[4] In August 1889 the Devon and Somerset companies were removed from the 1st Gloucestershire and constituted as a separate 1st Devonshire and Somersetshire RE (V), with its HQ at Exeter.

At least one such unit, later designated 508th (Wessex) Reserve Field Company, was formed in January 1917 but was probably absorbed into the central training organisation after August.

[21] 27th Division served on the Western Front for almost a year, taking part in the Action at St Eloi (14–15 March) and the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April–25 May).

10th Battalion Cameron Highlanders was ordered to attack across a pontoon bridge laid by No 4 Section of 1/2nd Wessex Fd Co, but in the dark they found the stream was too wide.

A renewed attack at dawn on 7 December also failed, the bridge being destroyed by Bulgarian shellfire, even though the Wessex sappers discovered that the stream was only waist-deep and could be forded.

The front became active again in September 1918 when the Allies began the final offensive and 27th Division was engaged in the capture of the Roche Noire Salient, followed by the passage of the Vardar and pursuit to the Strumica Valley.

The force was part of the British intervention in the complex situation of independent regimes that had emerged in the Caucasus region following the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman Turkish empires.

[35] 260th Fd Co constructed a rough crossing of logs and stones over the River Odon under heavy fire and suffered severe casualties, but the success could not be exploited.

[45][46][47] 204th Fd Co discovered how strong the opposition would be when No 1 Platoon found itself under heavy machine gun fire from both flanks while clearing the route to Le Plessis Grimault at the foot of Mont Pinçon.

Lieutenant Martin and Sapper Murphy discovered that the mines had a new tamper-proof TMIZ 43 igniter, which led to a new recovery drill throughout the army, probably saving hundreds of lives.

By mid-day half the rafts were in position, but casualties were so heavy that the CRE of 43rd Division, Lt-Col Tom Evill, temporarily withdrew his men.

Light traffic began to flow, but with little hope of the Bailey bridge ('Goliath') being ready quickly, the Corps Chief Engineer, Brig B.C.

With all of the available bridging engineers fully employed, Davey set 207th Fd Park Co to start unloading equipment and reconnoitring approaches while specialist sappers were called up from the rear.

[57][61][65][66][67][68] 43rd Division had a crucial role in the plan for Operation Market Garden, which aimed to seize a 60-mile road corridor to the Lower Rhine at Arnhem using bridges captured by airborne forces.

Only 16 unpowered assault boats were available, but that night 204th Fd Co and the 5th Bn Dorsetshire Regiment used these to ferry men of the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade across to reinforce 1st Airborne.

The plan was for 43rd Division to take a firmer grip on the opposite bank during the night of 24/25 September, with 204 Fd Co ferrying across more of the Polish paratroopers and 4th Bn Dorsets using the remaining stormboats together with 20 more assault bats due to arrive from the rear.

Throughout the night, partly shielded by darkness and rain but under heavy mortar fire, the sappers crossed and recrossed the river bringing back a steady stream of wounded or exhausted men.

[70][74][76][77] After the battle ended, Lt-Col Henniker and his divisional sappers were given the role of protecting the vital bridges at Nijmegen that were XXX Corps' lifeline.

German Frogmen succeeded in attaching explosive charges to the bridges under cover of darkness, which caused damage that the sappers had to repair.

Major Evill, the Company Commander, decided to dump them near the Custom House on the German border, where 129 Brigade Headquarters was established'.

During the afternoon some 700 of these mines exploded simultaneously, killing 14 sappers of No 1 Platoon, wounding six others and fatally injuring the brigade commander, Brig G.H.L.

Half an hour before first light on 8 March, the engineer column advanced up the road behind the barrage with the assaulting infantry, supported by Churchill Crocodiles.

It emerged that the gap in the road was in fact two craters, too long for the Bailey on skids, and the fascines failed to provide a passable crossing for tracked vehicles, despite the efforts of 260th Fd Co.

[92][93] Preparations for the Rhine crossing (Operation Plunder) involved 'probably the largest accumulation of engineer equipment ever assembled in the history of the Army'.

Rather than force this major obstacle, 43rd Division made a flank march to the end of the canal at Hengelo, where 204 Fd Co was to construct a bridge if necessary, though the town fell quickly.

On 30 April the 43rd Division closed up to the small River Wörpe at Grasburg, which the leading infantry crossed while 204th Fd Co repaired the road bridge.

The next day the advance was held up by numerous large craters in the causeway carrying the road, each of which had to be bridged under fire from Self-propelled guns, which was not complete until 3 May.

On 4 May the division's infantry crossed the Oste-Hamme Canal by a footbridge, while 553 Fd Co built a Class 40 Bailey Bridge before the end of the day.

Sections of the railway were still working, and 'an enterprising patrol, travelling in a train driven by a sapper of 261st Field Park Company, raided deeply into enemy territory and released 300 prisoners of war'.

[111] In March 1945 the company was redesignated an Airborne Park Squadron and it accompanied the division to Norway at the end of the war (Operation Doomsday).