"B" (27 October 1944)
Ancient Times Military engineers were responsible for
siege warfare and building field
fortifications, temporary camps and roads. The most notable engineers of ancient times were the
Romans and
Chinese, who constructed huge siege-machines (catapults,
battering rams and
siege towers). The Romans were responsible for constructing
fortified wooden camps and paved roads for their
legions. Many of these
Roman roads are still in use today. The first civilization to have a dedicated force of military engineering specialists were the Romans, whose army contained a dedicated corps of military engineers known as
architecti. This group was pre-eminent among its contemporaries. The scale of certain military engineering feats, such as the construction of a double-wall of fortifications long, in just 6 weeks to completely encircle the
besieged city of Alesia in 52 B.C.E., is an example. Such military engineering feats would have been completely new, and probably bewildering and demoralizing, to the Gallic defenders.
Vitruvius is the best known of these Roman army engineers, due to his writings surviving. Examples of battles before the early modern period where military engineers played a decisive role include the
Siege of Tyre under
Alexander the Great, the
Siege of Masada by
Lucius Flavius Silva as well as the
Battle of the Trench under the suggestion of
Salman the Persian to dig a trench.
Middle Ages For about 600 years after the
fall of the Roman Empire, the practice of military engineering barely evolved in the west. In fact, much of the classic techniques and practices of Roman military engineering were lost. Through this period, the foot soldier (who was pivotal to much of the Roman military engineering capability) was largely replaced by mounted soldiers. It was not until later in the
Middle Ages, that military engineering saw a revival focused on siege warfare. Military engineers planned castles and fortresses. When laying siege, they planned and oversaw efforts to penetrate castle defenses. When
castles served a military purpose, one of the tasks of the
sappers was to weaken the bases of walls to enable them to be breached before means of thwarting these activities were devised. Broadly speaking, sappers were experts at demolishing or otherwise overcoming or bypassing fortification systems. in Gibraltar, 1795 With the 14th-century development of
gunpowder, new
siege engines in the form of
cannons appeared. Initially military engineers were responsible for maintaining and operating these new weapons just as had been the case with previous siege engines. In England, the challenge of managing the new technology resulted in the creation of the
Office of Ordnance around 1370 in order to administer the cannons, armaments and castles of the kingdom. Both military engineers and
artillery formed the body of this organization and served together until the office's successor, the Board of Ordnance was disbanded in 1855. In comparison to older weapons, the cannon was significantly more effective against traditional
medieval fortifications. Military engineering significantly revised the way fortifications were built in order to be better protected from enemy direct and plunging shot. The new fortifications were also intended to increase the ability of defenders to bring fire onto attacking enemies. Fort construction proliferated in 16th-century Europe based on the
trace italienne design. in 1812
Modern Era By the 18th century, regiments of foot (infantry) in the British, French, Prussian and other armies included pioneer detachments. In peacetime these specialists constituted the regimental tradesmen, constructing and repairing buildings, transport wagons, etc. On active service they moved at the head of marching columns with axes, shovels, and pickaxes, clearing obstacles or building bridges to enable the main body of the regiment to move through difficult terrain. The modern
Royal Welch Fusiliers and
French Foreign Legion still maintain pioneer sections who march at the front of ceremonial parades, carrying chromium-plated tools intended for show only. Other historic distinctions include long work aprons and the right to wear beards. In
West Africa, the
Ashanti army was accompanied to war by carpenters who were responsible for constructing shelters and blacksmiths who repaired weapons. By the 18th century, sappers were deployed in the
Dahomeyan army during assaults against fortifications. The
Peninsular War (1808–14) revealed deficiencies in the training and knowledge of officers and men of the
British Army in the conduct of siege operations and bridging. During this war low-ranking
Royal Engineers officers carried out large-scale operations. They had under their command working parties of two or three battalions of infantry, two or three thousand men, who knew nothing in the art of siegeworks. Royal Engineers officers had to demonstrate the simplest tasks to the soldiers, often while under enemy fire. Several officers were lost and could not be replaced, and a better system of training for siege operations was required. On 23 April 1812 an establishment was authorised, by Royal Warrant, to teach "Sapping, Mining, and other Military Fieldworks" to the junior officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers and the Corps of Royal Military Artificers, Sappers and Miners. The first courses at the Royal Engineers Establishment were done on an all ranks basis with the greatest regard to economy. To reduce staff the NCOs and officers were responsible for instructing and examining the soldiers. If the men could not read or write they were taught to do so, and those who could read and write were taught to draw and interpret simple plans. The Royal Engineers Establishment quickly became the centre of excellence for all fieldworks and bridging. Captain
Charles Pasley, the director of the Establishment, was keen to confirm his teaching, and regular exercises were held as demonstrations or as experiments to improve the techniques and teaching of the Establishment. From 1833 bridging skills were demonstrated annually by the building of a pontoon bridge across the
Medway which was tested by the infantry of the garrison and the cavalry from
Maidstone. These demonstrations had become a popular spectacle for the local people by 1843, when 43,000 came to watch a field day laid on to test a method of assaulting earthworks for a report to the Inspector General of Fortifications. In 1869 the title of the Royal Engineers Establishment was changed to "The School of Military Engineering" (SME) as evidence of its status, not only as the font of engineer doctrine and training for the
British Army, but also as the leading scientific military school in Europe. being deployed in the
Korean War to replace a bridge destroyed in combat. The dawn of the
internal combustion engine marked the beginning of a significant change in military engineering. With the arrival of the
automobile at the end of the 19th century and
heavier than air flight at the start of the 20th century, military engineers assumed a major new role in supporting the movement and deployment of these systems in war. Military engineers gained vast knowledge and experience in
explosives. They were tasked with planting bombs,
landmines and
dynamite. At the end of
World War I, the standoff on the Western Front caused the
Imperial German Army to gather experienced and particularly skilled soldiers to form "Assault Teams" which would break through the Allied trenches. With enhanced training and special weapons (such as
flamethrowers), these squads achieved some success, but too late to change the outcome of the war. In early WWII, however, the
Wehrmacht "Pioniere" battalions proved their efficiency in both attack and defense, somewhat inspiring other armies to develop their own combat engineers battalions. Notably, the attack on Fort
Eben-Emael in Belgium was conducted by Luftwaffe
glider-deployed combat engineers. The need to defeat the German defensive positions of the "
Atlantic wall" as part of the amphibious landings in Normandy in 1944 led to the development of specialist combat engineer vehicles. These, collectively known as
Hobart's Funnies, included a specific vehicle to carry combat engineers, the
Churchill AVRE. These and other dedicated assault vehicles were organized into the specialized
79th Armoured Division and deployed during
Operation Overlord – 'D-Day'. Other significant military engineering projects of
World War II include
Mulberry harbour and
Operation Pluto. Modern military engineering still retains the Roman role of building field
fortifications, road paving and breaching terrain obstacles. A notable military engineering task was, for example, breaching the
Suez Canal during the
Yom Kippur War. == Education ==