I first read of this in the early '80s in the Lucas book, War on the Eastern Front.
Amazed me then, amazes me still
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Thanks Fred I’ve learned a lot - mind-blowing indeed. 12 days to build?! 120 ton test crossing sank it only 45 cms & recovered 26cms due to the “elasticity of ice”. And in its one month of viability it carried 4,500+ wide-gauged cars across, apparently an under-performance. Makes you wonder if the effort was worth it, but it highlights the determination/desperation of the German Army to make Barbarossa succeed.
Reminds me of the ice-road across Lake Ladoga to Leningrad, I guess both wouldn’t surprise natives as much as us.
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Hi Tim,
This definitely falls under the category of “fact is stranger than fiction.”. Over the decades something triggers my memory of this topic and I’ll tell people about it. Most of them look at me like I’m full of crap and making junk up. Now I can actually show them another source rather than just referencing the book.
I can’t quite dredge it out of the recesses of my mind, but I recall a story about a bunker and pill Box complex made out of ice chunks. Have you heard of such?
And then there was Churchill’s ice aircraft carrier. That’s even been memorialized as a vignette on the sides of U-Haul trucks!
No, can’t recall anything about bunker/pill boxes but it wouldn’t surprise me. On the other hand I guess there’s a logistic equation that says for the same effort as building same, an all-seasons fortification could be built (?) Certainly heard of the pykrete a/c carrier idea, I think it was Mythbusters (?) who proved it was a ridiculously terrible idea 