15 May 21

This is a post that I wrote on my Facebook Group after a rather heated discussion with a person from another Living History Group. The point of discussion was my plan for the Last Hurrah Ride in 2018 was to ride different days kitted out as a Sapper from the principle nation involved in the battle of that day. So that could be a Canadian, Australian or British Engineer, the point being “argued” was that that wasn’t appropriate as I was British.

so here is what I posted:

Part 1 – 22 Dec 2016

A few months ago I was part of a conversation that was discussing about the fact that several of us would be badged up as Canadian Forces for the entry into Mons in Aug 2018. Now the conversation went along the lines that as we were British we shouldn’t dress up as Canadians.

Now I wanted to point out a couple points at the time but being a bit of a pedantic git I thought that I would do a bit of research to justify my line of logic. So this is the first part:

Prior to the Great War the Canadian Forces were split into 2 parts, the Permanent Force of 3000 men and the Militia of 75,000. the militia was set up across Canada to provide defence. When war broke out Canada’s forces were not set up to deploy to overseas as a standing force so volunteers were needed.

In August 1914 the Governor General authorised the raising of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). There was a rush of volunteers, probably helped by high national unemployment and by Oct 14 a force of 36,267 deployed to Europe. While all were Canadian Citizens, their origins by place of birth was made up as follows

Canadians 30% English 42% Scottish 15% Irish 6% Welsh 1% United States of America 0.4% Not Stated 5.6%

The CEF had developed into the Canadian Corps by Aug 16, with 4 Divisions in the Field and a further Division in training in England. By the end of the War Canada had provided 424,589 personnel for overseas service. The breakdown of those troops was:

Canadians 47% Newfoundlanders 0.5% English 30% Scots 9.3% Irish 3.4% Welsh 0.9% Other British 1.1% (people from other areas of the empire such as Bermuda) USA 4.7% Other 2.9%

So from this info, there was a lot of Brits in Canadian Uniform, all wearing the Maple Leaf in some form. Canada was an important part of the Empire and its efforts in the great war secured it’s place at the forefront of the empire. So based on the figures above I’m comfortable with representing the Canadians as we ride into Mons.

Part 2 – Canadian Engineers.

As I have posted before there is a relationship between the Royal Engineers, Royal Canadian Engineers and the Canadian Engineers.

As mentioned before the Canadian Army prior to the great war was comprised of 2 elements the Permanent Force was the regular troops and the Militia Force which was similar to the Territorial Force in Britain. The Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE) was the Sapper element of the Permanent Force while the Canadian Engineers was Sapper force in the Militia.

The following information comes from the Annual Review of the Canadian Permanent Force for 31 Mar 1914. At this time the Permanent Force was 3000 men strong of which there was 297 that Royal Canadian Engineers, this was made up as follows:

Officers 26 Warrant Officers 10 NCOs & men 261

of this group there was 4 officers on attachment to the Royal Engineers, 1 Major and 3 Lieutenants

In addition to the 26 Officers on the force, there was a number of officers under training, some in Canada but 9 RCE Lieutenants were attending training at the School of Military Engineering (SME) at Chatham England.

The Canadian Permanent Force also had a number of British Army personnel on load, 7 Officers and 13 NCOs, of these 2 were Royal Engineers Officers and several of the NCOs were Sappers from the Topographic Section involved in the Mapping vast areas of Canada.

The British Royal Engineers were attached to the Staff of various Headquarters and as such were granted temporary commissions in the Canadian Militia for the tenure of their attachment. So what we have is :

• Lieutenant WG Tyrrell RE, Brevet Captain in the Canadian Militia was the Commander Royal Canadian Engineers for 4th Division Canadian Permanent Force until September 1913.
• Major W Robertson RE, Temporary Commission in the Canadian Militia was the General Staff Officer Grade 2 ,of 5 Division Canadian Permanent Force Until Oct 1913.

What we have here is the fact that we have cross over, exchanges and attachments between the Royal Engineers, Royal Canadian Engineers and the Canadian Engineers.

When the CEF mobilised all 3 groups were deployed but as the CEF and Canadian Corps grew the Canadian Engineers was the pro-dominant Badge used for Canadian Sappers.

Just as a final example of the cross over between Sapper units and forces:

• The British unit of 7 Field Company Royal Engineers was commanded by a Canadian Engineer, badged at the time as a Royal Engineer, in early 1918 through to the end of the war by an officer called Major McGill RE – no relation to the best of my knowledge. (Information taken from the diary of Lieutenant Glubb RE – later to be known as Glubb Pasha for his work with the Jordanian Army post WW2)

So we can see there is a good history of cross over between all the Sapper forces of Britain and Canada. To that end I am very content that I can wear the Cap Badge of the Canadian Engineers of 1918 and pay tribute to the Sappers that helped liberate the city of Mons and I’ll be more than happy to lay a wreath on behalf of my Canadian Sapper mates that I have served alongside in Iraq and Afghanistan – CHIMO

17 Feb 21

As part of my continued research into the capabilities and activities of the Mounted Squadrons of the Royal Engineers is that there was officially no Pontoon Bridging equipment allocated to any of the Cavalry Divisions.

