U.S. Army Marston Mat / Pierced Steel Planking (PSP)
On December 11, 1939, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a design directive for
the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) developed "Pierced Steel Plank" (PSP) or Marston Mat (Marston Matting).
was developed during World War II
and was widely used in every theater of operations. Each matt can be connected with tabs to the adjacent pieces using a sledgehammer to link the pieces together. Known as "Marston Mat" or "Marston Matting" for Marston, North Carolina near Camp Mackall Airfield where it was first used. Also misspelled as "Marsden Mat".
It was rigid enough to
bridge over small surface inequalities of the ground, it was mainly used to stabilized sub grade ground, and create taxiways, surface a runway or road. Some conception
of the logistics problems of war can be gained from the fact that some 60,000
pierced steel sheets 15 inches by 10 feet are required for a 150 by 5,000 feet
runway, weighing nearly 2,000 tons, requiring 35,000 cubic feet of cargo space
to be shipped overseas perhaps ten or twelve thousand miles. A runway this
size can could be put down in 175 hours by 100 unskilled laborers.
Nearly every American airfield in the Pacific used "marston matt". Even at larger
and more established bases with concrete runways, marston matting was often
used on taxiways or even for extra traction on roads.
Marston matting was also used in the Korean War. Even today, numerous examples of Marston Matt can be found all over
the pacific, often still in use to this day for the same purpose, or a variety
of other 'new' uses, including: fences, truck bed lining, pig-pens or foot bridges.
Japanese Tetsuban (Iron Plate)
Research by Yoji Sakaida
The Japanese military used Tetsuban (Iron Plate) that was a light weight material used to surface airfield runways, taxiways and roads or as general construction material to provide a firm surface atop the ground. At many locations across the Pacific, especially in the tropics the soil was often soft or prone to heavy rain fall. This material could be used rapidly create a solid surface for aircraft or vehicles. Tetsuban had tabs on the edges allowing the individual pieces to be interlocked together to form a surface of any length or width. Each piece had grooves for drainage run off drainage. Arguably, it was superior to Marston mat because each piece was lighter and therefore easier to transport and more portable.
Between 1942–1943, a
construction experiment was done at Mobara City in Chiba Prefecture of Japan to test landing mat. There
were several types: one was called "iron
plate paving" another "concrete paving", and a third "iron
net paving". During testing, many
iron plates couldn't be connected properly and deformation from bomb damage were difficulties that could not be
solved and the Japanese military were short of materials.
Therefore, the Navy and Army did
not use it very much, and no improvements were made. But, the "Iron Net
Paving" did not have these problems. No record of its actual usage has
been found. Very few examples are know to this day. The lighter Japanese landing
matt appears to corrode much quicker, and any examples left today are flimsy
and rusted.
