SAPPERS AND MINERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 47, 18 June 1915, Page 8

SAPPERS AND MINERS.

FAMOUS FEATS OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS.

It is impossible to over-estimate the incomparable work acomplished at the front by that heroic and übiquitous corps, the Royal Engineers, more vommonly called "the sappers and miners," and nicknamed by all and sundry as "the mudlarks." " Übique" (everywhere) and "Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt" (where right and glory lead), have been more than worthily upheld; their record speaks for itself, and tells of honours won all over the globe anel feats, extraordinary and hazardous, achieved, often in the face of circumstances and under conditions perilous and disheartening in the extreme.

It is not too much to say that the brains of the Army usually rind their way into this corps, for the simple and adequate reason that the pay is better than in other branches. No army at anytime, but more especially to-day, would dream of taking the field without a full complements of sappers; and whether advancing in the offensive or carrying out a rearguard action, the sappers are always to be found at the head and tail of the column, ready for immediate action.

The value of the pick and spade has probably never before been so conclusively proved in war as during the present campaign, where, owing to the won-derfully-constructed system of trenches, etc., underground warfare has attained to a positive science: and without the assistance of skilfully-devised trenches, redoubts, epaulments, blockhouses, «nu other fortifications, the progress of the Allies in the field would undoubtedly have been very much slower and at a greater price.

DANGEROUS WORK

Many people have a very rudimentary idea of the remarkable work which the redoubtable "R.E.'.s" are carrying out day by day at the front, mostly under conditions which call for a display of coolness and pluck not excelled even by the dauntless heroes in the firing line. Hour after hour the sapper plugs at his task, what time the shot and shell are flying around him. while very rarely indeed has lie the satisfaction of feeling his fingers on tho trigger of a rifle even for a minute or two. It may be throwing a bridge across a river or a ravine, mining a blockhouse, or making n reentrant impregnable, while the 11 in. ■ ■owitzers, which have proved so deadly and destructive ever since tho outbreak of the war, make the position of the plucky sapper anything but a sinecure. But to the imperturbable "R.E." it is al lin the clay's work. Nothing, as a matter of fact, upsets his equanimity. I'nder the most deadly shell-nre be ca»ries out his instructions with an amazing sang froid, constructs rafts, pontoons, booms or boats, which could not be more skilfully put together, without the slightest sign of flurry, and with not hing in his hands but a ha miner and a saw. In the art of bridge-building the sapper is a past master. The British infantrymen, at a pinch, may sometimes construct bridges which no engineer could possiblv regard with indifference, but the practical skill and celerity with which the ingenious sapper applies to this task puts him in a class quite by himself. Bridging is one of the most mipoitant jobs of the "R.E.'s.'' There is the pontoon bridge. The pontoons are carried in wagons, and when a river has tc be crossed they are brought to the bank and launched one by one, each being kept in place by an anchor. As soon as the river has been spanned, a roadway is laid across the pontoons. The army havin< r crossed, the sappers remain be 'hind."take the bridge to pieces, and pack it up. . , ~ There are many other types ot bridges such as the trestle, the double lock, the single lock, the cantilever, the cask, and the living bridge, but it often happens on service that the sapper has to relv on his inventive genius, and to make at very short notice a bridge out of any materials that may be hand}. Something of tho power of the magician's wand evidently belongs to the wonderful sapper. With a few barrels, planks, and ropes, for example, he can construct a raft capable of carrying men or horses from one side of a stream to another with surprising)promptitucle and with the smallest possible risk.

NOTABLE BRIDGING KEATS

At Amiens, in the early stages of the war, a notable feat was accomplished I v the Royal Engineers. hile the Germans occupied the city, they took care not to interfere with the railway, but just before the defeat of the Marne made it necessary for them to retne hurriedlv, thev blew up a railway bridge over the river'to the north, thus cutting the northern line between Paris and ( The' Royal Engineers undertook to make good the damage. They took all the necessary material from England, set to work on September 18, and on October 8 the first train went over the new bridge. Tho Engineers not only utilised the existing piers, but placed central supports in the middle ot the river which fortunately has-a rocky bed at this part of its course. The uprights were fastened to the stone piers by" horizontal! beams, and also by otheis at an angle fit' 45 degrees. Local builders are loud in their praise of the Strength of the temporary bridge, and the speed with which the work was done. As a token ot the appreciation of Amiens a marble tablet bean"? the words "Genie Anglais. I!>14, has been let into the masonry of the bridge. That, too, was surely a in hrid' T o-biulding which our Canadian cousins established at the Canadian Military Camp at Vahartier Q■ Within a few days the (anadan Noithern Railwav transformed an insignificant (lac station, serving a small liMi colony. ' into an important terminal point', with 20 miles of railway sidings, Jnyin.f a splendid impetus to the est.ib■fishment of the camp, and expediting the movements of the men.