Royal Pioneer Corps

The Pioneer Corps , renamed the Royal Pioneer Corps in 1946 , was made up of various units around the world that mainly had to carry out construction and supply activities for the British Army during the Second World War . Foreigners, including exiles who fled from Germany and occupied Austria , could serve in it. It should not with the actual engineering troops confuse the army or the air force, which bear the name "Engineer Troops".

The Pioneer Corps was founded on October 17, 1939 under the name Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps and was continued as the Pioneer Corps from November 22, 1940 and had combatant status . For its dedication and the strength it showed in World War II, it received the title of Royal Pioneer Corps from the monarch on November 28, 1946 as an award . In 1993 it came up with a change of troops in the Royal Logistics Corps . There are currently 3 "Pioneer" units based in Bicester ( Oxfordshire ), Rheindahlen , Germany, and Grantham . The latter unit is assigned to the Territorial Army .

Already in the First World War there were similar units, the Pioneer Battalions in the Labor Corps, which was disbanded in 1919. From 1939 onwards, troops were accepted not only in Great Britain , but also throughout Africa, Mauritius and India . Women could serve in the Auxiliary Territorial Service , the British Army's women's division.

Known relatives

• Heinrich Robert Fischer , art dealer and patron of Austrian origin

literature

• Lyn Smith: Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust, Ebury Press, 2005, ISBN 0-09-189825-0 (Engl.)
• Helen Fry: "The King's most loyal enemy aliens." Germans who fought for Britain in the second world war , History Press Sutton, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud 2007 ISBN 0-7509-4700-4 ; again as Churchill's german army. ibid. 2009 ISBN 978-0-7509-4701-5
• Peter Leighton-Langer: "X stands for unknown". Germans and Austrians in the British armed forces during World War II. Arno Spitz Berlin science publisher BWV, Berlin 1999; 2nd edition 2000 ISBN 3-8305-0138-2
  • (author and translator): "The King's own loyal enemy aliens." German and Austrian refugees in Britain's armed forces. Vallentine Mitchell, Edgware (London) 2006; New York UP 2006 ISBN 0-85303-691-8

Web links

Commons : Royal Pioneer Corps  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Royal Logistics Corps Pioneer . www.army.mod.uk, the official website of the successor unit
• Royal Pioneer Corps Association
• Royal Pioneer Corps , at www.regiments.org
• Katja Iken: Faithful enemies! Around 10,000 Germans fought on the side of the British in World War II. In one day from spiegel.de on July 27, 2008

notes

1. ↑ There were 1500 Austrians in the Pioneer Corps, see Free Austrian Movement
2. ↑ The title quotes the term "opponents who served the king most faithfully" for German-speaking troops
3. ↑ leading participant 1941-1943 in the Corps, then in the armed struggle as an artilleryman