RHODESIAN CORPS
OF ENGINEERS
A BRIEF HISTORY
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A history of the Rhodesian Corps of Engineers
The meaning of Engineers in the military context
Many units stemmed from the original Royal Corps of Engineers in Britain, amongst them the Artillery, the Balloon Detachment which became expanded into the Air Battalion, Royal Engineers, in 1910 and later the Royal Flying Corps in 1912. Submarine mining and torpedo work was developed by the Engineers and handed over to the Royal Navy in 1906,and the history of mechanical transport goes back in the British Engineers to about 1860.
Early Rhodesian Engineers
The first record of Sapper involvement in Rhodesia was at the time of the Mashona Rebellion. In July 1896, 43 Company Royal Engineers under the command of Captain Haynes R.E. was landed in Beira, and marched from Chimoio for Umtali. Some three weeks later, Captain Haynes was killed in an attack on Makoni's kraal. It was the beginning, and for a long time, the only Sapper involvement in Rhodesia. It was not until 1929 that P. H. Haviland joined the 2nd Battalion, Rhodesia Regiment, and in the early 1930's formed a voluntary unit of Military Engineers within the battalion. It was the forerunner of the Rhodesian Corps of Engineers.
Sapper Training Unit, Salisbury
During World War II, there were no Rhodesian Sapper Units actually on active service, but Captain Haviland had been recalled from the Reserve Officers to take command of the Sapper Training Unit in No. 1 Training Depot, Salisbury, and commanded the first draft to be sent from Rhodesia to the Middle East. Rhodesian Sappers were dispersed throughout other units, the two reasons for this being to prevent a man-power loss to Rhodesia in the event of a Rhodesian Unit being badly hit, and the second, and perhaps most important being that due to the high calibre of the Rhodesians it was felt they could best be employed as commissioned and non-commissioned officers, deployed to other units.
The Formation of the Rhodesian Corps of Engineers
The Corps was reformed in Federal days, as a works or construction corps responsible for buildings within the Army. It consisted of regular carpenters, bricklayers and plumbers. In 1961, however, it was decided to bring back combat or field engineering, that is the portion of military engineering that deals with mine warfare, bridging, road construction and water supply. The Combat Engineer Unit in Federal days was formed as two field squadrons, and consisted mainly of territorial's and national servicemen with a small regular element on the training side.
It continued like that with territorial's being responsible for combat engineering until the break up of Federation, when it was decided to reorganise the whole Engineer Corps into two Engineer Squadrons, No. 1 Engineer Squadron in Bulawayo, and the other, No. 2 Engineer Squadron in Salisbury. These Squadrons took the responsibility for doing both tasks, the regular construction side and the territorial side, and at the same time the strength of the Squadrons was increased considerably. This meant that regular Engineers had now to start training in mine warfare as well as carpentry and other building skills.
Engineering Units
At this stage the trend was set for both territorial and regular Engineers working together, and it continued like that to 1980. There were three Engineer Squadrons, one with each of the Brigades, a school of military engineering in Bulawayo, teaching all aspects of military engineering, and there was also a National Service field troop, the equivalent of an Independent Company. There was also a Dog Troop, and a Boat Troop, a later innovation.
During 1978 No 6 Composite Squadron was a joint Signals and Sapper Unit. It later became No 6 Engineer Squadron, responsible for the area from Ruya to the Mazoe.
7 Squadron was responsible for the area northwest of Mukumbura and south to the Ruya River. At one point for some months, the Ruya/Mazoe stretch was also the responsibility of 7 Squadron.
The Role of the Engineers
"Every corps in the Army has a specific task and so everything that falls outside those specifics becomes our task. Army works, except for major new construction, is our responsibility. The construction of all base camps is our responsibility, although this is not our favourite task. Apart from that, military engineering is such that it encompasses all aspects of mine warfare, the laying and the lifting of all mines; all water supplied to the Army in remote areas is dealt with by the Engineers. Water is taken from a raw source (streams or dam) pumped out,clarified, purified, and turned into drinking water and issued as required. All field construction is our problem. Booby trapping of all descriptions is ours. Bridging and road construction in remote areas are also our responsibility.
The Engineers usually build those roads that are in the operational areas and those that the Roads Department find it difficult to tackle.
Perhaps the most surprising facet of the Rhodesian Corps of Engineers' work is that of boats and everything to do with waterborne operations.
". . . what we call watermanship," says Lt. Colonel Pelham. "That is everything to do with boats, the construction of rafts if necessary, any salvage operations. We have a limited diving capacity. We also handle the flotation of vehicles if necessary — if the Army gets to a bit of water in the bush, we float them across, using very limited equipment. The engineer in this country has to be a master of improvisation."
