[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

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Chapter I
ORGANISATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION EFFORT

Section II.
Regimental Organisation


6. - Engineer Units.

Engineer units assisting in the work of Railway Construction have been in the main either Field Companies or Artisan Works Companies. In both cases the assistance of these units was only obtained for limited periods and for specific tasks. In most cases the authority for their employment was given by Theatre Headquarters, although in a few cases assistance was obtained by direct contact with Army.

In spite of much valuable work that has been done for Railway Construction by Field Companies, it must be recorded that their employment was a continual source of anxiety to R.C.Es. In the first place they were combat troops and their whole training had been concentrated, in the case of bridge repairs, on the sole objective of building a bridge in the shortest possible time even if it was insecurely founded and only durable for a few weeks. This training and the knowledge of the type of foundations required for Bailey Bridges, they brought, and applied to Railway Construction. R.C.Es. had therefore to be continually on the watch to ensure that proper railway standards were maintained. In the second place these units were detached from their parent C.R.E. only for the duration of the work. This C.R.E. frequently had the same outlook on engineering problems as his units, and furthermore was anxious that they should perform their tasks rapidly both for the sake of his Group prestige and also that he might recover his units the sooner. As a result he wa apt to urge upon his units courses of action unfavourable to sound railway construction. For this reason relations between the R.C.E. and the C.R.E. tended to become strained.

Artisan Works Companies on the other hand were innoculated with no such preconceived idea as Field Companies. Furthermore they were drawn from a pool and therefore owed no allegiance to any particular C.R.E. The tradesmen of the unit were as individuals every bit as good as the tradesmen of the Field Companies, but as they were not so intensively drilled they were much more amenable to direction.


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[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

Alessandro Tuzza