Winter Bridging Exercise on Thick Ice, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, 1988

Abstract

One of the most vexing situations encountered by an army on the move in winter is the need to cross an ice-covered river. If this ice cover is not thick enough to support the anticipated loads, yet is thicker than what can be easily removed (less than 8 in.), the problem becomes very difficult. This report describes a winter bridging exercise undertaken by CRREl and the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division FMF. The exercise investigated the difficulties of bridging a waterway with 24-in thick ice present and experimented with some options that were chosen to be compatible with equipment normally found with a Ribbon Bridge unit. The only special equipment or materials considered were those that could be easily fabricated or procured if found effective. Keywords: Winter warfare; Military bridges; Ice breakup.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA223682

Entities

People

  • Barry Coutermarsh

Organizations

  • Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Army Corps Of Engineers
  • Bearing Capacity
  • Bridges
  • Bulldozers
  • Cold Regions
  • Combat Support
  • Crossings
  • Deployment
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Glaciers
  • Regions
  • Thickness
  • Vehicles
  • Warfare
  • Waterways

Readers

  • Geotechnical Engineering.
  • Military Science
  • Systems Analysis and Design