Hi everyone just signed up today and i'd like to say hello. if anyone would like my input on anything British Military feel free to drop me a line.

Welcome aboard!

I suspect that over time, your offer will be taken up as there are members from all around the world with many different interests.

Hmmm...first question for you...what is a "sapper"? <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

A sapper is a military engineer, The "follow the sapper" bit comes from days of old, when it came around to breaching fortifications the sappers designed the fieldworks to enable the breach. The assaulting troops then had to Follow the Sapper through these fieldworks to get to the breach site. Basically means everyone else has to follow the engineer to get thier job done.

there you go first little bit of british military history for you

Johno

Yep... but not just British military history, LoL... we breached a few of our "cousins" fieldworks and fortifications in NE USA a while back... <grin> I enjoyed my career first as an Infantryman and then as a Combat Engineer; both by choice. Sappers have been the vanguard of all advancing armies since well before before Napoleonic times - sometimes even ahead of the scouts - and is the proper historical term for the in-the-enemy's-face combat engineers - that's what we call them in the US Army as well - borrowed term from our "cousins".

We have advanced some from axes... although anyone who's had to resond to an "incident" at the Enlisted Club can vouch that macho grunts and cavalrymen risk serious peril mixing it up with fellows that wield 12 pound sledge hammers all night long <smirk>...

Mobility, Countermobility, Survivability, Demolition, Construction, Reconnaisance, fighting as Infantry - we do it all! No mechanized commander can or will move without his supporting sappers... the unmounted grunts usually have to run into trouble before the truth hits them ( I used to be one, blithley jumping out of airplanes and running around afoot).

Glad to see another sapper on the list!

Sappers First!

Tom
USA, Retired

Tom, apologies for my inadvertant mistake, a bit of unintended national blinkering on my part. glad to make your aquaintance.
The more sappers the better no matter what nationality.

Thanks for filling a void in my military knowledge. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Welcome to the forums! <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Similar to what John said. Sapper in Polish military is also a combat engineer but somehow they are used mostly for cleaning mine fields. There was this old saying that sapper can only make two mistakes: first one when he joins the sapper corp and second one... well you know.

Matt

<img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Welcome!!!!!!!!