page_title: 1st Hampshire Engineers
section_title: Advance to the Po
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Hampshire Engineers / World War II / XIII Corps Troops RE / Advance to the Po
caption_attribution_description: English: British Eighth Army Troops Crossing the River Po, Beyond Ferrara, Italy, 28 April 1945 British Eighth Army traffic crossing the first pontoon Bailey bridge, constructed by the Royal Engineers, over the River Po. In the foreground men of the Royal Artillery are constructing a searchlight to facilitate night time use of the bridge.
context_page_description: The 1st Hampshire Engineer Volunteer Corps was first formed in 1862 and then reformed in 1891 with special responsibility for the port defences of the South Coast of England. It carried out this role during World War I, as well as forming field units that served on the Western Front and at Salonika. Before the outbreak of World War II it formed an air defence regiment that saw service during The Blitz and field companies that fought in the Western Desert and Italy, The unit continued in the postwar Territorial Army before finally disbanding in 1967.
context_section_description: XIII Corps spent the late winter of 1944–45 in the mountains above Bologna. Before the Allied Spring Offensive began, it was moved down to prepare to cross the River Po. 56 and 578 Field Companies were left behind to deal with the stocks of engineer equipment left in the mountains: they used it to build four Bailey bridges to repair the routes to bring stores down into the plain. They then rejoined XIII CTRE on 16 April. The whole weight of the corps' engineers was thrown into supporting the advance of 2nd New Zealand Division. XIII CTRE under its Commander, RE, (CRE) Lt-Col R.F. Hawker, was reinforced by two tipper platoons, two GT platoons and a composite platoon transporting rafts and assault boats, with three and a half Pioneer companies doing the loading and unloading. Two sets of Bailey equipment were delivered each day to 576 Fd Park Co, which kept two equipment dumps open, leapfrogging forward as the advance proceeded. The New Zealanders crossed the Sillaro on 14 April, and by dawn on 16 April three low-level Bailey bridges across it were completed. Between 16 and 20 April a number of canals were crossed, then on the night of 20/21st the New Zealanders made an assault crossing of the Idice. The following day XIII CTRE put over a 110 feet (34 m) high-level Bailey bridge, and the Po was reached on 23 April.
  Bridging the wide Po was a major operation, but XIII Corps had made such good progress that it was allotted material for its own pontoon Bailey bridge in a rushed operation. The site selected from aerial photographs was found to be unsuitable due to Allied bomb craters, and the alternative meant bridging a 1,100 feet (340 m) gap and all available Bailey material and transport had to be collected from other formations. 2nd New Zealand Division began its assault crossing on the night of 24/25 April, and the convoy of bridging equipment began to move forward at dawn, arriving on site at 17.00. The first lorries crossed by a light Folding Boat Equipment (FBE) bridge erected by the New Zealand RE, heavier equipment going over by the New Zealanders' Class 40 ferry. This meant that both ends of the pontoon bridge could be started together and despite communication problems it was completed by 17.00 on 27 April. Two hours later it was damaged by an underwater explosion – whether by a floating mine or sabotage by frogmen was never ascertained – but was quickly repaired by dismantling and incorporating one of the New Zealanders' ferries. This was completed by 02.00 on 28 April - the longest floating Bailey bridge built in the longest Italian campaign.
  The Po crossing was followed by a rapid advance to the Adige: bridging and supply were now the factors limiting the speed of advance. Engineer equipment was short but top priority was given to XIII Corps (the corps' chief engineer had a section of Military Police to escort his equipment through the traffic jams). This enabled XIII CTRE to throw a pontoon Bailey bridge across the fast-flowing Adige at Piacenza, which presented greater difficulties than the wide Po. Material arrived on site at 08.00 on 29 April and the 370 feet (110 m) bridge was completed by 22.00 on the same day, although work on the approaches prevented it being opened to traffic until next morning. XIII Corps now pursued the defeated Germans across the Venetian Plain to the Piave, which was reached on 29 April. The bridge had been wrecked by Allied bombers months before, but XIII CTRE arrived on 1 May with equipment to build a floating Bailey bridge. The German forces in Italy surrendered (the Surrender of Caserta) the following day, but XIII Corps continued advancing to Trieste as the war ended.
  XIII CTRE was disbanded after September 1945.
caption: A Bailey pontoon bridge built over the Po, April 1945.
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