Mobilisation Just before or shortly after war broke out in September 1939 a fifth EL&W company was added to the unit, based at
Pendennis Castle under Commander, Fixed Defences, Falmouth, and No 4 Company became an independent unit (
482nd (Devon & Cornwall) Searchlight Company) under the command of
55th Anti-Aircraft Brigade. The remainder of the D&C (F) RE mobilised in the Plymouth and Falmouth Defences of
Southern Command. In May 1940 the fortress companies were reorganised as field companies; No 5 E&L Company left for
Tiverton on 23 May 1940, having been redesignated 573rd Devon and Cornwall Army Field Company. When
VIII Corps was formed in Southern Command in June 1940, its engineers (
VIII Corps Troops, Royal Engineers, or VIII CTRE) were provided by the Devonshire and Cornwall Fortress Engineers: • 570th Corps Field Park Company • 571st Army Field Company • 572nd Army Field Company • 573rd Army Field Company However, in February 1941, the companies left VIII Corps and were sent to Egypt, where they became
X CTRE when
X Corps HQ arrived from England a few months later to join
Eighth Army.
Clearing minefields On 23 October, the Eighth Army under
Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery counter-attacked at the
Second Battle of El Alamein. For the first phase, the aptly-named
Operation Lightfoot, the key was to breach the extensive German
minefields during the night to allow the armour formations to pass through and exploit the success of the initial bombardment and infantry assault. For this work the sappers were trained to use the recently arrived
Polish mine detector (Mine detector Mark I). X Corps organised a Minefield Task Force for each of its armoured divisions: 571st Field Company was attached to
10th Armoured Division, and both 572nd and 573rd Fd Cos were with
1st Armoured Division, while 570th Fd Park Co remained with X Corps HQ. The task of clearing lanes through the minefields went according to plan, though delayed by the scale of the minefields and the presence of pockets of enemy resistance that had not been cleared out by the attacking infantry. The southern corridor was under enemy artillery and small-arms fire, and when a truck was set on fire the illumination meant that the sappers were exposed to even more accurate fire. However, the gap was cleared by 06.30 on 24 October, and 10th Armoured passed through. Progress was slower in the northern corridor and
51st (Highland) Division had to put in a fresh attack with massed artillery support at 15.00, after which the sappers were able to clear the way for 1st Armoured to deploy during the second night. The regimental history attributes the relatively light casualties among the mine clearance parties, despite the firefights going on around them, 'to the excellence of the mine-lifting drill and the accuracy with which it was carried out'. By 4 November the German and Italian troops were in full retreat across the desert. Captain Desmond Fitzgerald, a Regular RE officer attached to the TA Devonians of 571st Fd Co for two months from 1 January, recalled that his duties mainly involved clearing mines and
booby-traps from captured landing strips before they could be used by the
Royal Air Force. The company was attached to 1st Armoured Division at this time. When the damaged port of
Tripoli was captured in late January 1943, Montgomery said that his "main preoccupation was to get the harbour uncorked and ships inside, so as to get a good daily tonnage landed" and reduce reliance on the long coast road from Tobruk. 571st Army Fd Co was one of the units sent to clear debris and repair the approach roads to the quays, and then begin repairing the Spanish Mole. Despite winter storms, a shallow entrance into the harbour was ready for small craft to enter and unload by 30 January. The next task was to remove
Fascist Party emblems and pictures of
Benito Mussolini, and erect a special podium in the town square for a victory parade attended by
Winston Churchill on 4 February. Fitzgerald recalls that the troops referred to this construction as the "oxometer" – a device for measuring bullshit.
Italy and North West Europe X CTRE next took part in the
Italian campaign of 1943–5, including the
crossing of the Garigliano in January 1944. The four Devon companies left X CTRE in early 1945 when they were sent to join
21st Army Group fighting in
North West Europe. Here they were redesignated
19th GHQ TRE. The units were
demobilised some time after September 1945. ==Postwar==