A non-woven fiber web laying apparatus including (1) a camel back cross lapper having a supply arm, a laying arm connected thereto, and two delivery transport belts guided in juxtaposed fashion from an infeed zone to a lower end of the layering arm and (2) an upstream web buffering apparatus adapted to hold a web between belts at least one of which is one of the two delivery transport belts, the apparatus sandwiching the fiber web substantially the entire path from the take-up site to the laying-arm lower end.