29 Armoured Brigade (UK) sappers building bailey bridge
Engineers attached to the 11th Armoured Division's 29th Armoured Brigade are seen completing a Class 40 Bailey pontoon bridge they have laid over the remains of the original bridge demolished by the retreating German forces over the Orne river at Putanges. Shots taken in the streets of Putanges testify to the fierceness of the fighting between the 23rd Hussars and the 8th Rifle Brigade on one hand and the German rear-guard detachment defending the river-crossing on the other. The final sequences show a jeep and a Morris Bofors self-propelled gun crossing over the Bailey bridge into Pont Ecrepin just after its completion. Of interest is the German assault gun, a late-type Sturmgeschütz III, lying on its side in the Orne after having toppled from the old bridge while it was crossing - a telling indication of the haste and confusion that marked the German retreat from Normandy
11th Armoured Division sappers lay the last planks on the bridge's footpath and on the roadway itself, tighten up bolts and send the first vehicle - a jeep - to use the bridge on its way over the Orne into Pont Ecrepin. Several Morris Bofors self- propelled guns from the 58th LAA Regiment RA rumble over the bridge before deploying on the east bank to protect the site from air attack. In due course, the 23rd Hussars' armour and the 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade's motorised infantry cross the Orne before advancing to the Bois de Feullet, east of the N158 Falaise-Argentan highway. Note that the 11th Armoured Division sappers have used the stone piers of the original bridge blown up by the Germans as supports for their Bailey bridge.