The aim was that is a crossing or a ford was not available then the Division would cross by the following methods.

The Horses and riders would swim (the saddles and tack would be removed and moved over on boats or rafts)

Limbered wagons would move over on light rafts that each Cavalry Regiment could construct themselves.

Heavier wagons and Guns would be crossed using a Flying Bridge constructed by the RE Field Squadron. This was constructed using a raft made from 2 of the Squadrons Collapsible boats, anchored on a line mid stream and this would then swing from bank to bank ferrying the Division’s heavy transport.

However…….

As I keep delving into the War Diaries of the Squadrons I do keep coming across references to the Squadrons training on Bridges and trailling new bridging equipment. There is a possibility that the Collapsible boats may have been used to construct a light weight pontoon bridge. It’s something to keep looking into.

23 Jan 21

A few weeks ago when the weather wasn’t great I decided to do a check of the Saddles and Tack and decided to do put together what would have the set up of the saddle for a Great War Royal Engineer serving in the Field Squadrons or Field Troops.

The first part was to get the basic Universal Pattern Saddle set up with the felts and then

The next stage is to add the Wallets. When riding on a UP Saddle it is important for modern riders to realise that these saddles don’t have knee rolls so it can be a little different for the modern rider to get used to. For my style of riding the Military saddles work well.

The wallets are trooper wallets and secured to the front of the saddle with Y straps which have 2 buckles. one buckles secures the wallets to the saddle and the other is to then hold the Waterproof Cape. The cape is held by the two outside straps so that it is easy to remove the cape when riding and to wear when the rain starts.

The next item to be added is the Rifle bucket for the SMLE Rifle.

The rifle bucket is secured with a strap round the rear arch of the saddle and a leather loop lower down the bucket to steady it by threading it through the surcingle strap.

The next item to be added is the RE Tool Bucket, which goes on the opposite side of the saddle and secured in a similar way as the Rifle Bucket.

The next item to be added is the Shoe Case, this would hold 2 horse shoes and nails, the shoes would be one for the front and one for the back. It’s worth noting that this type of shoe case would have been issued to non Cavalry units as there is no loop and strap for retaining the sword.

Moving to the other side of the saddle and we add the SMLE Rifle and the Round object is a set of cavalry mess tins with a canvas cover. WW1 mess tins are bare metal where as my ones are actually a WW2 set and are Japanned on the outside, so a cover has been added. Covers were not uncommon, but are more often seen on Officers Mess tin sets.

The last item to be added is that of a rolled Greatcoat on the back of the saddle across the fans/ boards and under the cantel of the saddle. The greatcoat is head in place with 3 leather straps through loops on the rear arch of the saddle. It’s one of the things which I’ve got to get better at is rolling and securing the greatcoat so that it looks neater on the saddle, there is a technique to it and I’ve just got to get a bit more practice at it.

So there you have it a UP Saddle kitted out for a Sapper of a Royal Engineers Field Squadron during the Great War.

One of the things that I’m researching a the moment is how the rear area horse lines were managed and by how many soldiers.

The issue comes from an article that stated that the RE Field Troops and Squadrons where completely ineffective as they were hampered by having to look after their horses and as such could only release a fraction of their strength for Engineering tasks.

The basis for this argument is the 1 in 4 rule, which was for when mounted troop dismounted to work or fight then 1 man in each 4 must stay with the horses.

Now this is correct as that is the ratio for horse holders and also it is the manageable number of horses that a man can manage when riding.

The issue is that the author of the article has applied the same logic to when the horses are in horse lines, on a picket line or in a fixed encampment. Where you have these types of locations the horse lines can be managed very easily by just a few men from each troop and the bulk of the unit would then be available for other works.

The other issue that the article has is very bias against the Cavalry and regularly compares a Cavalry Division against an Infantry Division in out put terms while they are very different, particularly in Manpower and especially in Sapper resources. this is simply a case of comparing apples to oranges.

Its also interesting that the author has taken a snapshot of figures from what appears to be late 1914 and used these as the figures for the whole war, which is particularly naughty as the RE Field Squadrons at this point in time were in a significant state of flux with manpower as they used the existing 5 troops and the Sqn HQ to create 2 under strength Squadrons.

