Editing Military engineering vehicle (section)

===Early World War II===
[[File:The British Army in Italy 1945 NA23553.jpg|thumb|A Churchill bridgelayer of 51st Royal Tank Regiment in action during a demonstration in the Mezzano area, 30 March 1945.]]

Once [[World War II]] had begun, the development of armoured vehicles for use by engineers in the field was accelerated under Delaney's direction. The EBE rapidly developed an assault bridge carried on a modified [[Covenanter tank]] capable of deploying a 24-ton tracked load capacity bridge (Class 24) that could span gaps of 30 feet. However, it did not see service in the British armed forces, and all vehicles were passed onto Allied forces such as Australia and Czechoslovakia.<ref name="remuseum.org.uk"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasenoviny.com/CovenanterEN.html |title=Czechoslovakian Service |publisher=Masenoviny.com |access-date=24 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141202072541/http://www.nasenoviny.com/CovenanterEN.html |archive-date=2 December 2014 }}</ref>

A Class 30 design superseded the Class 24 with no real re-design, simply the substitution of the Covenanter tank with a suitably modified [[Valentine tank|Valentine]].<ref name="remuseum.org.uk"/>
As tanks in the war got heavier, a new bridge capable of supporting them was developed. A heavily modified [[Churchill tank|Churchill]] used a single-piece bridge mounted on a turret-less tank and was able to lay the bridge in 90 seconds; this bridge was able to carry a 60-ton tracked or 40-ton wheeled load.<ref name="remuseum.org.uk"/>