The Bristol Engineer Volunteer Corps was a part-time unit of Britain's Royal Engineers, first raised in 1861. It went on to provide the Sappers for the 48th (South Midland) Division of the Territorial Force, serving in both World Wars and postwar until 1967.
Volunteer Force The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer units composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need.Beckett. One such unit was the 2nd Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteer Corps (EVC) formed at Bristol on 10 April 1861 by employees of the Bristol and Exeter Railway. Administratively, it was attached to the 1st Gloucestershire Artillery Volunteers from August 1862. However, in July 1867, it was transferred to a new 1st Administrative Battalion, Gloucestershire Engineer Volunteers. The Administrative Battalion was based on the 1st Gloucestershire EVC, with its headquarters at Bristol, and was joined by the 1st Somerset EVC the following year, and by the 1st Devonshire EVC when that was formed in 1869.Beckett, Appendix IX.Westlake, pp. 7–8 & 13.
With the reorganisation of the Volunteer Force in 1880, the Gloucestershire Admin Bn was consolidated as the 1st Gloucestershire (Gloucester, Somerset and Devon) EVC. However, the 2nd Gloucestershire kept its independence, and severed its connection with the battalion the following year to become the 2nd Gloucestershire (The Bristol Engineer Volunteer Corps). It retained this title even after the other units abandoned EVC titles and became simply 'RE (Volunteers)'.Westlake, p. 3.Monthly Army List. The 2nd Gloucesters established a Cadet Corps on 19 February 1879, which was based at Clifton College and provided a number of recruits to the unit in 1914.Eberle, pp. 1–3.
The Bristol Engineer Volunteers sent a detachment of one officer and 25 other ranks to assist the regular REs during the Second Boer War in 1900, and a second detachment the following year.Watson, pp. 42–3.
Territorial Force When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) in 1908, the 2nd Gloucester (except H Company) transferred, becoming the divisional engineers for the TF's South Midland Division and the Army Service Corps company for the Gloucester and Worcester Brigade of the division.London Gazette, 20 March 1908. The new unit was organised as follows:Lord & Watson, p. 159.Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 11, 34.
South Midland Divisional Engineers HQ at 32 Park Row, Bristol 1st South Midland Field Company at Bristol 2nd South Midland Company at Bristol South Midland Divisional Telegraph (later Signal) Company HQ and No 1 Section at Bristol No 2 (Warwickshire) Section attached to the Warwickshire Brigade No 3 (Gloucester and Worcester) Section attached to the Gloucester and Worcester Brigade No 4 (South Midland) Section attached to the South Midland Brigade
Nos 2–4 Sections were largely manned by the infantry brigades to which they were attached. The Telegraph Company was termed a Signal Company from 1911.
The unit tended to refer to itself as the South Midland Royal Engineers (SMRE).Eberle, passim. Clifton College Cadet Corps transferred to the junior division of the Officers' Training Corps.
World War I Mobilisation On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the SMRE mobilised under the command of Lt-Col E.S. Sinnott as Commanding Royal Engineer (CRE) of the South Midland Division and concentrated with the division at Swindon before marching to Chelmsford in Essex. Here, the division formed part of Central Force defending Eastern England. The sappers began working on the outer defences of London.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 77–83.
On 31 August 1914, the formation of Reserve or 2nd Line units for each existing TF unit was authorised. Initially these were formed from men who had not volunteered for overseas service, and the recruits who were flooding in. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6. Later, the 2nd Line units also went overseas, and 3rd Line units were raised to train drafts for the units serving abroad, some of which in turn went overseas. Later, a 482 (South Midland) Reserve Field Company was raised. This did not leave the UK, and was probably quickly absorbed into the central training organisation.
48th (South Midland) Divisional RE The first unit of the division to go on active service was 1/1st South Midland Field Company, which joined the newly raised Regular 27th Division on 4 December 1914 and went with it to France later that month. After seeing service in the trenches through the winter, and at the Action at St Eloi (14–15 March 1915), the company transferred to 5th Division on 24 March, and then to 6th Division on 10 April.Becke, Pt 1, pp. 67, 97–103.Edmonds & Wynne, 1915, Vol I, p. 31.Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 28, 31.
Western Front
The rest of the South Midland Division completed its war training and was selected for service with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front. Orders were received on 13 March 1915 and the units began entraining on 22 March. 1/2nd Field Company's horses and equipment were embarked on the SS Matheran at Southampton, to be followed by the rest of the company on the faster SS Munich. Disembarkation was complete by 1 April and the division concentrated near Cassel by 3 April, as part of III Corps in GHQ Reserve, with 1/2nd SM Field Company at Ploegsteert ('Plugstreet').Eberle, pp. 3–6.Edmonds & Wynne, pp. 155, 159, 278.
