 
35 Engineer Regiment - History
- 1948 - 35 Army Engineer Regiment forms in Crowborough
- 1957 - 35 Corps Engineer Regiment (Osnabruck)
- 1969 - 35 Engineer Regiment (Hameln)
- 1977 - 4 Armoured Division Engineer Regiment (Hameln)
- 1981 - 35 Engineer Regiment (Paderborn from 1999)
35 Army Engr Regt was formed from 29 Army Troops Engineers (itself derived from 43rd Division RE at the end of the war). 29 ATE had spent the time after the war assisting in the reconstruction of the area around Celle and Luneberg. 29 ATE was brought back from Germany to Crowborough on 11 March 1948 and provided the nucleus of the new Regiment, which formed up on 1st April 1948. Initially with 62, 64 and 65 Engineer Squadrons and 63 Engineer Park Squadron under command of Lt Col JET Nelson, the Regiment embarked at Liverpool on 30 April on the SS Scythia en route for Cyrenaica in Libya. It disembarked in Benghazi on 8 May.
1948 - 1957 – The Middle East
After 1943 the former Italian colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania on the North coast of Africa were administered by the British and the Fezzan to the South by the French. Both powers bore a large part of the costs of the administration and much effort was put into restoring the public utilities and services that had been shattered in the Second World War. The number of British troops was very small following the withdrawal of West African troops from Tripolitania in 1948, but Libya, with its superb and unrestricted training facilities became the chosen location for the Middle East Strategic Reserve and 1 Division moved there in May 1948. 22 Field Engineer Regiment provided support to 1 Division and 35 Army Engineer Regiment effectively provided a Corps Troops engineer element. During this period the Regiment used local labour and German POWs to rebuild Tobruk, Derna and Appollonia. Conditions were at best bleak, and the Regiment coined the name Operation ATROCITY for the early period in the Middle East.
In January 1949 the Regiment establishment was reviewed by the War Office and it was run down to virtually one squadron strength (62 Engineer Squadron), and retitled 35 Engineer Regiment (restricted). The Regiment continued with reconstruction, but the first months of 1949 seemed to involve endless Boards of Inquiry, write off bills and woe and grief for supposedly missing Regimental equipment. Morale improved significantly in October when it transpired that the Air Officer Commanding Cyprus had force landed 60 miles east of Port Said, and a troop from 62 Engineer Squadron had to be despatched to build a runway to get him out. In a separate incident Sgt Brooks was awarded a BEM for his bravery in clearing mines from a booby trap infested minefield at Tel el Kebir.
But in September 1949 the Regiment moved from Benghazi into the Canal Zone and its strength was built up again so that by 1950 it again comprised four squadrons. These were renumbered. 62 Engr Sqn became 16 Fd Sqn, 64 Engr Sqn became 42 Fd Sqn, 65 Engr Sqn became 30 Fd Sqn and 63 Engr Sqn became 18 Fd Pk Sqn making the fourth change of squadron designation in three years. The Regiment was stationed at El Ballah, during which sojourn it deployed with 17 Infantry Brigade to exercise in the Kurdish mountains of Iraq demonstrating both British regional interest and strategic reach. The Regiment found itself exercising its role to defend the River Euphrates line and to deny oil to potential enemies. Training was rigorous, building on the lessons of war, and culminated in a Bailey bridge competition at the Moascar Searchlight Tattoo during which 16 and 42 Engineer Squadrons raced to build a 40 foot single single bridge. The winning time was 5 minutes dead. The Regiment then moved in October 1951 to Fayid midway between Suez and Port Said on the west of the Great Bitter Lake.
In January 1953 30 Fd Sqn moved from the Canal Zone to Cyprus based in a camp close to Limassol at Polemidhia, where there remained some 30 wooden huts built by Captain HH Kitchener in 1882 when he made a survey of the island. The Squadron worked on Project TUNA, the construction of an 18-mile, gravity feed, water pipeline running from Kissoua ten miles inside the Troodos Mountains to supply the Episkopi cantonment. The work continued throughout 1953, albeit interrupted by two earthquakes. The first was in Greece in August and the Squadron embarked only to find that the Royal Navy had completed much of the relief work before their arrival. A second earthquake in September saw 30 Squadron providing disaster relief in Paphos, Cyprus. As the weather turned winter snow and rain affected the speed of pipeline work and threatened the completion date of 31 December 1954. Consequently the Regiment moved from Egypt to reinforce the work, and by April 1954, 42 Field Squadron and 18 Field Park Squadron were in the field with 30 Squadron, with 16 Field Squadron joining the others in July. The pipeline was finally finished on 31 December 1954.
