Page 24 - COLLAGE

storm damage whereas the American Mulberry, which only had 20% of its Kite Anchors

deployed, was destroyed.

3.10. MODERN MILITARY USES

Pontoon bridges were extensively used by both armies and civilians throughout the latter

half of the 20th century.

From the Post-War period into the early 1980s the U.S. Army and its NATO and other

allies employed three main types of pontoon bridge/raft. The M4 Bridge featured a
lightweight aluminum balk deck supported by rigid aluminum hull pontoons. The M4T6

Bridge used the same aluminum balk deck of the M4, but supported instead by inflatable
rubber pontoons. The Class 60 Bridge consisted of a more robust steel girder and grid deck

supported by inflatable rubber pontoons. All three pontoon bridge types were cumbersome
to transport and deploy, and slow to assemble, encouraging the development of an easier

to transport, deploy and assemble floating bridge.

3.11. AMPHIBIOUS FLOAT BRIDGES

Several alternatives featured a self-propelled amphibious integrated transporter, floating

pontoon, bridge deck section that could be delivered and assembled in the water under its

own power, linking as many units as required to bridge a gap or form a raft ferry.

An early example was the Engin de Franchissement de l’Avant EFA (mobile

bridge) amphibious forward crossing apparatus conceived by French General Jean
Gillois in 1955. The system consisted of a wheeled amphibious truck equipped with

inflatable outboard flotation sponsons and a rotating vehicle bridge deck section. The
system was developed by the West German firm Eisenwerke-Kaiserslauter (EWK) and

entered production by the French-German consortium Pontesa. The EFA system was first
deployed by the French Army in 1965, and subsequently by the West

German Bundeswehr, British Army, and on a very limited basis by the U.S. Army, where

it was referred to as Amphibious River Crossing Equipment (ARCE). Production ended
in 1973. The EFA was used in combat by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which

24