companies), were needed to carry out work behind the field
companies in the front line, electrical and mechanical companies
to deal with machinery of all sorts, army workshops companies,
base park and advanced park companies to feed the insatiable
demands of the fighting line for prepared trench materials and
other such requirements. For mining warfare, tunnelling com-
panies, officered by mining engineers, were enlisted and did
magnificent service. For water supply, boring sections were
needed, and in Egypt water-supply companies; for surveying,
field survey battalions and companies, and for sound-ranging
and observation (in conjunction with artillery) special sections
and groups were formed. The inundation of some parts of the
line and the land drainage of others demanded special sections,
mostly enlisted in the English Fens. Field and anti-aircraft
searchlights absorbed a large number of sections. Timber supply
became a matter of urgent importance in the second year of the
war, and forestry companies had to be formed to fell and prepare
the quantities of timber needed for field engineering. The science
of camouflage called for special units to deal with the provision
and erection of concealing material. Chemical warfare demanded
specialists both in preparing and projecting the new element
of war. Meteorology played a new and important part, and it
too required special units to take and record observations. The
army post-office work devolved on the Royal Engineers. All
these were altogether apart from the signal units, already touched
upon. There was, further, the transportation branch, which
formed a large and important feature in the area behind the line,
and was divided into two main organizations (subsequently
combined under one director-general), viz. Roads and Rail-
ways, and Inland Water Transport.
The former had railway construction companies, survey and reconnaissance section, a railway signal and interlocking company, wagon erecting companies, broad gauge workshop companies, and miscellaneous trades companies, with electrical sections; light rail- ways operating companies, train crew companies, and forward companies, also miscellaneous trades companies, workshop com- panies, and light tractor repair companies. There were also training schools, chiefly for light railway work. There were numerous traffic sections, and broad gauge operating companies ; there was a trans- portation stores company, and a steam boiler repair company. In connexion with roads there were several road construction companies, and quarry companies with a quarry maintenance section, most of these enlisted in the Welsh quarries.
The Inland Water Transport had headquarters' units at various places in England Richborough, where a magnificent new port was built, Southampton and Poplar. There were workshops and ship- yard companies, and construction companies at Richborough and several other places in England, and port construction companies at many ports in France. There were marine companies, traffic companies and train ferry companies in England, while in France there were sections working all over the canals on the army areas, with headquarters at Aire.
In Egypt there were sections at Alexandria, on the Suez Canal, and at various places on the Nile; in Italy at Taranto; in E. Africa at Dar-es-Salam and some other ports; in Russia at Murmansk. But perhaps the greatest work done by this branch, except in France, was in Mesopotamia, where the organization at Basra included vessels, marine engineering, accounts, dockyards and shipbuilding, native craft, I.W.T. Stores, buoyage and pilotage, conservancy and reclamation, camps, coal depot, barge depot and construction H.Q., both on the Tigris and Euphrates. There were detachments at various places on each of the great rivers, and on the Persian lines of communication at Karun and Ahwaz, and also at Muscat.
At the outbreak of war the corps of R.E. consisted of 1,831 officers and 24,172 other ranks. On Nov. n 1918 there were 17,711 officers and 322,739 other ranks. The above figures in- clude regulars, special reserve, territorials, and all signal and transportation units, but not from overseas or India.
As regards troops from overseas it is perhaps sufficient to say that their strength was in proportion normally to the total numbers of all arms, but that in addition there were tunnelling companies from the Australian and Canadian mines (who did good service in France and in Palestine) , and forestry battalions from the backwoods of Canada, who did most useful work in France, and also in Cyprus for the supply of timber to the armies operating in the eastern Mediterranean littoral.
