A doubt about Engineers / Sappers

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Webstral

In the early 90's, heavy divisions had an engineer brigade (DIVENG) that included one battalion for each brigade. Each maneuver battalion thus had its own engineer company. Light divisions had to make do with one company per brigade.

Webstral

I wonder if these were fresh-raised battalions, or were they re-assigned from the brigades already assigned to Corps or Armies? Given that the '90s, the US had 8? heavy divisions, that's 16+ new battalions and their brigade HQs, at a time when the Army was being cut back.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I wonder if these were fresh-raised battalions, or were they re-assigned from the brigades already assigned to Corps or Armies? Given that the '90s, the US had 8? heavy divisions, that's 16+ new battalions and their brigade HQs, at a time when the Army was being cut back.

No many of these Battalion were stripped from Combat Engineer Brigades that were Corps level assets. One of the many lessons that the US Army should of learned during WWII but never realized until then, was that the Divisions in combat usually have several Attachments. The last 8 years or so the Army has been re-learning lessons and slowly applying them.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

No many of these Battalion were stripped from Combat Engineer Brigades that were Corps level assets. One of the many lessons that the US Army should of learned during WWII but never realized until then, was that the Divisions in combat usually have several Attachments. The last 8 years or so the Army has been re-learning lessons and slowly applying them.

IMO, it's a sort of cycle. There was a TO&E immediately after WW2 that added a lot of attachments permanently to the regimental combat team (like a tank company, cannon company, etc.) These were stripped out for the ROAD division after the Pentomic fiasco, and re-concentrated at the division level. Tanks and artillery didn't need to be down at the lower levels in Vietnam, after all.

Sometimes you need it, sometimes you don't.