Navy lighterage pontoons

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Navy Lighterage (NL) pontoons is type of pontoon developed in World War Two by the US Navy and
used by naval construction teams (Seabees) and specialized US Army combat engineers on invasion
beaches and shallow harbors or harbors where the facilities have been destroyed or do not exit,
establish docks, wharfs, barges, floating cranes and other floating units off beaches and harbors where
needed.
The concept for NLPs was first discussed in 1935[citation needed], but it was in 1940 that the US Navy
took the idea seriously and began development with testing just before the US entered World War Two.
The Dieppe Raid in early 1942 showed that the idea of seizing a port in the face of modern coastal
defences was either costly or impossible. The US Navy saw the vital importance of being able to
building their own port facilities and naval construction teams trained and dedicated for just that role.
The US Army soon followed with their own units.

Construction
The NL pontoons are constructed of flotation units of welded steel square boxes, that are assembled
like children' wooden block toys which are connected together by special angle iron pieces, called
stringers and the flotation boxed and stringers are held together by special iron wedge pins. The NPL
flotation blocks come in two types. The main floating box unit is rectangle-square and is 5 ft 5 ft
7 ft (1.5 m 1.5 m 2.1 m), the majority of NL pontoon units are constructed using these. The
second box is similar to the first NPL flotation box, only it is curved upward on one side, and these
boxes are used to make a bow on the front of an NPL barge when required, similar to a coal or grain
barge like you see on rivers.

References

"Navy's pin-up Boxes", February 1946, Popular Science illustrations of NPL units

 "Navy Lighterage", Global Security

Categories:

World War II military equipment of the United States

Military bridging equipment
Pontoon bridges
Coastal construction
Amphibious warfare
Logistics

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This page was last modified on 2 September 2015, at 15:46.
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