Mention may here be interposed of two cognate organizations, one of which never was actually incorporated in the R.E. ; the other
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was part of the R.E. at one time, but was allowed gradually to disappear, or be merged in corps raised for work other than R.E. The former were the pioneer infantry battalions, to be supple- mentary to R.E. labour, on the principle well known in India, where such battalions, officered by infantry officers, and trained to a greater extent in field engineering than the average line battalions, had proved most useful. There was one such battalion per division, and the intention was that they should normally be associated, much more closely than other infantry, with the field companies Royal Engineers. The labour battalions, n of which were raised, were all of the professional navvy class, all over military age, and officered by civil engineers, architects, surveyors, etc. They did excellent work and of a nature which was by no means unskilled. Whether the later policy of absorbing the personnel into labour companies, who did absolutely unskilled work (unloading ships, etc.), was wise, cannot be here discussed, but it had the effect of re- moving from the engineers' control a very valuable body of men.
One other Indian innovation was also introduced, viz., the ap- pointment to corps and armies of field engineers and assistant field engineers, i.e. officers of civil-engineering experience (either R.E. or civilian) whose business it was to execute works, in the area of their corps or armies, by means of civil labour.
Organization at Headquarters and in the Field. At the War Office the organization for developing and controlling not only the personnel, briefly indicated above, but also the design and execution of works and the design and provision for engineering equipment and plant, was divided among three of the principal branches of the Department, viz., one section under the adjutant- general had to raise and maintain all the above units; under the quartermaster-general the director of movements had to or- ganize and control the transportation branches (railways and I.W.T.), while the director of fortifications and works and the branch of the master-general of the ordnance were responsible for all the technical design and execution of engineering works at home, and for supplying the varied and complicated machinery and plant for the engineering needs of the armies in the various theatres of war. This involved also the carrying-out of a series of experiments on all sorts of inventions, though after the war had progressed for some time this duty was partly taken over by the Ministry of Munitions, which in other respects did not supply military engineering needs.
The works directorate was divided into 12 branches, each under a senior officer of engineers: (i) Rifle ranges, artillery practice grounds and lands generally; (2) hutted camps and barracks; (3) coast fortifications (on the E. coast of Great Britain especially); (4) ordnance store buildings; (5) aviation buildings, until Jan. 1918, when the Air Ministry was formed; (6) design branch, for evolving and coordinating all designs; (7) personal matters arising out of the employment of civilian engineers, electricians, foremen, surveyors, etc., on military works, in themselves a large host; (8) mechanical engineering and supply of stores connected therewith to armies; (9) electrical stores and experiments, which included the inspection branch, also telephone factories, and a wireless experi- mental station; (10) liaison branch with all armies in field, dealing with all miscellaneous needs; (ll) experimental and equipment section; (12) contracts, schedules of prices, and quantity surveying.
Temporary training schools and depots were found, not only at Chatham and Aldershot for dismounted and mounted men as usual, but at Longmoor for railway men, at Hitchin and Bedford for signallers, at Newark, Deganwy (N. Wales), Irvine (Ayrshire), Buxton, and Brightlingsea (Essex) for training sappers. The wireless experimental section at Woolwich and the electric light school at Portsmouth also were valuable training depots.
As regards the organization in the field there was at first neither an engineer-in-chief nor a chief engineer for each army. There were senior engineer officers, one at G.H.Q. and one at the H.Q. of each corps, but their duties were advisory only, and they had no power of purchase, or of engaging civil labour. This organiz3tion was a deplorable legacy from the S. African War, when the nature of the campaign was so different from that in Europe.
On the lines of communication, on the other hand, there was a director of works, with a proper staff and adequate powers, but he had no part in any military operations, nor, judging from the Field Service^ Regulations, was it contemplated that, except in the rare possibility of a siege, there would be anything in the nature of engineering in war that could not easily be done by the field com- panies under their divisional generals. These numbered two per division under a lieutenant-colonel. In 1911 a committee under Lord Kitchener had recommended raising the number to three. But in 1914 this had not been carried into effect, many officers of experience considering that such increase, though possibly desirable, was not a matter of urgency. The first few weeks of the war altered all this. A new organization became imperatively necessary, and the increase of personnel was nowhere more marked than at G.H.Q. ;
