Runway material question

[croduh]

Hi,

I'm building a map and trying to make everything as historical as possible.Now i have 2 photos of Vis airfield, and i just cannot figure out of what material is runway built?
Any help appreciated






Also it is very interesting to see SpitV carrying 2 bombs, those are Vcs though.In Ah we have Vbs right?Did they carry and bombs?

[Coshy]

Thats steel mesh matting, cant remember what its called, will google a bit & see what I can turn up.

[Bruv119]

Marston Matting.

sent you a PM croduh.

[Coshy]

I incorrectly described it as steel mesh, its not mesh at all, but rather Marston matting (pierced steel plates). It was used extensively throughout all theaters of operation.

While the holes in the mat on your pic seem to be square, if you look in the lower right corner of pic 2, they seem to round out a bit. This leads me to believe that the holes are actually round and are distorted due to the camera and shadows.

This pic shows Marston Matting, and you can see as the matting gets farther away from the camera the holes appear to be square, but closer in they are definately round.



Another, with a P51:




A C-47:



Here is another, I have no idea what aircraft this is:



And a last pic, of the PSP itself this time:



Hope it helps.

[AquaShrimp]

There were two types of runway matting- Pierced steel plank, and pierced aluminum plank.  Pierced aluminum planking could be air-carried, while the steel planking was more permanent.

[splitatom]

the stuff was used mainly in the pacific theater i have never heard of it geting used in the european theater if you are can you make some of those runways near vh and make them count as a landing and put re arm pads on the ened they cant launch aircraft though that is a modifacation

[Dux]

I've made a texture of this stuff, Croduh... happy to send you a copy.

Tiling it is tricky as each plank is 15" x 120"... and most runways are 5000' x 200'. I'll send you the rwy object as well if you'd like.

[Dux]

That's a B-18 Bolo. There were many destroyed at Hickam AF on December 7th, 1941. I have a bombable model of one if you're interested.

[Coshy]

Originally posted by splitatom
the stuff was used mainly in the pacific theater i have never heard of it geting used in the european theater

Wrong yet again. It was used extensively in D-Day operations to create temporary rearm/refuel airstrips near/on the beach-heads.

[Krusty]

Only rough, unprepared, strips would use these. Strips like the CBs might have prepared (for just one example) on a Japanese-held island.

Prepared fields were more likely compated dirt/gravel/pavement(??), and early on they were sometimes just flattened grass fields. Bombers needed harder and longer runways, but fighters didn't. I've read a few accounts where the fields were similar to compacted dirt, and whenever a bomb would land and blow a crater in it, they'd have stockpiles all over the place with rocks and boulders and just shovel them in to make the runway usable again.

[croduh]

Thanks for informations guys, and yes Dux, that would save me a lot of time, having the texture:)

Vis airfield was built by Americans and British so I suppose that's why it has Marston matting.

[Saxman]

I had a texture for PSP once that even had an alpha layer for the holes. Don't know if I still have it or not, tho.

[SlapShot]

Originally posted by splitatom
the stuff was used mainly in the pacific theater i have never heard of it geting used in the european theater if you are can you make some of those runways near vh and make them count as a landing and put re arm pads on the ened they cant launch aircraft though that is a modifacation

US Army PSP (Periced Steel Planking) "Marston Matt"

The pierced steel plank (PSP) or Marston Mat was developed during World War II and was widely used in every theater of operations. Though rigid enough to bridge over small surface inqualities of the ground, it was used to best effect on stabilized subgrade. This combination provided an adequate semi-permanent runway. Some conception of the logistics problems of war can be gained from the fact that some 60,000 pierced steel sheets 15 inches by 10 feet are required for a 150 by 5,000 feet runway, weighing nearly 2,000 tons, requiring 35,000 cubic feet of cargo space to be shipped overseas perhaps ten or twelve thousand miles. A runway this size can could be put down in 175 hours by 100 unskilled men.

[Dux]

Send me an e-mail, Croduh... I'll attach to the reply.

[Easyscor]

When you see an airfield referred to as "ALG" (Advanced Landing Ground), it's more then likely that it started life made out of one of three types of prefab materials.

I've forgotten the designations but the common terms were 'rolled burlap'(PHS), 'rod and bar' and 'PSP'. Often the asphalt impregnated burlap would be used as the first layer over compacted earth followed by either the 'rod and bar' or PSP. Wet weather caused problems in operations as well as construction so they were replaced when appropriate. Each type had it's special uses and was found in many parts of the UK where airfields were so thick you could easily walk between many of them. There are actual websites dedicated to both the materials and the men who built the fields, as well as listings of airfield locations.

The first Allied (emergency) airfield built in Normandy after D-Day took a week to build and recieved traffic before it was completed. It was designated A-1 and is now a war memorial near Pouppeville, France. Two more were built in the same area over the next month iirc. For most of Europe, the allied advance was so fast that it was more efficient to repair abandoned Axis airfields then to build ALGs from scratch, thus there were far fewer built on the continent.