Divisional engineers in the field were being increased to a strength of three companies (one per brigade in the division). 1/1st West Lancashire Field Company was attached to the SMRE from 55th (West Lancashire) Division from 18 to 28 April 1915, when it was replaced by the Regular 7th Field Company from 4th Division. 1/1st South Midland Field Company returned to the division from 6th Division on 1 May. In June, 2/1st South Midland Field Company arrived from England to relieve 7th Field Company. The division was officially designated the 48th (South Midland) Division from 12 May.Eberle, p. 32.
48th (SM) Division went into the line in the Plugstreet sector, with the field companies and infantry working parties engaged in work at night to improve the poorly constructed fire trenches, dugouts and barbed wire entanglements. Owing to wet subsoil, the trenches could not be dug to a depth of more than , and had to be built up with parapets of sandbags, while shallow dugouts were roofed with corrugated iron and layers of sandbags. The sappers also carried out demolitions to clear the field of fire, and constructed communication trenches, which had not previously been provided. The sector was under regular German shellfire and the units suffered a steady trickle of casualties.Eberle, pp. 7–41.
On 25 June, the division was withdrawn for rest, and then from 12 July took over the line in the mining villages around Loos, before taking over the Foncquevillers sector from the French army on 24 July. The divisional RE's work included felling timber for new artillery positions, improving the water supply, providing deeper dugouts for headquarters and constructing 'keeps' for all-round defence. The sappers spent much of the following winter pumping water out of the trenches and dugouts. In the spring of 1916, preparations began for that summer's 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme). This involved constructing protected observation posts for the artillery and assembly trenches for the infantry, filling supply dumps, and additional dugouts for signallers. 48th Divisional RE was also ordered to carry out trials on various forms of Bangalore torpedo for destroying barbed wire entanglements. 1/2nd SM Field Company devised a way of using a Bangalore torpedo to destroy a traverse in a trench to provide a 'bomb stop' with a clear field of fire to prevent enemy bombing parties working from one traverse to another. At the beginning of May 1916, the division was relieved from the front line, and went for rest and training, including pontoon and trestle bridging for the sappers. In mid-June the division returned to reserve positions at Hébuterne, where the RE were employed in constructing boxes to house gas cylinders and smoke candles in the front line, and then carry in the cylinders prior to the attack.Eberle, pp. 42–88.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 279, 281, 284–6.
Somme Although 48th (SM) Division had served on the Western Front continuously for over a year, its first major actions came with the Somme offensive. Most of the division was held in reserve on the First day on the Somme (1 July) and only brought up closer to the line in the afternoon (though the few battalions in the attack suffered very badly). The smoke and gas cloud succeeded in drawing enemy fire and isolating the Attack on the Gommecourt Salient, though the attack was a disaster. The attack in front of Serre had also failed and the infantry of 48th (SM) Division were tasked with a follow-up attack the next day, which also failed. The division remained in the battle zone for the next two weeks.Eberle, pp. 89–90.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, pp. 426, 437, 450, 480.Farrar-Hockley, pp. 110, 114, 123.Middlebrook, Somme, pp. 266, 32.
On 13 July, 48th Divisional RE came under the orders of the CRE of X Corps for road construction duty in the captured area round Ovillers-la-Boisselle. 48th (SM) Division then took part in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge (15–17 July), including the capture of Ovillers on 17 July, and two spells in the Battles of Pozières Ridge (23–27 July and 13–28 August). The division's participation consisted of brigade-scale attacks with limited objectives, in which the RE field companies were used to consolidate the captured trenches, repairing shell damage, creating bomb stops and strongpoints. During the attack on the Leipzig Redoubt, at 17.00 on 18 August, 143rd (Warwickshire) Brigade took its objectives and two sections of 1/2nd SM Field Company followed up at about 19.30 to consolidate, within of a German-held trench. Here, they used their rifles to help repel a German counter-attack. Over following days the sappers dug new communication trenches up to the newly captured line. The division was relieved on 28 August.Eberle, pp. 91–101.Miles, 1916, Vol II, pp. 101, 115, 144–6, 149, 152, 155, 221, 224–6.
Out of the line, the units of the division absorbed reinforcement drafts to bring them back up to strength (1/2nd Field Company alone had lost 35 casualties, or 22 per cent of its sappers). The sappers then returned to the area of Hébuterne and Foncquevillers], working on trench repairs. In November, it moved into the devastated area of the Somme battlefield, working on road repairs and erecting wooden huts for the winter. In January 1917, 48th Divisional RE began work on a new Corps defence line, then on taking over a sector in front of Péronne from the FrenchEberle, pp. 101–12, 134.
In February 1917, the TF field companies were numbered:Watson & Rinaldi, p. 60–1. 1/1st became 474th (South Midland) 1/2nd became 475th (South Midland) 2/1st became 477th (South Midland)
Hindenburg Line