26 Engineer Regiment is a regiment of 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 Gurkha ...

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 head ...

. It is based at

Swinton Barracks Swinton Barracks is a military installation accommodating two engineer regiments at Perham Down in Wiltshire, England. The site is on the east edge of Salisbury Plain, about east of the garrison at Tidworth. The camp forms part of the Tidworth, ...

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wit ...

, Wiltshire.

History

The unit was formed in 1950 and in April 1956 moved to 4th Armoured Division in the same role. In November 1957, the regiment was reorganised and re-titled as "Headquarters Royal Engineers, 4th Division" and moved to

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

, Germany. By 1969, it was expanded in size and in 1970, the regiment moved to

Iserlohn Iserlohn (; Westphalian: ''Iserlaun'') is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region. Geography Iserlohn is locat ...

. From July to November 1974, the regiment was tasked as an infantry unit and served in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

. By 1978, the regiment was reorganised again as the new 3rd Armoured Division's Armoured Engineer Regiment. The Regiment reformed in 2000 with 38 HQ and Support Squadron and 8 Armd Engr Sqn and from August to February of the same year the regiment served as part of

Kosovo Force The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Its operations are gradually reducing until Kosovo's Security Force, established in 2009, becomes self sufficient. KFOR entered Kosovo on 11 June 1999, two days ...

. When the regiment came back from operations it moved to Horne Barracks, Larkhill, but later moved to Corunna Barracks Ludgershall. The regiment served in both

Operation Telic Operation Telic (Op TELIC) was the codename under which all of the United Kingdom's military operations in Iraq were conducted between the start of the invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 and the withdrawal of the last remaining British forces on ...

and

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 Ass ...

, namely TELIC VI, HERRICK VI and HERRICK XVI. In January 2009 the regiment moved to Swinton Barracks at

Perham Down Perham Down is a village in Wiltshire, England, in Tidworth parish on the eastern edge of Salisbury Plain. It lies on a minor road about east of the town of Tidworth and southwest of the town of Ludgershall. The county border with Hampshire is ...

. Under

Army 2020 Army 2020, was the name given to the restructuring of the British Army, in light of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. Background The British Government gave an indication of its proposals for the future structure of the Army in ea ...

the regiment moved to 25 (Close Support) Engineer Group.

Organization

Its structure is as follows: * 26 Engineer Regiment, in Swinton Barracks ** 38 Headquarters and Support Squadron ** 8 Armoured Engineer Squadron ** 30 Armoured Engineer Squadron ** 33 Armoured Engineer Squadron

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/corps-of-royal-engineers/26-engineer-regiment/ Regiments of the Royal Engineers Military units and formations established in 2000