ENGINEERING AT WAR In June 1944 British and US soldiers began the biggest invasion in history The invasion was called D Day For most of World War II 1939 1945 France had been occupied by German forces More than 150 000 Allied troops landed in France on June 6 They needed supplies but there were no harbors for supply ships Allied engineers built massive floating harbors called Mulberry harbors These were towed to France from Britain and were operational within a few days They helped the invasion to succeed CLOSE CONNECTION Engineering is the technology of designing building and using engines machines and structures such as roads or fortifications Part of a Mulberry harbor is towed to France on D Day Together the two floating harbors were about 5 miles 8 long kilometers
The word engineer began as a military term In the fourteenth century an engine er built machines such as catapults and battering rams These machines were all called engines Medieval soldiers use a catapult battering ram and cannons to attack a castle These devices were all known as engines ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY Warfare has often led to advances in engineering World War I 1914 1918 led to the invention of radio communication World War II saw the development of radio navigation jet engines and the atom bomb After World War II the United States tried to gain more influence in the world than the Soviet Union a communist country based in modern Russia that existed from 1922 to 1991 The struggle between them was known as the Cold War 1947 1991 It led to one of humankind's greatest feats of engineering space travel 5
ROMAN ROADS The first people to use engineering to support their army were the ancient Romans Roman engineers constructed buildings roads and bridges Detween the third century BCE and the end of the first century CE Roman armies controlled most of Europe and North Africa Rome's expansion relied on its armies being able to move quickly by ship or on land Roman legions or groups of soldiers built new roads as they advanced into new lands Roman soldiers were carved on an arch celebrating a Roman victory in 315
SCIENCE The roads helped the Romans to move reinforcements and supplies quickly even to faraway locations BUILDING A ROAD Roman roads were as straight as possible so legions could march between two points quickly These roads also provided fewer hiding places for enemies or bandits FILE •00000 Roman Roads Roads were built on a ridge called an agger Soldiers dug earth from both sides of the road to build the ridge This created ditches to act as water drains On top of the agger soldiers laid up to 1 foot 0 3 meters of flint gravel and stone to provide the road surface The agger could be up to 5 feet 1 5 m high and 50 feet 15 2 m wide Roman roads survive all over Rome's old empire They are easy to identify because they are usually straight and made stone of
