[37][41][42] 2/3rd London Field Company left St Albans on 22 June, embarked on the SS City of Dunkirk for Le Havre, and joined the rest of the divisional RE at Nœux-les-Mines.

Each night an infantry battalion was brought up from Nœux-les-Mines to dig under the supervision of the sappers, and 2 miles (3.2 km) of trenches were dug in three weeks, including special recesses for gas cylinders.

Blogg, OC of 1/4th Fd Co, was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) after he went out under heavy shellfire to cut the electric leads to mines laid by the enemy under the church tower at Loos.

[54][55] 47th (2nd London) Division took part in further attacks on the Somme in October, capturing Eaucourt l'Abbaye before being relieved and sent to the Ypres Salient, where it spent the winter in trench warfare and raiding.

After bitter fighting and heavy casualties, the division was ordered to retreat on the night of 4/5 December while the RE destroyed dugouts and equipment that could not be withdrawn, and the signallers recovered their cables.

It continued to be forced back the following day, and the field companies went into the line to reinforce the infantry, proving in the words of the divisional history 'that they were as good fighters as they were engineers'.

[63][64] 47th (2nd London) Division occupied a quiet part of the line until August while it rested and absorbed drafts, though there was plenty of work for the sappers digging new trenches and constructing concrete machine gun positions and dugouts.

The company then spent the next three months constructing a pier at Skala Vromeria, defences to cover the Petra Pass, and the requisite roads including 'Chelsea Bridge' (built by 2/4th Fd Co and a working party of the 2nd London Scottish).

For the second phase of the battle on 8/9 May 179th Bde carried out a surprise attack accompanied by 521st Fd Co. All five objectives were taken without serious resistance, and the gains were extended the following morning and then counter-attacks were beaten back on 10 May while the sappers and pioneers consolidated the ground won.

[72][34][100][101][102] The final offensive in Palestine (the Battle of Megiddo) began on 19 September, with 60th and 7th (Meerut) Divisions rapidly breaking through along the coastal plain to capture Tulkarm and Tabsor respectively, opening a gap for the cavalry to exploit.

An advanced party of RE officers and NCOs had gone forward earlier (covering 1,330 miles (2,140 km) in four days) to be attached to 51st (Highland) Infantry Division for battle experience.

Divisional RE lost 10 men to an accident with Bangalore torpedoes, while Sapper Robert Southall of 221 Fd Co won a George Medal for gallantry while clearing mines.

After the beachhead had been secured and Eighth Army began driving north, 168 Bde and 510 Fd Co crossed over to travel overland to rejoin 56th (L) Division, which had landed at Salerno on 9 September.

The RE then set to work to build additional bridges, the main one being a Class 30 (30 ton load) Bailey pontoon, the first of its kind to be built operationally under fire, and something 56th Divisional Engineers had never tackled before.

While driving south to Taranto to embark, the divisional engineers spent a day bulldozing the road clear of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

[119][172] Massive engineering works were required in preparation for Eighth Army's assault on the Gothic Line (Operation Olive), including opening up two heavily demolished roads and erecting 40 separate Bailey bridges, of which 220 and 510 Fd Cos built one apiece near Pergola.

[173][174] In the middle of December the division returned to the line, moving via Forlì to Faenza, where it spent the winter months, divisional RE working on road maintenance, mine clearance, and repairing the floodbanks of the River Lamone.

[175][176] For 56th (L) Division the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy began on 5 April with an operation to clear a triangle of ground between the River Reno and the south-west corner of Comacchio Lagoon.

In February 1941 it moved to the South Coast of England, with HQRE at Hurstpierpoint and the companies with their brigade groups: 222 at Haywards Heath then Worthing, 502 at Chichester, 503 at Withdean and 504 at Billingshurst.

They also demolished coastal bungalows to improve fields of fire, and installed hidden bridges round RAF Tangmere to allow for rapid counter-attack in case it was attacked by enemy paratroops.

In July the division was moved back from the coast into reserve, with HQRE at West Hoathly, 222 at Cuckfield, 502 at Goodwood, 503 at Chelwood Gate, and 504 at Crawley with Three Bridges railway station yard as its stores depot.

The sappers constructed a divisional battle HQ in the grounds of Knepp Castle near West Grinstead, while the field park set up a production line for blackout screens.

The winter quarters that year were at Winchester (HQRE, with 222 at Cottesmore School), Sparsholt (502 at Northwood House), Sheffield Park (503) and Bishop's Waltham (504, with the station sidings for the RE dump).

Captain Herbert Baynton-Jones of 222 Sqn supporting 4th/7th Dragoon Guards was awarded a Military Cross (MC) for dismounting to take control of an RE mineclearing detachment and then leading his troop of AVREs to attack a village with their petards.

The regiment ran its ferries until the afternoon of 26 March when a Bailey bridge was completed (by 503 Fd Co, see below), during which period it carried 311 tanks and self-propelled guns and a few wheeled vehicles.

For the Rhine crossing (Operation Plunder, see above) 503 Fd Co and 7th ATRE built a Class 40 tactical pontoon Bailey at Xanten, utilising an existing ferry site.

[232][233] 503 Field Co was then ordered to Münster, but while the rest of 7th ATRE advanced to bridge the Elbe, the company was diverted back into Holland to join HQ Netherland Force, just before VE Day.

It also trained 5 Engineer Company of the Royal Netherlands Army in Bailey bridging, and supervised German Prisoners of War clearing mines on the Frisian Islands.

The TF units of the RE continued to wear silver badges and buttons in full dress, but 2nd London Divisional RE was granted the distinction of gold or gilt in 1909.

[263] Two wooden memorial crosses erected at High Wood and Eaucourt l'Abbaye by carpenters of 517th (1/3rd London) Field Company in February 1918 were falling into disrepair by 1925, when they were replaced in stone.