Marston Mat

Photograph of engineers laying Marston mat

Marston mat is an excellent example of a simple technology that made an enormous contribution to winning the war. It was used to pave airfields and roads and could be emplaced very quickly using unskilled labor. A 3,000-foot runway required just 1200 tons of Marston mat and could be laid by 100 workers in less than 100 hours. Since the key to victory in the Pacific was the ability to build functioning airfields on newly-captured territory as quickly as possible, the importance of this technology should be obvious.

Marston mat was nothing more than perforated steel planks capable of being locked together at their edges. The perforations reduced the weight of the planks, improved aircraft tire traction, and permitted drainage. The edges of the holes were flanged, which improved structural strength and helped hold the planks in place. Each plant was 10 feet (3.05m) long, 15 inches (38.1 cm) wide, and 0.25 inches (6.4mm) thick and weighted 70 pounds (32 kg).

Commander Joseph P. Blundon described the task of repairing the Marston runway at Guadalcanal:

We found that 100 Seabees couuld repair the damage of a 500-pound bomb hit on an airstrip in forty minutes, including the replacing of the Marson mat. In other words, forty minutes after that bomb exploded, you couldn't tell that the airstrip had ever been hit....

Our worst moments were when the Jap bomb or shell failed to explode when it hit. It still tore up our mat, and it had to come out....

(Quoted in Morison 1949)

Some use was also made of aluminum alloy planks. These were much lighter than steel planks even when thickened to maintain strength, but they were less durable and never replaced steel planking. "Hessian" matting was asphalt-impregnated burlap which could be laid very quickly using a special "stamplicker" roller that applied solvent to soften the matting as it was laid. This was used extensively in Europe but does not seem to have seen much use in the Pacific.

References

Morison (1949)

Robinson (accessed 2007-11-14)