Sgt. Charles May, Royal Canadian Engineer

[Lorraine Campbell]

Thank you for starting this site. I was a frequent user of Canada at War and I am glad to see you have started up here. My name is Lorraine Campbell and I am researching my grandfather's journey through WW2. His name is Sgt. Charlie May ,B-94733 of the 5th Field Co. of the Royal Canadian Engineers
We leave in September for Europe, where we will follow his path from Portsmouth to Caen to Nijmegen to Emmerich and many places in between. I have located many bridges that the 5th was a part of and we will visit them. Although they won't be there, I will be able to stand where he stood. Temujin, you sent me an email awhile ago about bridges built in and around Caen, and I can't find it now. Can you post it here? Again, good to see you back.. The information you have is so helpful and I thank you for your help.

[Temujin]

WELCOME Lorraine to the new site.

Of course, I’ll try and find and post the info.......here. I think I saved it under the research file I started for your grandfather.

I’ll look for it now and post it

Cheers

[Temujin]

Lorraine, I'm afraid I do not have the e-mail here (I'm at our Arizona home) and I do not have the info in my research file on your grandfather..............BUT you know I can put it together for you.

So, let me get you the info but I need a reminder of what I did for you. Was it info on ALL the bridges built by the RCE in CAEN or just the bridges built by the 5th Company, RCE??

Their's an excellent website (unfortunately only in French) for the bridges in CAEN, in which I was helping the author identify the units and bridges that the RCE built in CAEN. I'll get you the website and post it here.

Here\s a map showing the Bridges built over the Orne by the RCE

RCE Caen Bridges.jpg (997.95 KiB) Viewed 19535 times

[Temujin]

Here's the website that gives you DETAILED info on ALL the bridges (even floating) that were built in and around CAEN. as I said, it is in French, but you can sort out most of the info.........lots of photo's and maps, and you can see the names of Engineer Units (Canadian and others)

http://sgmcaen.free.fr/les-ponts.htm

[Lorraine Campbell]

A chart of bridges built by Canadians (it’s in French, I made the original chart in English.....trying to find it)

You can see from this chart, 5th Field Company, RCE built the Churchill Bridge.

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If you go to the French website, it has photo’s etc of all the bridges, during the war, just after, and photo’s of the bridges built to replace them. LOT’s of detail

[Temujin]

Photo from the French site, it shows you the various bridge locations. “D” was the Churchill bridge

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A = pont de Calix; B = Shields bridge; C = Reynolds bridge; D = Churchill bridge plus une passerelle; E = Monty's bridge;
F = passerelle; G = barrage; H = pont routier Bailey Layr bridge.

[Temujin]

EAEB4A75-2BB5-4A7D-8405-AEA1163CEDFE.jpeg (53.12 KiB) Viewed 19531 times

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Source. Photo prise rive droite (Quai Amiral Hamelin) des sappers de la 5th Field Coy installent le Churchill bridge

[Lorraine Campbell]

Thanks for your help again.. Yes, I am looking for information on bridges built by the 5th. I have actually managed to find the general area of all the bridges they were a part of according to the war diary. The pictures you posted are great.
The bridges I am going to look for on our trip will be:
-around Caen, starting upstream from the Orne, Barrett, Brown, Churchill, Winston, Black and Reynolds.
- Troan, France
-Thiberville, France
-St. Contest, France
-Arnhem, Netherlands
-Venlo, Netherlands
-Martin Bridge over Albert Canal near Herentals, Belgium
-Walsh Bridge at Mook, Netherlands
-Waal Bridge, Nijmegen, Netherlands
-McLean Bridge, Emmerich, Germany

[Temujin]

Lorraine, I might suggest you contact the website owner, of the Caen bridges that I posted. He “may” be able to help you find and stand on the sites of the original bridges. Link to contact him is (click on the little boy,who’s picture is on the bottom left of this page):

http://sgmcaen.free.fr/index.htm

Did you need any help finding the location of the other bridges......or do you have them all??

Cheers

[Temujin]

A follow up. Lorraine, if you have the grid references for the bridges (it would be a 6 or 8 digit number in the war diaries).....I can look them up, covert them to “modern day co-ordinates” to help you pin point the location.

If you can’t figure out the Grid Reference, feel free to send me the pages from the War Dairies that you have to my e-mail (I believe you have it) and I’ll see what I can figure out for you.

Cheers