Combat Engineer the unsung soldier

last SG · 2002-08-30T16:43:44+00:00

I'm not from a combat engineer unit - but I will always remember and admire their discipline and efficiency. I had a chance, a long time ago to train with th...

silkmagic SG

In our region, emphasis is placed on troops like the armour, artillery or the commandos. But Combat Engineer plays a large role in the army too. In western countries, combat engineers are considered an elite forces and during the World War, engineers are targetted by bombers from both sides because of their ability to advance and obstruct. Surprised

bigballs11 SG

I totally agree with you.
In fact most of the most deadly and destructive programs are managed by Combat Engineers. e.g. US Trinity program, all kinds of germs/chemical gases, daisy cutters etc etc
Combat Engineers is the only type of unit that can find useful roles in both wartime and peacetime, indispensible in every offensive, counter offensive tasks in wartime, able to support large civil programs in peacetime (e.g. who built the stand yearly for national day? who dispose the WW2 bombs in construction site and defuse terrorist bombs?)
Good grief is our engineer units are consider one of the best in the region, in equipment and training. In fact the first to die is the pioneer/combat engineer units in the infantry, who lan lan has to clear beach obstacles under heavy fire.
So all folks please salute to all the fine unsung heros of the army.
30SCE - Field Engineers
35SCE - Float Bridging Engineers
36SCE - Bomb Disposal Engineers
38SCE - Armoured Engineers
Special - NBC Unit
Laughing

silkmagic SG

Worst thing is have to clear mine field and nowadays mine is meant to maim and not kill. So there is a lot of casualty whenever a mine field is being cleared.

So bigballs 11 are you a combat engineer Wink

bigballs11 SG

Wai lau, your mine countermeasure technique still reside in stoneage period huh?!?

21st century combat engineers don't even use mine prodders or gangho like the idiot rambo who still use his "cai-toe" dagger to probe for mines la, unless he want to die with all his guts blown apart. You know nowadays mine is damn smart, got CPU and all kinds of weird sensors to counter idoits like rambo. Latest type of mine can be helidrop, airdrop, artillary delivered, automatically laid and come equipped with self destruct mech. Moreover mines now can fired from sideways like AT missles against preset moving targets, or can move around to new designated site like spider one....

We got newer countermeasure technique like mine plough, rotor drum mine plough, explosive dangling balls, funny counter measure rocket propel breaching equipment that has weird names like python, viper, cobra, FAE round, explosive eating bateria bla bla bla....

The motto now is work smart and survive Shocked

Originally posted by silkmagic:

Worst thing is have to clear mine field and nowadays mine is meant to maim and not kill. So there is a lot of casualty whenever a mine field is being cleared.

[b]So bigballs 11 are you a combat engineer Wink [/b]

Silenthunter SG

Dun forget the pioneers.......they were there when engineers are not there.

Salute to My coy mates......the armored pioneers........ Cool

silkmagic SG

Pioneers is a term used in the Engineer Corps for engineer so the armored pioneers are also know as armored engineer Razz

silkmagic SG

So are you a combat engineer as you seems to know so much about them.

I have no doubt that there are new methods in clearing mines but the fact still stands that clearing mines is a risky business. In Singapore, we still have to learn to prod for mine using the mine prodder as a basic skill. That is why the mine prodder is part of the field engineer equipment. Laughing

I agree that we have to work smart and survive but the fact has shown that regardless of how advance the counter mine technique is, there are still people being killed or injured trying to clear the mine field around the world after world. So imagine the situation if there is a war going on. Crying or Very sad

bigballs11 SG

That's true, mine clearing is a dangereous, can you imagine how pale that instructor officer face turn when he saw a bobo trainee pioneer arming a live AT mine, dropping that fragile detonator will definitely secure both of them a one way ticket to the moon.

Nowadays mine is not as stupid as it used to be, magnetic senors, heat signature senors, trip wires, touch senors are some of the well-known techniques incorporated into new generation mines. You won't want to use that mine prodder to poke on that, will U?
Shocked

bigballs11 SG

Oh yes, also salute to unsung heros classified under plant coy and mechanised bridging coy within the field engineer battalion. I actually think the plant coy is the most useful vocation man, at least you learn how to operate class 5 and above vehicles and all kinds of crane, bull dozers, dumptrucks (heard civilian pay not bad), quite useful when you ROD... Wink

silkmagic SG

Crying or Very sad Yah lor. Other than Combat Engineers, few have heard of plant coy. We are the construction worker of the engineer corp. The pay is not bad if you like to make a living in this industry but then based on my personal experience, only 1% of the plant coy actually put what they learn in the army and make a living out of it in civilian life. As my batch are mostly diploma holders, they are pursing other career today.

bigballs11 SG

Think back, the most fun part is demolition works, especially you play until sian with all kinds of explosives corn flakes, TNT blocks, PE, RDX, PETN bla bla bla

In more advanced cources, you are allowed to make all kinds of improvised shape/hollow charges creating big holes in reinenforced walls and roads, blowing up bridges and vehicles...damn song man.