But as the construction work was drawing to a close so the internal security situation in Cyprus was worsening. The Garrison consisted of the Regiment (at Polemidhia) and four infantry battalions, a gunner regiment, and the Brigade Headquarters. The Regiment took responsibility for Limassol where the Assistant District Commissioner was a Turkish Cypriot who had attended Eton and Oxford. Local security plans were exercised and a major exercise was planned for 17 December 1954. But widespread children’s demonstrations forced its cancellation. The next day the children were replaced by adults, and in a copybook episode of riot control in aid of the civil power, following the withdrawal of the police cordon the Assistant DC requested the Army to take over. After appropriate visual and oral warnings to the crowd to disperse a ringleader was shot and killed. Tension eased and sporadic further outbursts in Limassol finally ended in a heavy downpour of rain. The Regiment maintained a vigorous patrolling programme throughout the city, dealing with a number of incidents, including one riot that it quelled with a rapid bayonet charge. By Spring 1955 commando reinforcements arrived, and after a short spell during which the Regimental Group included 3 field squadrons, a field park squadron and two RM commandos, the Commanding Officer handed over to 3 Commando Brigade. The Regiment then reverted to engineer support, including the construction of a tunnel through a headland below Episkopi to give access to a beach below the camp. After an eventful two years the Regiment arms plotted with 37 Army Engineer Regiment, leaving 18 Fd Pk Sqn behind, and returned to England in December 1955 with a remarkable strength of long serving NCOs, many of whom had extended their tours to serve with the Regiment. During this brief period in England the Regiment was based at Ripon and spent the time conducting routine training, interspersed with occasional excitements, including one operation to clear the beaches at Cley next the sea in Norfolk of landmines that had been laid in 1940 as part of the general defence plan.
Operation MUSKETEER was the name given to the operations during the Suez Crisis in 1956. In the initial stages there proved to be a lack of effective transport coordination and consequently the Corps Commander Royal Engineers (CCRE) was given responsibility for elements of the logistic operation. The Regiment, still based in Ripon, was amalgamated with 276 Port Regiment of the Army Emergency Reserve (AER) to provide 400 man strong squadrons, each with two majors. RE squadrons commanders commanded the operations with technical advice from the AER majors. Squadrons were combined as follows: 16 Fd Sqn with 653 AER Sqn; 30 Fd Sqn with 655 AER Sqn; and 42 Fd Sqn with 654 AER Sqn.
The Regiment did not deploy during the Suez landings at the end of October 1956, but was closely involved in the follow up operations as 35 Army Engineer Regiment (Port) landing at Port Said on 9 November. 16 Field Squadron was first ashore and immediately setting about unloading the many ships anchored there, quickly followed by the rest of the Regiment. The ships’ derricks had to be used for offloading which required considerable ingenuity since the ships had been loaded by the crane in British docks and some of the heavier and more awkward loads such as tank transporters posed interesting problems. The arrival of UN observers and forces together with a proliferation of the world press was the signal for noisy demonstrations and looting by mobs in the towns; the situation was demoralising and unpleasant. Directly it became clear that no further operations would take place the emphasis switched to extracting UK forces by Christmas 1956. The evacuation started on 3 December and the Regiment found itself reloading many of the stores that had been unloaded a few days before. The Regiment then moved directly to Cyprus releasing the reservists who had been to called up to operate the port of Limassol and Famagusta. The majority of the reservists were back in UK by the end of December, and the Regiment finally left for UK and the home base in Ripon in January 1957.
