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ROYAL ENGINEERS

In April or May 1942, the Workshops Section Officer of 231 Field Park Company, Royal Engineers in 11 Corps Troops R.E. was asked to invent a method of floating a Bren Gun carrier in the belief that the movement of the tracks could propel the carrier through water as well as on land.

The attachment for floatation had to be easily and quickly capable of being attached to and removed from a carrier.

Four angle iron brackets were made with some means of fixing, two to each side of the carrier, projecting out on each side to support two kapok floats. The carrier exhaust pipe stuck out low down at the rear, and had to be extended upwards by a pipe connected with a ‘u trap’ of flexible hose, so the open end was above the rear armour of the carrier.

The 231 workshops were near Bartlow (near Cambridge) where Field Park Co. were billeted.

The carrier, accompanied by a truck carrying the brackets and kapok, floats set off for Layer?-de-la-Hay Near Colchester, where there was a old gravel extraction water-filled lake with a dry sloping beach.

‘Top Brass’ were there to watch, including the C.R.E. and Major Plummer, O.C.231 Field Park Co.

The brackets and floats were fitted on the carrier and a workshops driver set off down the beach into the lake. The carrier did indeed float and, using the tracks as if on dry land, it moved ahead and turned around on the lake.

On returning to the beach, some ‘Top Brass’ wanted to be taken for a ride. At least two of them stood close to the armour plate at the back, and off they went. Some distance from shore one can only assume that one of the ‘Top Brass’ ( red tabs and all) wanted to see how fast the carrier could go. He must have told the driver to accelerate. What none of the workshop staff had appreciated was that water would seep into the bend in the flexible hose and sit there at the bend. Previously the exhaust gases would have bubbled through the water. Sadly, on stepping on the accelerator, the driver unwittingly blew the trapped water up the vertical length of pipe, and a shower of lake water descended over the men. It is not known what the drenched officers actually said, but the carrier turned round and made for dry land. Neither do I know if the invented method of floatation was ever developed and used for crossing rivers during the war. Can anyone help me?
In July 1942 or thereabouts, the group of four R.E. companies, including 231 Field Company, left 11 Corps to become 2 G.H.Q. Troops R.E. in readiness for ‘Operation Torch’, the invasion of French North Africa. Out of the Army Field Company as it was now called, only 228 Army Field Co. was in the initial landings in Algeria.

After the Tunisian War was over, the group moved to Italy and in the summer of 1944, 228 Field Co. was ordered to move to the mouth of the River Tiber at Ostio Lido. Some new form of landing craft was to be tested secretly. Huge tall continuous screens had to be erected over the beach and out into the sea after the mines had been cleared. On the road leading out of Rome, as the company drove to its destination, huge tank transporters were to be seen lining that route, with large loads under cover. It was presumed that under the covers were the things to be tested secretly.

In clearing the mines, one sapper was blinded when a Schumine was set off accidently, but the allotted task was completed and the company moved away for its next task. Later it was rumoured that the whole thing was a hoax to deceive the enemy, while the actual tests were held on an inland lake somewhere in Italy, in readiness for the invasion of the South of France, ‘Operation Dragoon’.

Can anyone confirm this, and if it was a hoax, tell me where the secret landing craft were tested, and if and where they were used?

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who shared these experiences, or could shed light on the outcomes.

Captain R.E. (Retired) Robert W. Edwards

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