So it’s something that has got my dander up and I’m now digging into books and manuals. Nowt like getting a wee bit narked to get you researching!

Well today I laid the wreath for the British Legion at the Village War Memorial.

with COVID and all the lockdown milarky it was a short service with just the Vicar, a church representative, a Parish Counciller, a rep from the Scouts and Myself. we each laid a wreath and had a very short service including the Kohima Epitaph. All live streamed on the church’s facebook page.

Once the service was complete I went and had a look at the 2 military graves in the Church Yard – Sapper Fred Brazier, who died in March 1919, and Sgt Webster (North Staffordshire Regiment) who died in February 1921. The headstones both need a wee bit of a clean, so a task for in a few weeks time.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I was trying to research into a small issue (slight bit of Scottish understatement there) that I had with the the Royal Engineers official history where it relates to the activities of the RE Mounted Units.

Its been an interesting take on things and it has been worth digging in to the whole activities and the item in the official history, while given as a statement for the whole war may actually relate to an actual snapshot in time.

As with all of these types of things, it leads you further and further in the research.

So are we making headway? Yes we are but it does lead to more questions. which is why I enjoy doing this type of thing, it is also a good diversion from my work and allows me to focus on other things.

There will be more to come on this as things progress…….

One of the areas that is often overlooked by Great War researchers is the activities of the Royal Engineer Forestry Companies, The Canadian Forestry Corps and the Womens Forestry Corps.

This is an area that is often over looked and missed. As I progress with this website and blog I’m sure that I’ll come back and expand on this topic and also look at each of the different units and how they evolved and developed during the war.

The Royal Engineers had a specialist wagon for the transportation of RE tools, it was designed to be a 2 part cart, with each cart carrying 4 tool boxes.

The Army publications show that Field Squadrons and Field Companies could have upto 4 of the double carts. when the carts are used singly they are pulled by a 2 horse team and the double cart would be pulled by a 4 or 6 horse team.

Finding examples of the cart in the Great war are very rare, I come across several photos of the cart from the Victorian and Edwardian period. This photo is taken from the Navy & Army Illustrated, February 1903 and shows the carts in tandem and pulled by a 4 horse team.

The other interesting aspect of this image is the Riders and crew in the red jackets and dark blue Home Service Helmets.

But otherwise I’ll continue to look for the tool cart in the Great War. I know there must be images out there.

Over the weekend I dipped into the Royal Engineer History, Volume 5, which covers the Great War to check on a couple of bits of info.

While doing that I took a bit of time to have a look at the chapter that covered the Mounted Field Squadrons and Field Troops that were part of the Cavalry Divisions and Brigade. The initail part of the Chapter was pretty damning by the author about the use and activities of these RE units. The over arching view was that the units were a waste of man power and resources and contributed very little to the war effort or to the army and divisions as a whole.

The author then went on to say that the units wasted so much of their man power with looking after the horses and as such could only supply a small fraction of the unit into the field.

The authors suggestion was that 1 in 4 troops were wasted by always being required to manage the horses, while this is technically correct it is not the whole time – as suggested by the author – this ratio was only when a unit dismounted to carry out a task or to go into the ground role based on 1 man required to hold (horse holder duties) 4 horses.

This would not be the case when it came to established bivovac areas or in rear areas, where horse lines could be established. where these would be established the man power required to look after the horses would be significantly less probably a working party of 1 in 10 or even less.

The author goes on to state the evidence that a Field Squadron could only put a maximum of 70 men into the trenches to support a Division Contribution of 1500 soldiers. This is the figure that seems incredibly low – 1/3 of the Field Squadron strength and even lower for the Cavalry Division strength which would be at nearly 9000.

The quoted figures look a little bit more realistic if the numbers are looked at in terms of a Cavalry Brigade. A Royal Engineers Field Troop in a brigade would be 77 personnel strong and the Brigade as a whole would be able to muster 1500 personnel for the trenches (based on a war time 3 regiment cavalry brigade) – this also allows for the Brigade Gunners not to be included or the Regimental QMs staff.

This is an area that I feel the RE mounted units have been unfairly slighted and I want to delve into this a lot more, not just comparing Establishments stated in the various manuals but to look at unit diaries and what was actually put on the ground.

I have a feeling that things may be a bit different when I start digging into things compared to what was stated in the RE History Volume.

Afternoon folks and welcome to the website and the blog. Well I’ve finally pulled my finger out and published the web page and the blog.

Well that took and bit of time but it’s done now. Now please bear with me as things are not 100% on the site and I’m still going to be playing with it and adjusting some of the text, information and images but it’s published and a bit of a work in progress.

I’m going to aim to do a lot more with the blog and link it with some of the posts on Twitter and with the FB pages.

Hopefully this will be the start of things.