SAPPERS, MINERS AND THE ROYAL ENGINEERS

In previous years, the then military engineers were responsible for siege warfare and building field fortifications, temporary camps and roads. Although the Royal Engineers can technically trace their origins back William the Conqueror, in reality the origins lie with the Board of Ordnance which was not established until the fifteenth century.

In 1716 at Woolwich, the Board of Ordnance established a Corps of Engineers which at the outset consisted of only commissioned officers. In 1772, a Soldier Artificer Company was established for service, initially in Gibraltar, and this was the first time non-commissioned military engineers were included. In 1787, they became the Royal Corps of Engineers. Also in that year their role was expanded by the establishment of the Corps of Royal Military Artificers consisting of non-commissioned officers and privates which was directed in its work by the Royal Engineers. In 1797 the earlier established Gibraltar company was then incorporated into the Royal Engineers and in 1812 the whole division became the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners.

The Board of Ordnance was abolished in 1855 and authority over the Royal Engineers and Royal Sappers and Miners transferred to the Army Commander-in-Chief thus integrating them with the rest of the British Army. In 1856 the Royal Engineers and Royal Sappers and Miners became the Corps of Royal Engineers and at that juncture they relocated from Woolwich to Chatham.

As a result of various army reforms further changes occurred in 1861 when Volunteer Engineering companies were created. The Volunteer Force engineers supported the regular Royal Engineers in various roles but principally operating the boats to tend the submarine mine defences that protected our harbours around Britain and throughout the empire.

Just prior to World War One, the Royal Engineers formed its Air Battalion. Then during the First World War a massive transformation of the Royal Engineers took place because new technologies became paramount in warfare on the Western Front in particular, which required engineers to undertake an increasing range of roles. During the war, manpower increased from about 25,000 at the start of the war to 315,000 by 1918.

The Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers was the first flying unit of the British Armed Forces founded in 1911 which, a year later, was integrated into the Royal Flying Corps.

In 1911 the War Office issued instructions for the School of Ballooning, originally formed in 1888, to be expanded into a battalion resulting in the formation of the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. Initially this consisted of fourteen officers and 150 other ranks. Officers were selected from any branch of the army but the other ranks were all from the Corps of Royal Engineers. Pilots also had to hold a Royal Aero Club certificate.

The Air Battalion consisted of two companies and a headquarters located at Farnborough.

No. 1 Company based at Farnborough was equipped with airships.

No. 2 Company based at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain was equipped with aeroplanes.

These provided technical skills supporting the fighting units. The thirteen field companies then based in Britain were reorganised to create twelve field companies, divided between the six divisions of the British Expeditionary Force.

At the outset of the war, three field survey companies were undertaking work for the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in Britain. On mobilisation, two were split up and the men sent to coastal units. Four companies were formed in France in early 1916, each comprising a headquarters and special sections for topography, maps, observations and sound-ranging section. The army printing sections were also incorporated into the field survey companies in order to produce all the maps that were needed - many of which exist in war diaries found in records.

In May 1915 Britain authorised measures to counteract the use of poison gas by the Germans. Research work was carried out at Porton and Helfaut, near St Omer in France. The Germans had a method whereby a continuous cloud of poison gas was discharged from cylinders into the atmosphere which allowed the wind to direct it over enemy positions. Special Royal Engineer companies of technically skilled men were formed to deal with the gas and the men were given the rank of Chemist Corporal.

These companies created underground tunnels and then mined under enemy lines; they  placed explosives and then blew them up. In some areas, both sides mined and counter-mined intensively. For the engineers underground, it was a hard job and sometimes resulted in death. Digging beneath enemy positions to destroy them was siege warfare.

In February 1915 eight tunnelling companies were established closely followed by a further twelve companies and one further one in 1916. They were all undertaking work which included the digging of subways, cable trenches, signal and medical refuge chambers and offensive or defensive mining. There were underground encounters, as a tunnelling team met the enemy underground. The blowing of mines below the enemy front lines occurred frequently.

Sappers were assigned to one of eight construction trains. Each construction train had two railway companies which enabled the sappers to carry both themselves and all their tools and equipment to and from the workings.

As the war progressed the railway companies were engaged all over the British sector, laying miles of temporary track that criss-crossed the area. Not only was it tracks but other construction in the form of howitzer spurs, ambulance train sidings, tank enablements and bridges. Constant maintenance and line doubling also occurred.

The engineers' primary objective was to take standard gauge railways as close to the front as possible and thus minimise the use of narrow gauge light railway systems and horse transport. Inevitably there were casualties. At its height there were forty-five companies engaged in standard gauge railway construction, on the Western Front and in Egypt and Salonica.

The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers maintains the equipment that the Army uses. It was formed on 1 October 1942 prior to which other corps had responsibility for equipment maintenance including:

Royal Army Ordnance Corps - weapons and  armoured vehicles

Royal Engineers - engineering plant and machinery, and RE motor transport

Royal Corps of Signals - communications equipment

Royal Army Service Corps -other motor transport