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The Small Box Girder bridge (SBG) was a small assault
The Small Box Girder bridge (SBG) was a small assault bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
that could be used to span gaps of up to 30 feet. It was typically carried on a tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...
, such as the Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE), and could be deployed without engineers having to expose themselves to enemy fire. The design had been formally adopted by the British Army in 1932. Pre-war the SBG had (more often than not without permission) quickly been copied by many countries around the world, including Germany. The German Army
The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...
called their version of the SBG the ''Kastenträgergerät'' (K-Gerät for short). The United States was another country whose army created their own copy, designating it the H-20.
The SBG was used during the Normandy invasion
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 ( D-Day) with the ...
of World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(1944–5).
See also
*Armoured vehicle-launched bridge
An armoured vehicle-launched bridge (AVLB) is a combat support vehicle, sometimes regarded as a subtype of military engineering vehicle, designed to assist militaries in rapidly deploying tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles across gap-ty ...
* Hobart's Funnies
*Box girder bridge
A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beam (structure), beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite ma ...
* M60 AVLB
* M104 Wolverine
* M1074 Joint Assault Bridge
References
1932 introductions Portable bridges Box girder bridges World War II military equipment of the United Kingdom English inventions {{World-War-II-stub