We Honour All - Visitors Page

 Please leave your name, rank, regiment, force number and service dates and if living or remembrance

Ian Stuart Buchanan - Spr - 21 Field / 25 Field - 84622455BG 87/88 Living

Jan Duvenage Spr - 21 Field/1Construction Regiment/5 Field - 77242899BT - 82/83 - Living
Mark D Haupt - S/Sgt - 17 Field Bethlehem/6 Field JHB - 70218755BT - 73-81 - Living
Victor G Bantjes - Spr - 21 Field 1984/1 Construction 1985/ 11 Field/25 Field 1987 - 81242018BG - Living
Germishuizen Louis (Gerrie), WO2, 21 Field Gerrandsdam, 1983/ 4 Field Regiment 1985 - 1991/ 19 Field Engineer Regiment 1992 - present, 80418155 BV, 1983 and still going
Spr. WF Schmidt 88340294BG 23 Field, Bethlehem; 47 Survey Squadron, Pothcefstroom. Living
J. Breedt 67425355BtT 17 Field Bethlehem 1970 - B-Group, Lincell Bungalow

SA Muir SPR 2 Field Engineer Regiment. 87201802BG 

Cpl (Sapper) Martin Godfrey 74271065BT 

Guy Middleton  77571271PE. 
Anonymous  - 75532085 BG JAN 77 TO DEC 78

The Tree of the Engineers

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History lesson on the SADF Engineers

I have researched the history of the SADF Engineer's unit and it's passage through time, our regiment was based on the British Royal Engineer Corps.

In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded Britain he brought his own version of engineers known as "Ingeniators" which meant a person skilled in the art of defence construction. Also known as a gifted person, genius or "Genie" by the French which brought about the Afrikaans name Genie. So our regiment has quite a pedigree in the pages of history. Further interesting note, the term Sapper derived from the word SAP or to SAP, which means to work in the open face of a trench or to work in a tunnel. Also back in the day only officers were members of the Corps of Engineers.

The first South African Engineers made their appearance in 1859 during the Colonial Regime and the Governor of the Cape Colony established the Cape Engineers, the title was then changed to the Cape Volunteer Engineer Corps.

To skip through time a bit - Post WW2 Engineers.

As the role of a Sapper was defined in both great wars, the post WW2 Sapper's functions evolved into ensuring the mobility of fighting units both in the advance or retreat, to make sure life was secure and as comfortable as possible. To achieve this, the modern Sapper had to use initiative, skill and experience and was tasked with denying these above necessities to the enemy. As such the motto came about of First In and Last Out.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This website may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been pre-authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of political, economic, scientific, social, art, media, and cultural issues. Material on this site is distributed without profit to persons interested in such information for research and educational purposes. If you want to use any copyrighted material that may exist on this site for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.