A buzz of activity
On the morning of Saturday 4 November 1944, the De Klinkert farm is at the heart of a range of activities. For a start it serves as the headquarters of the 152nd Brigade, whose three battalions are to liberate the western part of what is now the municipality of Heusden. But one of those battalions, the 5th Seaforth Highlanders, has also temporarily set up its headquarters there. Equally important is the arrival around noon of all kinds of heavy trucks that can only just negotiate the narrow forest roads.

The engineers
The vehicles carry bridge-laying equipment. Once the first phase of Operation Guy Fawkes has succeeded and Scottish foot soldiers, the infantry, are across the canal, bridges must be laid as quickly as possible so that tanks, guns and all other equipment can follow. To do this, the Allies use so-called Bailey bridges, named after the English engineer Donald Bailey. Such a bridge consists of individual parts that can be put together in different compositions. An average Bailey bridge of 25 metres can be assembled by 40 men in three hours. Usually, the job takes longer.

Hard work
At De Klinkert that afternoon, the first pieces of a Class 40 bridge are being assembled. This designation indicates that the bridge can carry up to 40 tonnes (i.e. tanks). The structure is being built by the 280th Field Company. This is a unit of about 250 men. All their vehicles, and there are over 50 of them, are parked around the farmhouse. Once the infantry has a bridgehead across the Afwateringskanaal from ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Drongelen by late afternoon, their work at the Duinweg begins. 

Further east three more Bailey bridges are being built by other units that night. By now it is half past seven and pitch black. So as not to make the enemy any wiser, only a few lamps assist the engineers. First, a bulldozer removes part of the embankment so that the bridge is a little lower. Then the construction itself begins. It takes until the next morning before the bridge can be put into use by traffic. Sweaty, but satisfied, Major Clayton's men watch as the first tanks disappear towards Drunen at dawn, across the new bridge, code-name Wheat.