During the Second World War, its units were in the Battle of France and at Alamein, in Sicily, on D Day and the subsequent campaign in North West Europe, including the Rhine crossing.

Its instigator was George Frederick Chambers, a barrister from Eastbourne, with the support of the Commanding Royal Engineer (CRE) for the South-East District and against opposition from local dignitaries and the 2nd Sussex Artillery Volunteers, who feared competition for recruits in the town.

[8][9] They were sworn in on 18 January 1900, underwent training at the RE depot at Chatham, Kent, and embarked at Southampton aboard the Tintagel Castle with similar sections from 11 other EVCs on 10 March.

The main job for the sappers was to repair drifts (fords) so that the transport and artillery could cross the numerous rivers, but providing water supplies for the horses was also important.

After reaching Kruger Post, the column returned to Lydenburg, where the sappers built a six-span square timber bridge over the Crocodile River, sangars and water supplies.

The Divisional RE went to France on 21 December 1914 as GHQ Troops for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front and were later assigned as individual companies to Regular divisions.

The company then carried out preparations for further attacks at Fromelles and at Aubers Ridge, including provision of splinter-proof shelters, footbridges, mine galleries, gun emplacements, roads and approach trenches.

[26][33] On the night of 10 August, just before going back into the line, Divisional HQ (DHQ) suffered an air raid, and a bomb killed the officer commanding 490th (HC) Fd Co, Maj C.C.

[26][40] Zero hour for the Battle of Langemarck was 04.45 on 16 August, and 490th (HC) Fd Co laid out tapes to help the men of 25th Bde to find their forming-up positions in the mud and craters in the dark.

After the fighting died down the division held the forest, and the divisional RE extended a Decauville Railway to bring up supplies, repairing it after frequent breaks due to enemy shelling.

[31][39] In October 1917, 492nd (HC) Fd Co joined 71st Division, a training and coast defence formation that was forming a special brigade (214th Bde) for possible service in Murmansk as part of the North Russia Intervention.

That night the sappers began to lay anti-tank mines and prepare the bridges over the River Lys for demolition, and next day the BEF fell back to the 'Canal Line'.

At first its engineers worked on the Delta defences in the rear, then on 14 August the division was called forward by General Bernard Montgomery and the following day assigned to XIII Corps.

44th (HC) Division was to lead one of XIII Corps' thrusts through the enemy minefields on the first night, 23/24 October (Operation Lightfoot), but without sufficient electronic or mechanical aids the sappers had to find and lift the mines by hand under intense fire.

On 2 November 133 Bde alongside the New Zealand 28th Maori Battalion, secured objectives covering the flanks of the attack, after which the sapper units began clearing gaps for the armour through the minefields.

In March XXX CTRE moved up to Tripoli to work on improving the road behind the advance, dealing with 68 demolitions and craters, one of which required a bridge of five 30 feet (9.1 m) spans.

[112][113][114] In May 1943 XXX CTRE moved up to Sfax in Tunisia to join its corps, which was training to land in the first wave of the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) on 9/10 July.

The field park company disembarked in four groups between D+3 and D+6, acquired equipment for roadmaking and airfield construction at Bayeux and based itself there during the Normandy campaign, handling stores for road- and bridge-building, and manufacturing all manner of objects required by the army.

On 21 October 209 and 210 Fd Cos paddled assault boats across the Nederrijn to rescue 138 men of 1st Airborne Division who had been sheltered by Dutch civilians since the failure of Market Garden.

Immediately after news arrived of the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath, 209 Fd Co started building a large Prisoner of War (PoW) camp.

In India it trained for amphibious operations on the coast of Burma, but when the Japanese launched a pre-emptive attack (the U Go Offensive) against Kohima and Imphal in March 1944, 2nd Division was among the reinforcements rushed to the Central Front.

On 17 May, after the BEF was forced to withdraw from the Dyle Line, 262 Field Co joined 36 Bde near Doullens, where it began constructing road blocks and preparing a massive fuel dump for destruction.

The rest of the BEF remaining on the Atlantic coast then began to be evacuated through Cherbourg Naval Base, the 12th (Eastern) Infantry Divisional RE moving via Caen to get there early on 7 June.

Once ashore, the sappers began the dangerous task of clearing the beach obstacles before they were covered by the rising tide, and constructing exits so the follow-up troops could quickly get into action.

They reverted to XII CTRE command around 11 June, and spent the rest of the campaign clearing roads of mines and debris, filling craters and minor bridgebuilding.

[164][165] After the breakout from the Normandy beachhead, XII crossed the Seine, with 262, 263 and 265 Cos building a Class 40 pontoon bridge over the river at St Pierre de Vouvray on 28 August.

Gardiner (together with 85 and 184 Gd Cos from 7th GHQ TRE) was allotted the task of building a Class 12 pontoon Bailey (codenamed 'Sussex') at the extreme left of the corps' area.

With reduced equipment the sappers assisted other units in erecting and dismantling Bailey bridges and other civil engineering works in rebuilding the occupied zone of West Germany.

It remained in North Africa after the Tunisian Campaign until December 1943 when it moved to Italy, supporting 15th Army Group, with a detachment on the island of Vis where it worked for several weeks with the Yugoslav Partisans.

In the winter of 1944–1945 the Allies began Operation Goldflake, secretly transferring I Canadian Corps from Italy to reinforce 21st Army Group in North West Europe.