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Pacific Pioneers: the story of the engineers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific

Chapter One — The Role of the Engineers

page 9

Chapter One
The Role of the Engineers

The ancient title of engineer was originally a purely military One and it is only in the last century that the name has been adopted by the members of a civil profession now usually known as civil engineers. The name was previously applied exclusively to the body of men who had charge of the King's 'engines of war' and who were employed in the construction of fortifications Or in duties connected with their attack and defence. Those of us, therefore, who wielded the King's 'engines of war' on Pacific slands, whether those engines were picks, machetes, dozers or iraglines, are proud henceforth to be called engineers, even though ve may lack the accepted civilian professional qualifications of a B.E. (Civil) or an A.M.I.C.E.

Until comparatively recent times fortresses played a predominating part in every campaign Hence it was early found necessary to retain the services of engineers in peace as well as in var. Such men were, therefore kept for the royal service long before the introduction of standing armies. We are, perhaps, rather too modern when we quote Waldivus, chief engineer to William the Conqueror, 1066, as the 'Father of the Engineers'; n fact as the very first CRE.

When Edward the First conducted the war in Wales in 1287 here were 2,000 woodcutters and sappers employed with the army. These men were of the greatest service in making roads, rutting paths through the forest and assisting at the sieges of Welsh strongholds. At the siege of Calais by Edward the Third n 1347, the chief engineer had under him a body of 314 men, composed of masons, carpenters, smiths, engineers, tentrnakers, miners, armourers, gunners and artillery men. The last two had page 10become necessary because of the invention of gunpowder, and the siege of Calais furnished the first recorded instance of the use of artillery.

These details may serve to remind us of the fact that the engineers were the first specialist troops of the army. Tf we are to believe all that we were told on first entering Trentham camp, we are the fount and origin of every other specialist corps— artillery, ordnance, tanks and even air force. Therefore are we all the more correctly termed 'Pioneers.' The history of the Pacific campaigns of 1940-1944 is a true pioneer record. Individual initiative and adaptability to new conditions; the ability to improvise effectively; the detailed co-operation with infantry and other units against the wiles of nature—all clearly illustrated the capacity of New Zealand troops to mould conditions and to make of the wilderness, if not a standing water, at least a habitable spot.

The wide and varied scope of modern army engineering is suggested in the following quotation defining the duties of engineers: 'The function of engineers is to enable the fighting-troops to carry out work which, without the skilled personnel and special equipment of engineers, they would NOT be able to do. It is not the function of engineer units to carry out skilled engineer works entirely by themselves, however. They may require assistance from other units in the shape of carrying parties, working parties or even from civilian sources. Since therefore their strength in a divisional or brigade group is less than 10 per cent, of total strength and demands for their work are wide and continuous, it is essential that other arms learn digging, wiring and the like to relieve engineer units of simpler tasks wherever possible.'

Such a general statement carries many implications varying widely with the conditions and the theatres of war. Summed up briefly our jobs were, in the main, communications, water supply, accommodation and field works. From the story of each company it is evident that we combined in ourselves the distinctive features of field companies with those of army troops companies and workshop units. The nature of the duties assigned' to the Third Division as a whole made this state of affairs inevitable and limited the scope of actual combat engineering. The role of the American engineer battalion was very similar to that of our own, page 11co-operation with other units and development of communications or water supply being particularly stressed. Our closer contact, however, was with the Seabees (naval construction battalions) and their work, approximating closely to that of a works company on roads and dromes, gave us a similarity of outlook which drew us much closer to them than to other allied units.

As for our opposite numbers among the enemy we had practically no contact with them. They had been used in the Solomons area on duties similar to our own, road and airfield construction. But because of our island hopping tactics and the by-passing of their largest concentration on Bougainville we remained in blissful ignorance of the Jap use of engineers in suicide demolition squads and in landing operations. Generally speaking, however, we feel that we have been around and done a few things. 'Dirty work,' of course, as the poet sings, but:

Let not Ambition mock our useful tour,
Our joys—plain beer—and destiny obscure,
Nor brass hats hear with their disdainful ears
The annals of the Three Div Engineers.

We went where duty and glory led us!