UK MEGA 2021: Lincolnshire
LLL: Lancaster to Lancaster 5
This is a series of 8 caches running between the area of RAF Coningsby to East Kirby airfield, both home to 2 World War 2 Avro Lancaster bombers, hence the name of the series.
The Battle of Britain Lancaster, 'City of Lincoln' is one of two airworthy Lancasters. East Kirkby is home to 'Just Jane' which does taxi runs during the spring and summer.
On each a of the logs is a number which is required so that you can open the 2 padlocks that secure the bonus cache. The bonus cache is situated at East Kirkby, please read the description on the bonus cache for more details.
Some of the hints have a WWII reference, some quite tenuous.
The Bailey Bridge
The first operational Bailey bridge during the Second World War was built by 237 Field Company R.E. over Medjerda River near Medjez el Bab in Tunisia on the night of 26 November 1942. The first Bailey bridge built under fire was constructed at Leonforte by members of the 3rd Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. The Americans soon adopted the Bailey bridge technique, calling it the Portable Panel Bridge. In early 1942, the United States Army Corps of Engineers initially awarded contracts to the Detroit Steel Products Company, the American Elevator Company and the Commercial Shearing and Stamping Company, and later several others.
The Bailey provided a solution to the problem of German and Italian armies destroying bridges as they retreated. By the end of the war, the US Fifth Army and British 8th Army had built over 3,000 Bailey bridges in Sicily and Italy alone, totaling over 55 miles (89 km) of bridge, at an average length of 100 feet (30 m). One Bailey, built to replace the Sangro River bridge in Italy, spanned 1,126 feet (343 m). Another on the Chindwin River in Burma, spanned 1,154 feet (352 m). Such long bridges required support from either piers or pontoons.
A number of bridges were available by 1944 for D-Day, when production was accelerated. The US also licensed the design and started rapid construction for their own use. A Bailey Bridge constructed over the River Rhine at Rees, Germany, in 1945 by the Royal Canadian Engineers was named "Blackfriars Bridge", and, at 558 m (1814 ft) including the ramps at each end, was then the longest Bailey bridge ever constructed. In all, over 600 firms were involved in the making of over 200 miles of bridges composing of 500,000 tons, or 700,000 panels of bridging during the war. At least 2,500 Bailey bridges were built in Italy, and another 2,000 elsewhere.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery wrote in 1947:
Bailey Bridging made an immense contribution towards ending World War II. As far as my own operations were concerned, with the eighth Army in Italy and with the 21 Army Group in North West Europe, I could never have maintained the speed and tempo of forward movement without large supplies of Bailey Bridging.
This number is needed for the first padlock.