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1957-1989 – BAOR and the Cold War
After nine months in UK, during which 16 and 42 Field Squadrons spent much of the summer running TA camps in Nottingham. The Regiment transferred to Germany in November 1957 where it replaced 38 Corps Engineer Regiment in the British Army of the Rhine Corps Troops ORBAT, and took the name of 35 Corps Engineer Regiment. Based in Roberts Barracks in Osnabruck, 16, 30 and 42 Field Squadrons remained under command, and 65 Corps Field Park Squadron joined the Regiment. 35 Engineer Regiment has remained in Germany ever since, based initially in Osnabruck, before moving with 30 and 42 Field Squadrons and 65 Corps Field Park Squadron in September 1964 to Gordon Barracks in Hameln, joining and taking command of 29 Field Squadron itself already based in Hameln. 1964 was a turbulent year, the move lasted nine months and 16 Field Squadron left the Regiment in January being placed under the command of 2nd Division. In April 1969 the Regiment again changed its name, this time to 35 Engineer Regiment, losing 30 Field Squadron in the process to 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment, and in 1970 taking 44 Field Support Squadron under command. It was in 1970 that it became the 20 Armd Bde close support Regiment, a role it has, broadly speaking, retained ever since. 37 Field Squadron joined the Regiment in April 1976, and in 1977 the Regiment suffered its fifth name change becoming, albeit briefly, 4 Armoured Division Engineer Regiment (still with 29, 37, 42 and 44 Squadrons), before reverting four years later to 35 Engineer Regiment in 1981. Finally in 1999 the Regiment moved to Paderborn (still as the 20 Armoured Brigade close support regiment), but, after nearly 50 years with the Regiment, 42 Field Squadron left to join 28 Engineer Regiment thereby staying in Hameln. At the same time 77 Armoured Engineer Squadron arrived, having departed 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment after many years, and both 29 and 37 Field Squadrons reroled as armoured engineer squadrons equipped with a mix of AVRE, AVLB, AFV 432 and plant.
The period from 1957 until 1989 saw the Regiment supporting 1st British Corps as part of NATO throughout the Cold War, with constant exercises, occasional alarms, and heavy and demanding armoured training exercises. But the Regiment’s period in Germany until the 1990s was equally notable for the number of squadron deployments around the world both on operations, and major overseas exercises. In 1966 30 Field Squadron was deployed to Aden to construct the road from Aden to Habilayn and to maintain the roads within the Radfan. The Squadron proudly boasted how easily it was able to switch from combat engineering to construction work. Nearer home 1969 saw the first deployment of British soldiers in support of the civil power in Northern Ireland. 42 Field Squadron deployed with 21 Engineer Regiment in 1971 (the first time sappers had been used in the infantry role in the Province). The Regiment took over East Belfast in November 1972 and our experience was typical of units deployed in the early 1970s. The Regimental Echelon was based in HMS Maidstone, with RHQ in Mountpottiger RUC Station. The Regiment’s patch covered a huge area of Belfast including both hard Republican areas and potentially explosive loyalist districts. Because of the size of the area, which included many housing estates, patrolling was often in land rovers. The Regiment fired its first baton rounds in the Willowfield area after a long day of rioting, discovered a number of significant arms caches, and tried hard to win over hearts and minds.
The Regiment was also closely involved in one of the few disaster relief missions to a non-NATO European country. Skopje in the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia suffered a violent earthquake on 26 July 1963. Three shocks laid four fifths of the city in ruins, killing over 1000 people, injuring many thousands, and making homeless almost the entire population of 70,000. The small sapper detachment, led by Lt Brodley, was quickly reinforced by a party from 42 Field Squadron. What was to have been a short task turned into the next five months assisting the local population before finally leaving the country on 28 November 1963. Over two hundred Nissen huts were built, along with six schools and two 1000 man camps. Disaster relief operations were conducted nearer home to help the inhabitants of Osnabruck when the Hase burst its banks in the winter of 1960, and in February 1962 during the Hamburg flooding. It was immediately after this that the officers of the Regiment, with generous Corps help, commissioned a silver replica of the Osnabruck Waterloo Gate to commemorate the first decade of the Regiment’s existence. Timing was not all for it was not completed until November 1962, some 15 years after the Regiment formed in Crowborough! The gate remains proudly in the Officers’ Mess.
