Pioneer Corps

[WolvoExPunk]

3 Armoured Div & Signal Regt had a Pioneer section, when I was posted there in 1992. When we moved to Bulford in 1993, they were gone. I remember the day they were amalgamated into the RLC. There were enough dark blue berets in the store for them, but no cap badges. So, they all had to walk about with their RPC badges, instead.

 

[Actingunpaid]

I remember them dog-handling at Long Kesh.Didn't envy them,those dogs were vicious.

 

[Issi]

For some reason, lost in the annals of time, they sent a half dozen chunks to the AAC as ground crew.
Mixed bunch, some thick as a whale omelette, some very switched on lads.
One of them ended up as one of our door gunners, and was very well respected.

 

[Carbon 6]

I'm not disbelieving you - just saying that driving Monty was a bit like being on the balcony.

I've often wondered about something similar. My uncle, by marriage, was a RMP sergeant in North Africa and told me that he was detailed as Monty's bodyguard during part of his time there. I've seen photos and documents of his service and he certainly was what he said. He was also someone I wouldn't have crossed, but is there any way to find out about the bodyguard story?

 

[RSupwood]

I did a couple of years when I was a Craftsman with 6 Brigade HQ and Signal Squadron in Barnard Castle. We had Pioneers there but apart from manning the gate I'm not sure what they did. Presumably they had a defence function when we deployed to Germany.

 

[dingerr]

They used to provide the workforce in Ammunition depots before it became civilianised. The NAAFI at Kineton had a white line down it - RPC one side, RAOC the other.

 

[Retired bloke]

They used to provide the workforce in Ammunition depots before it became civilianised. The NAAFI at Kineton had a white line down it - RPC one side, RAOC the other.

My bold Its all the same army, so why?

Edit, 22sigs shared the same facilities with 27RA, no segregation or demarcation.

 

[bob_the_bomb]

I'm not disbelieving you - just saying that driving Monty was a bit like being on the balcony.

Maybe he drove Monty’s double?

 

[dingerr]

My bold Its all the same army, so why?

Edit, 22sigs shared the same facilities with 27RA, no segregation or demarcation.

Dunno.

 

[ACAB]

I remember them dog-handling at Long Kesh.Didn't envy them,those dogs were vicious.

Read the thread by Auld Sapper featuring 'Stumpy'. I can't remember the bloody name of it

Ah, found it

I'm unable to link to it so follow this. It's in the thread 'Now that what I call ARRSE 1'

'KIN 'ELL !! been heavy in here today...so......​

 

[br9mp812]

They used to provide the workforce in Ammunition depots before it became civilianised. The NAAFI at Kineton had a white line down it - RPC one side, RAOC the other.

TBH when we had to bury some of our lads the 522 RPC ? sncos where a great heip to us drill and org wise

 

[Actingunpaid]

Read the thread by Auld Sapper featuring 'Stumpy'. I can't remember the bloody name of it

Ah, found it

I'm unable to link to it so follow this. It's in the thread 'Now that what I call ARRSE 1'

'KIN 'ELL !! been heavy in here today...so......​

Thanks for putting that up.What a fabulous read,laugh a minute,and 24 pages to go.The RPC guy had a psycho dog that just went for Orficers,nice doggy otherwise for a wolf!

 

[dingerr]

I’ve been on a number of OTXs with Piokees attached, they’ve always been invaluable.

 

[Nimbus]

A civvy mate of mine sold insurance and the like around the NAAFIs in BAOR. In the queue in the NAAFI at a Pioneer unit, he asked for a chunky meat pie and was promptly decked by the guy behind him...
The few that I met were sound blokes, though rumour had it that Pt1 orders were read out loud every evening.

 

[hackle]

Good lads in my limited experience. Just to add that graves registration was one of their tasks, a tough one.

 

[Whiskybreath]

Several places I served at had Pioneer platoons as guard force. Always seemed decent chaps. A friend of my dad’s had got to WO1 in the Int Corps then took an LE Commission in the RPC. Said it was the best 5 years of his career

Might be the same bloke I knew; when asked where he was going to on commissioning said RPC, because it offered the best possibilities in the afterworld. He may have been right; an RPC officer would have had some of the best management courses available to him. Good sense.

 

[arfah]

Watching RLC Pioneers in the bar, Kosovo stencilling their foreheads with the rough side of a beer bottle top, early summer, 2000.

They were easy to identify, after. They all had the same marking

 

[Stanchion]

A lead contender for the most famed Royal Pioneer Corps soldier would have to be;

Capt Herbert Sulzbach OBE, Iron Cross 1st & 2nd Class

A decorated WW1 German artillery officer who wrote the classic 'With the German Guns', Capt Sulzbach had to flee Germany because he was Jewish.
After being interned on the Isle of Man, he volunteered for the Royal Pioneer Corps and
became an interpreter.
He became well known for his work in German POW Camps for his re-education of many former Nazis, winning them over to the idea of democracy, prior to their repatriation; and also for his post-war efforts to reconcile the former enemy nations.
One account of him reads:
<<
Many of the several thousand officers who passed through Sulzbach’s hands
recorded moving tributes to his achievements in re-educating them towards
democracy. In 1982 they laid a plaque at the camp's site, making special mention of
‘Captain Herbert Sulzbach O.B.E. who dedicated himself to making this camp a
seedbed of British-German reconciliation’.
>>
There's a fair bit about him on the internet but this article from the Jewish Chronicle paints a good account.
Featherstone Park Camp

Here's his medal collection but I've seen no evidence that he ever wore his German military decorations on his British uniform.

RLC Museum

 

[Whiskybreath]

I sense that some of the contributors here may have been RPC, which is a plus. During my time they provided HQ defence - not a mean task, and off-duty were great social company. One of those at HQ 8Inf Bde had previously been in the FFL, and was more than a match at any PT or CQB face-to-face combat with anyone at Ebrington at that time. Another tried to reduce his weight by living in a black plastic refuse bag under his clothing - a reasonable, and as it proved, positive measure, if a bit unsocial. Good guys.

 

[Accidental_discharge]

I worked with Pioneers many times, when they were in both a labouring role, and an Infantry role. All excellent hard working, and hard playing no nonsense blokes.

I can't for the life of me recall his name, but a RPC Staffie was married to our NAAFI manager. Unfortunately, he met and married her on a Banner tour (not unfortunate that he married her, she was a super lady! Always good for a free pint.). The unfortunate part was he was targeted by PIRA when on leave back in NI. This would have been 84 ish IIRC (it was prior to the change in cap badge and beret, so that should date it somewhat).