Hi,
The main mission of the Engineering Corps is to overcome obstacles allow the forces to maneuver (Armored forces, Infantry corps, etc…) . One of those obstacles is a narrow pass over the water, and one of the ways of overcome this certain type of obstacles is to bridge over it with a tank bridge.
It is not something we did many times on my military reserve service (but we did do it many times during our advanced training on mandatory service). It is nice to look on the bridge as a structural engineer – how thick the steel plates are, and how are the weld and generally speaking – what is the static scheme of the bridge (just a simple supported truss 🙂)
Looking on the videos you might a little confused for it seems like just a small stream, not something a tank need to be worried about. Well, you are correct 🙂. It is something the tanks can easily pass, and it is for the training.
If we would not have trained a week after a nice raining week, it was probably just a dry creek and not even a stream we walked over by foot.
Yes, Israel have changed to summer time clock last week, and it should be hot weather. But we had a cold and rainy weather. Cold enough so it will snow on Golan Heights – I got a pic of the teenagers of one of the settlements on Golan Heights, wishing happy summer to all as they standing in their bathing suits In the snow ❄️🤪
Take care
Gad
An armored D9 bulldozer and the bridge inside the firing zone – tank bridge
The armored D9 bulldozer setting the tank bridge over the stream
First tank (Merkave II) crossing the bridge
Merkava II tank with a mine flail crossing the tank bridge
The armored D9 bulldozer carrying the tank bridge away
Puma (armored engineering vehicle) – set a similar bridge over a tunnel.