Think about it, maybe I should become a full time demolition man, anyone want to hire a pro? Rolling Eyes

Sudaimiki SG

I hire you Very Happy

bcoy SG

I remembered going for a short course in demo. That was a long time ago - still remember the "corn flakes" and TNT "bar of soap".

bigballs11 SG

May I know what is the task? Demolish the eyesore Twin Tower or KL Tower?
Laughing

silkmagic SG

The best part of the demolition works is the improvised explosive. I remember making a door charge whereby we will use socks (the smellest socks in the platoon for better effect) filled with TNT flakes to blow up the door knob. Being a kiasu Singaporean, we filled up the socks with twice the recommended amount of TNT flakes just to ensure that the door knob will be blown away cleanly. In the end we did blow up the door knob but the explosive also took away half the door. Boy did we get a scolding and punishment out of it. Very Happy

Do improvised charges is like working with chemistry. You mix and match until you get the desired result. Sometimes you will never know what is going to happen until the things blow up Twisted Evil

Loo SG

Does anyone know what is the role of a combat engineer in a war and how is Singapore’s combat engineer compared to the rest of the region

bigballs11 SG

I believe the best part is the crusendo training where everything goes (no safety rules or regulation). I remember we got so much leftover ammo and explosive to clear prior the last exercise and we use them in 1 shot, imagine what is it like with dozens pack of 100kg of TNT, flame throwing mine blown just 100m infront of U, my helmet kanna flew off 50m and you can physically feel the shock waves go thru your body, better than having sex experience....then the whole company fire full auto using all their arsenal, M203, GPMG, M16, Ultamax with tracers some more. I will pity those who will be in the wrong end in this kiasu ambush scenerio (Combat Engineer style).

P.S. using some PE and iron prickles, you can design a hollow charge to cut thru armoured plate hor... Shocked

bigballs11 SG

Combat Engineer is one of the most important element in any conventional army. In offensive, counter-offensive, defensive manuveure, combat engineer play critical role.
e.g. you stuck in a river, you need us to built bridge, you kanna minefield, you need us to clear mine, you want to hole-in in great comfort, you need us to built BCP and trenches, you kanna muddy road, you need us to laid an expressway, you want to do a beachfront assualt, you need us to punch a hole for the main force, your ass kanna burn by enemy pursue, you need us to place booby traps and abbatis, enginners is most siong in the starting and ending phase of any campaign, most of the time 5 days and nites no sleep, you know?

In this region, we are the best, the equipment we use and the training/exercise we perform is as good as those in the US and UK engineers.....no one come close....no joke...imagine
in angmo enginneer, they got 12 men section, we only got 10 men section. 4 big-size angmo carry a "MGB coffin" lego section, here 4 skinny man do the same time but in half the time... Shocked

silkmagic SG

Do we have such a big section or does these includes the specialist. One more thing I have trained with the Brunei combat engineers and therfore I know of their capabilties. But I do not know about the Malaysians or the Indonesians engineers. How good are they and what equipment do they use

bigballs11 SG

I trained with Thais, Brunei CE in NS, US, Aussie and Taiwan in my long long reservist. Maybe mine is older unit la, that time one section is 10 men including the SC and 2IC, normally SC just down there yell and fark (command and control), 2IC take side measurement and safety checks (keng), while 8 men slog like shit carry the load lor. Don't tell me now drop to 8 man section liao, if that's the case SC and 2IC also need to carry load, how to survive? less man more work?!? In standard CE section formation, the strength should be 11/12, combat engineer section has to be larger than normal infantry section, you know?

Malaysian CE are not organic components (support elements) unlike those in Singapore Combined Arms Division, same applied to Indonesian Army Engineers (if they have any). Their battalion is purely infantry fighting units and engineer support require FIFO arrangement. Their bridging capabilities is only limited to field engineer task (mine, countermine, fixed bridging, demo) and maybe some float bridging plus bomb disposal.
For fixed bridging, I believe they still stuck to the MGB and AFB. Class 30 trackway...
For mines, I believe they have aquired new types of mine but deployment technque is still labour intensive.
For countermining, I believe they still use the pipe charges and explosive dangling balls
For float bridging, maybe some kind of plootons and rafts.
They are beginning to build their Armoured enginnering capabilities (not the full Armoured Enginnering, maybe command direct by the armoured units themselves) with some AVLB to support their PT-91 MBT.
Malaysian and Indonesian Army has always view CE capabilities as secondary task, their doctrine is still based on jungle/small scale strike warfare thus less emphasis on CE capabilities. Singapore doctrine is based on full fledge conventional warfare with great emphasis on mobility, so CE capbilities has to be organic and readily available to fixed any problem while on movement and contact.

Singapore CE has evolved for the last 30+ years and the capabilities has already grown to become all rounder true blue CE force to be rackon with. Even the US CE get quite impress with some of the capabilities we have for such as small country.
For example some of those automatic bridge laying capabilties, counter mine capabilities, just to name a few
Shocked