But the Regiment was not solely concerned with operations and preparing for operations. The Corps of Royal Engineers had enjoyed a long and happy relationship with the City of Hameln, a base for sappers since the end of the war. Hence the Stadt chose in 1977 to honour the Corps with the Freedom of Hameln in a ceremony that took place on 3 June 1977 with contingents from Regiments from all over Germany. Later that year on 7 July the Regiment formed the RE contingent of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Parade. Led by the Commanding Officer in his AFV 432 there followed a procession of AVLBs, M2 Rigs, Ranger anti personnel mine layers and an impressive array of plant including OC 44 Fd Sp Sqn in one of the newly introduced Combat Engineer Tractors. In the more structured life of BAOR the Regiment also found time to develop its sporting prowess, something that has endured ever since. Regular winners of the Victor Ludorum RE Games, the Regiment also developed a passion for skiing and sailing, at one point running numerous ski chalets within the Bavarian Alps to develop Army, Combined Service and national skiing champions.
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1989- 2003 – War and Peacekeeping
The end of the Cold War saw a change in the UK approach to the use of the Army. In 1990 the regiment deployed to Saudi Arabia where it provided support to 1st (UK) Armoured Division during Operation GRANBY, the coalition operation to expel Iraqi forces from their illegal occupation in Kuwait. The Regiment deployed with its full suite of armour, but was employed principally in the General Support role. 37 Field Squadron concentrated on route maintenance to enable logistic units to replenish 4 and 7 Armoured Brigades, while 29 Field Squadron undertook a series of artisan tasks.
On its return from the Gulf the Regiment deployed 29 Field Squadron to Northern Ireland in September 1993, this time in the sapper role. But the Squadron quickly rejoined the Regiment as it was deployed to Bosnia on Operation GRAPPLE 1, the start of many such deployments over the next ten years. Immersed in the intricacies of Balkan politics, factionalism and fanatiscism, and throughout supporting the UN, NATO and Allied forces operating in Bosnia and Kosovo, the Balkans provided a huge challenge to all ranks, as they wrestled with the complexities of multinational peace support operations. The Regiment provided support to a variety of organisations and formations in the Balkans throughout the 1990s; in 1995 it was deployed to bed in 24 Airmobile Brigade in Ploce; in 1998 it returned again to Bosnia, this time in Makonicgrad. The Regiment’s last operational tour was completed in May 2002 after it had spent six months as the Pan Balkans Regiment based in Pristina in Kosovo. 29 Armoured Engineer Squadron, 44 Headquarters Squadron and the REME Workshop spent the time in Kosovo in the general support role concentrating on infrastructure support to Allied forces, primarily within the Multinational Brigade Centre area, but also operating in support of NATO operations in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 77 Armoured Engineer Squadron fulfilled a similar role in Bosnia concentrating support to Multinational Division (South West). The Regiment returned to Paderborn in June 2002.
In January 2003 the Regiment provided 29 Armoured Engineer Squadron as a mechanised general support squadron in support of 1st (UK) Division operations in Southern Iraq as part of 28 Engr Regt Gp, along with a significant number of individual reinforcements to other sapper units. Principally involved in GS to the Division, the Squadron constructed a 15,000 man POW cage, destroyed quantities of captured material, and repaired the Basra-Kuwait railway line to allow supplies, humanitarian aid and resources to reach Southern Iraq. The Squadron returned in June 2003. 35 Engineer Regiment deployed on Op TELIC 3 to Iraq in 2004 as part of a 20 Armoured Brigade deployment without 29 Squadron. The Regiment was principly based in Basrah but carried out General Engineer Support throughout the South of Iraq. 29 Armoured Engineer Squadron again deployed to Northern Ireland in September 2004 and returned in March 2005.
From the middle of 2005 the Regiment entered its training year. This saw squadrons deploy on exercises with thier battlegroups culminating in Exercise UHLAN EAGLE in Poland over the period September - November 2005.
The Regiment deployed on operations in Iraq (Op TELIC 8) deployed with 20 Armoured Brigade from March to November 2006. The tour concluded successfully with the handover to 38 Engr Regt Gp and 35 Engr Regt returned to their base in Paderborn casualty free.
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