The 36 Engineer Regiment is a regiment of the

Corps of Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

within the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. The regiment trace their history back to before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as 36 Army Engineer Regiment. The regiment today is a general support engineer regiment provided force support within 12 (Force Support) Engineer Group.

History

36 Engineer Regiment's predecessor was 36 Army Engineer Regiment which saw service in

. There is not much information written about this unit but it is known it was based in Germany when the war ended. In 1949, the regiment moved to

Invicta Park Barracks Invicta Park Barracks is a military installation in Maidstone, Kent. History Maidstone Barracks Permanent barracks were first established in Maidstone as part of the British response to the threat of the French Revolution in 1797. Maidstone Barr ...

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In 1951, the regiment moved to

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

and had the following structure: * Regimental Headquarters * 24, 57, and 58 Field Squadrons * 20 Field Park Squadron In 1955, the regiment moved to

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

where it joined the 11th Engineer Group. Following their move, the regiment was renamed as the 36 Corps Engineer Regiment as the group, 11 Engineer Group, was tasked with supporting the 1st Corps. In 1956, the regiment saw a deployment to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

with the 2nd (British) Corps during the Suez Invasion. Upon returning from the Middle East the regiment moved back to Invicta Park Barracks in Maidstone. For one year, December 1958 – December 1959 the regiment deployed to

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

after

Operation Grapple Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the P ...

. In January 1969, the regiment was renamed as 36 Engineer Regiment and by 1974 deployed to Northern Ireland as part of the rebuilding process after the start of

Operation Banner Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initial ...

. In the 1982

Falklands Conflict The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland I ...

the regiment sent a detachment assigned to the 5th Infantry Brigade. By 1992, the major

Options for Change Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War. Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending Western Europe against the Soviet Armed Forces, ...

reforms hit the armed forces. As a result of these major reforms the 11th Engineer Group was disbanded and the regiment joined the 1st (UK) Armoured Division directly as a close support regiment for the 20th Armoured Brigade. In 1994 the regiment deployed on Operation Grapple 4. In 1995 the regiment took part in the camp building for the new

24th Airmobile Brigade The 24th Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army from the First World War. It was reraised during the Second World War, as the 24th Infantry Brigade (Guards). During various designations, the brigade was active throughout the C ...

. In 1999 the regiment joined the

5th Airborne Brigade Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash that ...

and by 2002 supported the 16th Air Assault Infantry Brigade. By the time that the

Delivering Security in a Changing World The 2003 Defence White Paper, titled ''Delivering Security in a Changing World'', set out the future structure of the British military, and was preceded by the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and the 2002 SDR New Chapter, which responded to ...

reforms were announced, the regiment was based at

Barker Barracks Barker Barracks was a military installation in Paderborn, Germany. Description Barker Barracks was located in the east of Paderborn, about two kilometres from the city centre. The barracks was bordered by Driburger Straße to the south, the Be ...

in the Paderborn Area. By this time the regiment still had the same role but had the following structure: * Regimental Headquarters * 9 Parachute Squadron, moved to 23 Engineer Regiment after reform * 20 Field Squadron * 69 Gurkha Field Squadron * 61 Field Support Squadron, moved to 23 Engineer Regiment after reform * 70 Field Support Squadron, joined in 2000 From October 2007 to April 2008 the regiment deployed to Afghanistan on Operation Herrick VII, during which it was assigned to the 52nd Infantry Brigade. In 2010, the original Army 2020 reforms started and the regiment was re-titled as the 36 Search Engineer Regiment. In 2015, when the Army 2020 Refines were announced the regiment dropped the "search" title and was assigned to the 12 (Force Support) Engineer Group. As part of these reforms, it was announced that the rest of the units based in Germany were to be moved back to England. As a result the regiment moved to Invicta Park Barracks in Maidstone. The regiment is scheduled to move again by 2027, but it has not yet been confirmed exactly where. The regiment now has the following structure: * Regimental Headquarters * 50 Headquarters and Support Squadron * 20 Field Squadron * 69 Gurkha Field Squadron * 61 Field Support Squadron In addition to these reforms, the regiment will be designated as a force structure unit and is to be paired with the 75th Volunteer Engineer Regiment.

Future

According to an answer by the then

Minister of State for the Armed Forces The minister of state for the armed forces is a mid-level ministerial position at the Ministry of Defence in the Government of the United Kingdom. When of Minister of State rank (until the appointment of James Heappey as a Parliamentary Under-S ...

, Colonel Mark Lancaster, the 67 Gurkha Squadron is to be formed by 2021 and the 68 Gurkha Squadron by 2023.{{cite web , url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-10-21/debates/EFD59BE0-E994-4523-B8BD-B251BB28A3CE/ArmyPersonnel , title=Defence Questions: Army Personnel , author= , date=21 October 2019 , website=hansard.parliament.uk , publisher=House of Commons Hansard , access-date=22 October 2019 , quote=I am delighted that, speaking off the top of my head, we currently have 69 and 70 Gurkha Field Squadrons serving in Invicta barracks in Maidstone. I am also pleased to be able to announce that the aspiration is to create 67 Squadron from 2021, and a second further Gurkha engineers squadron, 68 Squadron, from 2023

Deployments

* Suez Invasion, Egypt (Invasion Support) *

, Christmas Island (Nuclear Bombs Experiments Support) *

, Northern Ireland (Anti-Terrorist Engineering and Support) *

Operation Herrick Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assis ...

, Afghanistan (NATO Deployment) * Operation Trenton, South Sudan (United Nations Peace Keeping) *

Operation Tosca British Forces Cyprus (BFC) is the name given to the British Armed Forces stationed in the UK Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on the island of Cyprus and at a number of related 'retained sites' in the Republic of Cyprus. The United ...

, Republic of Cyprus (United Nations Peace Keeping) * Operation Marmat, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (Earthquake Disaster Relief) * Project Animoi, Falkland Islands (Infrastructure Upgrade and Support)

References

Sources

"British Army units from 1945 on - 36 Regiment". ''british-army-units1945on.co.uk''. Retrieved 2019-08-21.

36 Engineer Regiment
Regiments of the Royal Engineers