musical form. Derived from the Old English "Brycg", which is pronounced in the same way. The 'Rubbled' part comes in because these are bridges constructed in wartime, during the Second Unpleasantness, where an obstruction had been entirely bridge-free or the rascally Teutons had demolished the previously existing one. Art!
An excellent book I would thoroughly recommend, as it explains the enormous amount of logistical activity that went into supplying the 'teeth arms' of Perfidious Albion's army. The bit that caught my eye was Ol' Janey's description about bridging work done in Italy - " more being used here than any other theatre." This was due to the nature of the peninsula itself; long and narrow with a mountain 'spine', where rivers traversed from watershed to coastline. Art!
Those are just the major ones
Ol' Janey provides statistics here. 2,500 Bailey bridges were constructed in Italy, said bridge being composed of prefabricated panels that could be bolted together and placed into position by manpower without machinery. Despite being lightweight and quick to put up, they could easily carry a 30-ton tank and more robust versions could accommodate 70 tons. I shall now regale you with images from "The War Illustrated Volume 8". Art!
Here we see a Bailey being put into position to bridge the gap in an existing river bridge, treacherously demolished by the Teutons. The Royal Engineers, responsible for tasks like this, got to be so efficient that such a demolition would only halt them for a few hours at most.
What you might call 'Before', one of the bridges over the River Arno that the Teutons destroyed in Florence to delay the British (and Commonwealth) who were in hot pursuit. The spans have been destroyed, yes, BUT the piers still remain, upon which a Bailey bridge can be placed. Art!
This river being bridged by a brace of Baileys is the Rubicon. In the foreground you can see what kind of trouble vehicles would have if merely being ferried across, or if they were amphibious. That bulldozer is going to need towing out or the NCO in charge is going to be verrrry unhappy. Art!
As you should surely know, "5th Army" was the South Canadian force occupying the western side of Italy. Here you can see that the Teutons have 'rubbled' an existing bridge by destroying the spans, yet again leaving the piers intact, probably because they were 1) In a hurry and 2) It would have taken tons of HE to bring down the whole thing. Art!
I'm only going to gloss over the top picture, which the caption breathlessly calls 'the longest Bailey bridge in the world'. Cast your eyes instead over the lower picture, which shows the 'After' picture of the Ponte San Trinita, now spanned by a Bailey bridge. As I said, the piers have been used to place the Bailey into position; coincidentally I'd no idea there was an 'After' picture of this bridge O happy serendipity! The sappers are busy laying down a timber baulk roadway to permit the smoother passage of vehicles.
So, there you have a picture essay of what Ol' Janey described in terms of Bailey Bridges. She also mentions the 'Inglis' bridge, which I'd not heard of, and which doesn't seem to feature in any photographs. Perhaps not surprising, there were only 196 built. Art!
That tank in the background looks like a First Unpleasantness Mark IV. I wonder if the Inglis was a holdover from that war? It doesn't crop up in TWI8's Index.
Ol' Janey also makes a mistake, stating that there was a third type of bridge: the 'Floating Bridge Equipment'. Conrad, diligently searching teh Interwebz, came across the 'Floating Boat Equipment', which see. Art!
 |
| FBE with boat in squished position |
That's quite enough about bridges for today.
Points And Laughs
One of the Fellas on Twitter posted a mischievous question: How are we going to make Putin's birthday next week miserable?"
Well, here's one bit of news that will put a crimp in his boxers. Art!
This is the Ruffian Nebo-M, and the picture above only gives part of the minor disaster. Art!
You have a central control vehicle with at least one and possibly three of those large radar arrays mounted on trucks. That vehicle at the front has the radar erected but not deployed.
It seems that Mister ATACMS paid a visit to the unit. No details of whether it was a unitary warhead hitting them whilst they were all sitting comfortably together, or if it was the hideous bomblet version that spreads destruction over a generous portion of the earth's surface.
Conrad would not like to be the minion having to break this news to Putinpot. This stuff is incredibly expensive, complex and slow to build. Tee hee!
My Skip-like Mind Strikes Again
I was dumping the newly laundered clothes on my bed to sort them, when an advert from decades ago suddenly popped into my head. Art!
I don't know or care who the actress is. Her <ahem> schtick was that she sported a cod-Eastern European accent and declared to the hussar "I vant a viscount'.
No, she was not necessarily being a gold-digger. You see - Art!
It's a biscuit base with a mint centre and chocolate covering, which Your Humble Scribe would be interested in if eating a whole packet in one go wouldn't put him in intensive care.
If the advert is from the Nineties and they're still around, though <he said wistfully> they must be quite good, right?
Old Age Volatility
For every pensioner who hits the grand old age of 80 and is mellow and kind, Conrad is pretty sure there's another who becomes venomous and catty. Some get even worse. Art!
This is the Miyazaki airport in Japan, where an 80-year old South Canadian bomb went off, thankfully without causing any casualties. It had lain there, unsuspected and undetected, since the end of the Second Unpleasantness, quietly festering away. The thing about decomposing high explosives is that some of the decomposition products are extraordinarily sensitive and volatile; the passage of a passenger jet shortly before this detonation may have been the cause of it. Art!
You can bet there will have been checking with ground-penetrating radar after this unpleasantly close shave since bombs like to travel in groups.
Our Journey With Berni
Alternate and valid spelling, nit-pickers. Okay, onto Number 18: "Larva". Art!
Hmmmmm I think the word 'girl' here is doing a lot of heavy lifting, personally. Or - no, don't tell me, that's Conrad being speciesist and she has every right to chow down on Hom. Sap. to survive. Go and make friends with her, then.
If this is the larva, what on earth is the end product*? Brrrrr!
Finally -
This is Saturday's blog being typed up on Friday morning and the world is still here!
Provisionally.
* They could make a superhero trio: Ant-Man, the Wasp and Larva-girl.
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