There were quite a number of forms of track surfacing for airfields used in WW2 beyond those mentioned above. In summary:-
Light weight wire types:-
Sommerfield Track - British development. Came in rolls 10ft 7in wide & 75ft long. Hexagonal pattern mesh with transverse reinforcement bars every 8in.
Square Mesh Track (SMT) - British development from steel used in concrete reinforcement. 3in square mesh. Came in form of panels 12ft x 6ft or rolls 7ft 3in wide by 77ft long. Extensively used in Normandy for the early strips and laid over grass to reduce wear. Needed to be well pinned down or it formed waves as aircraft moved over it!
Panel types:-
Channel Track - Developed in Britain. Consisted of panels 11ft x 6ft
Bar & Rod - US development. Not used on a large scale. Panels were 12ft x 3ft
Irving Grid Track - US development from before their entry into WW2 and produced on a limited scale. Panel size 12ft 6in x 1ft 10in.
Plank type:-
Pierced Steel Plank (PSP) or Marston Mat - most widely used of all types. Panels or planks were 1.25ft x 10ft formed from mild steel. One problem was that water tended to gather under the surface and as traffic moved over it, turned to a muddy slurry that weakened the surface layer. Often solved, in Europe at least, by laying it on a bed of straw.
And finally Prefabricated Bituminous Surfacing (PBS). This was a bituminised jute hessian cloth manufactured in Britain and used by both British and American engineers to provide a waterproof surface. First trialled in June 1943. It came in rolls about 3ft wide and 80 yard lengths rolled onto steel / timber formers. Unlike the steel options above it added no strength to the ground serving only to stabilise the bearing capacity of the underlying ground that had already been graded and smoothed. Eash strip was laid lomgitudinally and overlying the previous one by half its width to give a double layer across the airstrip. It was successful if laid in dry weather. It held several advantages. It was quick to lay once the ground was prepared, could last for up to a year and weighed considerably less than PSP to transport (812 tons v 4,877 tons of PSP) for an average airfield.
Between D-Day and 30 Oct 1944, 30 airfields in NWE (17% of the total constructed) were surfaced with this. After that it stopped being used with the arrival of the wet autumn / winter weather. It was also extensively used in India / Burma.
