The Life of the Military Engineer: A Brief Introduction
A military engineer is primarily in charge of the design and construction of offensive, defensive, and logistical structures intended for warfare. The military engineer is also in charge of the layout, placement, maintenance and dismantling of defensive minefields and the dismantling of enemy minefields as well as the construction and destruction of bridges and buildings.
His role is varied and there are many types of engineer, in some cases an engineer may even be required to destroy something which he designed and built, such is the nature of his work. In some countries, the current military will inlcude engineering units in weapon design and procurement as well as non-military civil engineering units which can deal with issues such as flood control and river damming and navigation. In contemporary times, a pioneer that usually operates during battle and under fire is called a combat engineer.
The ancient Romans had a dedicated corps of military engineering specialists among their standing army. The Roman engineers were dubbed the architecti. Even in the Republican era, Roman military pioneering was far more advanced than its contemporaries and the scale of feats such as the six-week construction of a thirty mile long double-wall around Alesia in 52BC was huge.
In ancient times, fortifications were assaulted by siege engines which regularly included huge projectile devices or tall moving towers that could offer an attacking force protection while positioning them above the highest point of the fortification’s walls.
Defensive fortifications are built to avoid breech of inner position by siege infantry and, in terms of minor defensive locations, these may only consist of configurations of simple walls and ditches. The design principle is to slow down the advance of attackers so they can be attacked from defensive positions. The majority of larger installations are not merely made of a single structure but are usually a series of concentric fortifications of increasing strength.
The placement, maintenance and dismantling of minefields is usually considered a defensive task for the pioneer while the clearing of enemy minefields is an offensive task.
When a defending force retreats, it is more often the case that they will use a scorched earth policy, destroying anything that may be of use to the enemy, particularly hardware, bridges and structures. A retreating force may also wish to leave booby traps for enemy soldiers to contend with and this is another application for the pioneer.
