Perforated Steel Planking / Marston Mat

Close-up of a soldier hammering in clips to secure two steel plates to create a temporary runway for airplanes. First Army Maneuvers, October-November 1941. This new PSP or perforated steel planking was new to the U.S. Army during the Carolina Maneuvers.  It allowed the United States Army to quickly create landing fields on any flat ground. Marston Mat, also misspelled as Marsden matting, but more properly called pierced (or perforated) steel planking (PSP), is standardized, perforated steel matting material developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before World War II, primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips. The nickname came from Marston, North Carolina, adjacent to Camp Mackall airfield where the material was first used.

Soldiers laying steel mat plates to create a temporary runway for airplanes. First Army Maneuvers, October-November 1941. 

 

Soldiers laying steel mat plates to create a temporary runway for airplanes. First Army Maneuvers, October-November 1941. 

 

Soldiers laying steel mat plates to create a temporary runway for airplanes. First Army Maneuvers, October-November 1941. 

 

B-18 Bolo on the temporary landing field constructed of steel mat plates (PSP). First Army Maneuvers, October-November 1941. 

 

Aircrews of No. 16 Squadron SAAF and No. 227 Squadron RAF sitting on PSP in a dispersal at Biferno, Italy, prior to taking off to attack a German headquarters building in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. A Bristol Beaufighter Mark X, armed with rocket projectiles stands behind them. Imperial War Museum photo C 5894.

 

Marston mat laid by CB 45 on the Navy's auxiliary field on Tanaga Island in the Aleutians.

 

Spitfires of No. 66 Squadron, 132nd Wing, on PSP at Schijndel Airport, North Brabant, Schijndel, Netherlands, 14 February 1945.

 

P-47D-27-RE Thunderbolt (42-27376) of the 404th Fighter Squadron, 371st Fighter Group, 9th Air Force, on PSP at Tantonville Airfield (Y-1), France, 12 January 1945. USAAF photo.

 

Guadalcanal Campaign, August 1942-February 1943. This suspension bridge was erected in a day and a half by Seabees of the 6th Naval Construction Battalion on Guadalcanal. The bridge deck was Marsten pierced plank, handrails were of native bamboo, and the towers were taken from a portable military engineer field bridge. Photograph received March 2, 1944. Official U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-44225, now in the collections of the National Archives.

 

Dutch workmen dig drainage channels at B88/Heesch, Holland, while Supermarine Spitfire Mark IXs, MJ275 'VZ-J' and MJ452 'VZ-L', of No. 412 Squadron RCAF, loaded with 250-lb bombs, rest on pierced steel planking (PSP) in their dispersal. In the distance are parked other Spitfires of No. 401 Squadron RCAF. 

 

Pierced steel plating stacked at Tontouta Air Base, New Caledonia, 1 January 1942.

 

Seabees lay down pierced steel plating at Tontouta Air Base, New Caledonia, 1 January 1942.

 

U.S. Navy "SeaBees" laying matting for a hangar parking area for Patrol Squadron VP-42 on Amchitka Island, Alaska, in January 1944. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo 2005.024.003.018.

 

Milne Bay, Papua. 1942-09. Squadron Leader K.W. Truscott, Commanding Officer of 76 Squadron RAAF, returns from an operational flight and taxis his P-40 up the Marston Mat metal runway to the dispersal bays set in among the coconut palms. Australian War Memorial photo 026647.

 

IX Engineering Command putting down a Pierced Steel Planking (PSP) Runway at an Advanced Landing Ground under construction in the Mediterranean in 1945. USAAF photo.

 

Merauke, New Guinea. 1943. The aircraft landing strip used by the 76th Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battery. The landing strip is covered with pierced steel planking (also called Marston steel matting). Most Allied wartime landing strips were similar to this one. 1943.