The trail from fighting against Rommel in the Western Desert, moving the legendary Fourteenth Army across the water barriers of Burma, carving a path to victory in the 1971 War, bringing succour to thousands of calamity stricken countrymen to thwarting insurgents and terrorists, maintaining the fighting edge across the snowy heights of Siachen and chasing the enemy out of Kargil, there is a many splendour connection. The Bengal Sappers have been through it all.

     In 1819, at the conclusion of the Third      Maratha War the Bengal Sappers and Miners were raised at Allahabad with Captain Thomas Anburey as the Commandant. The newly raised Group distinguished itself in its first combat experience of sapping and mining through most formidable fortifications at Bhuratpore in 1825. The following year saw the group earning its first battle honour at Bhuratpore in 1826.

     In 1839, at the time of the First Afghan War,      the Bengal Sappers distinguished themselves during the attack on Ghuznee Fort. The Kabul gate was breached in the face of heavy fire. It was then that the Bengal Sappers earned the first gallantry awards ever given to Indian soldiers, when ‘Indian Order of Merit’ were bestowed upon Subedar Devi Singh and twelve other ranks of the Group.

     In 1853, the Headquarters moved to      Roorkee, where it has remained ever since. On arrival at Roorkee, the troops camped under a big tree. Here, a “Shivalinga” was placed and evening prayers were performed. Later, in 1895, this very spot was developed as the “Faujeshwarnath Mandir”.

     At 10 AM on 07 Nov a Durbar was      held at Roorkee, where His Excellency Viscount Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, Colonel Commandant of the Royal Engineers, and Commander-in-Chief in India, laid the foundation stone of the War Memorial. Colonel Sandbach, the Commandant, in opening the proceedings had said, “The reason why we have assembled this gathering is that we have decided to erect a Monument on which will be inscribed the past history of the Bengal Sappers and Miners and War Services of the Corps. The Monument will be in the form of one of the famous Minars of Ghuznee”.

     During the “Great War”, units of the      Bengal Sappers and Miners took part in almost all the major campaigns in all the theatres of war. Among the many commendable feats of engineering executed during these years, the Pontoon Bridge built across the River Tigris at Shumran in February 1917, in the face of heavy Turkish resistance, was most outstanding.

     On February 26th, 1927, the War      Memorial was unveiled by Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood GCB, GCMG, KCSI, DSO, Commander-in-Chief in India. On this occasion, he said, “I feel it a special honour and privilege to be here today because I am probably one of the very few officers present, who, more than 19 years ago, was present at your Centenary Celebrations, when Lord Kitchener laid the foundation stone of your existing War Memorial, designed as a replica of the Tower of Ghuznee, famous in your history”.

     It was during the Second World      War that the Bengal Sappers were      destined to make their greatest effort. “The Impossible Bridge” over the River Moro in Italy came to be a legend in the annals of combat engineering when a Bengal Sapper unit crossed over to the enemy side and built a bridge in reverse direction, to overcome the technical difficulty arising out of lack of construction space on the home bank.

     Brigadier Hasted, the Chief Engineer of the legendary Fourteenth Army, whom Field Marshal Bill Slim recognised as ‘the hero of the Burma Campaign’, was a Bengal Sapper. The Chindwin Bridge, the largest bridge built during the Second World War, was constructed by the Bengal Sappers and played a crucial part in the defeat of the Japanese and their subsequent rout from Burma in 1945.

     1947 was one of the most      trying periods in the history of the Group. The greater part of the units, funds and equipment went into Pakistan’s share. It fell on Colonel JS Dhiillon, the First Indian Commandant (later Lt General JS Dhillon), who during the 1965 Indo-Pak War distinguished himself in command of a Corps, to reorganise the Group on sound footings. When Pandit Nehru visited Roorkee in November 1949, he was so impressed by the Bengal Sappers’ Parade that he chose Brigadier JS Dhillon to command the first Republic Day parade in 1950 at New Delhi.

     A major part of the Group took      part in the operations in 1965. The units in Kasur, Lahore, Sialkot, Chhamb and Kashmir valley bore the burnt. The crucial engineer tasks like mine laying, demolitions, construction and repair of bridges and preparation of defences in mountainous areas proved invaluable for the ultimate victory. The most historically celebrated achievement, however, was execution of flooding scheme in Khemkaran Area which was instrumental in trapping and subsequent annihilation of the enemys most potent armoured formation, which had been launched in attack. This battle turned the tide in favour of India.

     The first trans-oceanic sailing      expedition was led by a Bengal Sapper, Major Mohan Singh. Eight sailors of the Corps, including four Bengal Sappers, sailed on the two Sea-Bird Class yachts from Madras on 15 February 1970 and reached Port Blair on 08 March after twenty two days under sun and sail. The venture was named ‘Swaraj Dveep Expedition’ after the name given to the Andamans by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

     In many respects, the operations in      Bangladesh are best described as an “Engineer's War”, since the ultimate victory depended on the timely and skillfully executed passages of our forces across the innumerable obstacles in the riverine terrain of what was then the East Pakistan. The tradition of engineering improvisation and innovation saw its zenith during this widely acclaimed military campaign when bridges, fords, culverts and ferries had to be constructed virtually at every kilometer of the routes, and that with little or no equipment at hand. The 1384 feet long bridge constructed over the River Madhumati was the longest bridge ever built by Sappers.