Reference Sources for South African Engineer Corps Military Railways

THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST

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Reference Sources for South African Engineer Corps Military Railways

Following on from the earlier reference sources this document is to assist in research on South African Military Railways. You are encouraged to look at the other research pages for further ideas, as there may be some duplication of material and those pages will also give an overall history of the railway. Also, please look at the general research page as that contains many sources that may be of assistance.

South Africa Docks and Railway Rifles Insignia

South Africa Railways and Harbours BrigadeInsignia

From left to right, South African Docks and Railway Rifles, South African Engineer Corps, Railways and Harbours Brigade.

A very brief history of the South African Engineer Corps

In 1859 the Governor of the Cape Colony authorsed the stablishment of the Cape Engineers (Volunteers), which in 1861 became simply the Cape Engineers. In 1865, the title was changed to the Cape Volunteer Engineer Corps, but in 1869, the Corps literally faded away. Ten years later in 1879, the Corps was resuscitated under the name Cape Town Volunteer Engineers.

Natal Engineer Corps

In 1910, the Natal Engineer Corps was formed but ceased to exist in 1913, a year after the passing of the Defence Act in 1912. Just before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Cape Fortress Engineers were formed to relieve Imperial Troops occupied on sapper tasks in the fixed defences of the Cape Peninsula.

WW1 and WW2

The Railway Pioneer Regiment was formed during the Boer War from men who had left the Transvaal on the outbreak of war and continued in service until the end. There was also and Scotts Railway Guards. After the end of the Boer War the various regiments were disbanded and the Imperial Military Railway Volunteers became the Central South African Railway Volunteers, that name being changed in 1906 to the Central South African Railways Engineering Corps. Both this Corps and the Natal Engineer Corps were disbanded in June 1913, but political unrest in South Africa forced the reestablishment of an Engineer Corps in early 1914. This Corps took part in the campaign in German South West Africa in 1914-15. In about March 1915 Lt-Col Hoy formed the Railway Regiment in GWSA from railway men serving with the Army. After the GWSA campaign had finished South Africa provided two Railway Operating Companies and one Miscellaneous Trades Company on the Western Front. Unfortunately, no trace of their War Diaries has been found in either Chatham or Kew. Although they are treated in Buchans History of the South African Forces in France. There was Railways and Harbours Rifles unit formed in 1916, disbanded in 1926 and resurrected in 1940. South Africa supplied several railway construction companies and one railway survey company for the East African campaign in 1940-41 and then subsequently in Italy. Their Tunnelling Companies also worked on the Beirut-Tripoli Line with the Australians. With the re-constitution of the Active Citizen Force after the War, the Brigade was retained and consisted of five battalions, trained in infantry and engineering tasks.

South African Army Museums

The National Museum of Military History is in Johannesburg.

https://ditsong.org.za/en/our-museums/museum-of-military-history/

The Anglo-Boar War Museum is in Bloemfontein in the Free State. It contains an armoured train.

https://wmbr.org.za/about-the-war-museum/

Major Rice designed cheap, at a cost of £16 per blockhouse, and easily erectable by the troops within 6 hours, blockhouse that were used to protect the railway lines. This one came from north of Naval Hill in Bloemfontein seen here at the museum in April 2019. (Julian Rainbow copyright)

Preserved in the Museum is ex-SAR 7th Class No.975 Neilson 4469/1893 at the War Museum in April 2019 (Copyright Julian Rainbow)

A selection of trucks donated to the War Museum by the South African Transport Services. (Copyright Julian Rainbow)

Military History Societies and Journals

The South African Military History Society can be contacted through http://samilitaryhistory.org/. They have a listing of all their Journal articles many of which can be downloaded and have several articles on railways. The next link shows what museums they are aware of that contain military history.

http://samilitaryhistory.org/mussocco.html

Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies is published by the Depratment of Military History at Stellenbosch University.

https://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/about

The link below leads to scans of the South African Railways Journal.

https://railways.haarhoff.co.za/

This link gives a few portraits of South African Military Railwaymen.

https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87222

The next link gives a short overview of the history of the Railways and Harbours Brigade.

http://www.veridical.co.za/Default.aspx?tabid=1239&Parameter=2864

Extensive use was made of railways during the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and there is a whole website devoted to the war. The link below will take you to a History of the Railway Pioneer Regiment.

https://www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/south-african-units/459-railway-pioneer-regiment#:~:text=About%2018th%20December%201899%20recruiting%20for%20this%20corps,to%20repair%20bridges%2C%20culverts%2C%20and%20lines%20when%20broken

The website below has Orders of Battle for South African Forces in WW2.

https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/"

The Heritage Portal

https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/

The following link will lead to a website that lists about 15,000 articles following a search on railways. Many are downloadable.

https://journals.co.za/journal/civeng

SAEC Bibliography

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Town	Remarks
Anderson, Ken	Nine flames. [On the South African Engineer Corps in World War II	1964	Purnell & Sons	Cape Town
Anon	Detailed history of the railways in the South African War 1899-1902. Vol. 1	1904	Royal Engineers Institute	Chatham	Vol.1 is the textual history and Vol. 2 is the drawings.
Anon	Report of the Board of the South African Railways and Harbours on a Proposed Line of Railway from Prieska to Upington.	1914	Cape Times Limited, Government Printers	Cape Town	Report dated 7 September 1914.
Anon	THE RAILWAYS AND THE EFFORT, 1939.1945	1975	Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 5, Nr 2,
Anon	The Strategical Railway: Prieska to Kalkfontein,	1915	South African Railways & Harbours Magazine, Aug 1915, pp 704-8.
Anon	We Fought the Miles; the history of the South African Railways at war, 1939-1945	1946	General Manager of the South Afriucan Railways]	Johannesburg
Bailey, D.C., Lt-Col., O.B.E. R.E. (ed)	Engineers in the Italian Campaign 1943-1945	1945	Commander Mediterranean Forces		Does not cover Survey and Transportation Directorates, but does cover, British, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, Jewish, Indian and Polish units.
Beaton, A.J	Notes on Railway Construction during the 1914-15 Campaign in German South-West Africa.	1916	Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, 14, 138-169, discussion 256-258, 294-295.
Bennett, E. N.	With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train	1900	SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO	London
Bouch, R.J.	The Railways and the War Effort, 1914-1915.	1974	Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, 4(4), 14p,
Cocks, W.G.	Notes on the Reconstruction of Railway, Luderitzbucht to Windhuk.	1915	Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, 13, 188-204, discussion 267-268, 270-271.
Collins, Lt-Col F E	Engineering Work from the Occupation of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund to the Termination of Hostilities,	1916	Transactions of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, August 1916, pp 20-25. (Appended to Prof A E Snape’s Presidential Address, pp 5-20.)
Cowin, J.N. Maj (complier)	The Story of the Ninth. A record of the 9th Field Company, South African Engineer Corps, July 1939-July 1943.	1948	Gover, Dando & Co	Johannesburg
Edward P. F	Officers of 42nd Geological Section, South African Engineer Corps: Geologists and geophysicists who created a unique unit that supported the British Army during the Second World War	2018	Scientia Militaria, 46, 20181201, 19
Engineer-in-Chief	Report of the Engineer-in-Chief, dated 24th August, on the proposed railway extension from Prieska to Upington. Annexure A of Report of the Railways Board of 7 September 1914.
Girouard, P.C.	History of the railways during the war in South Africa, 1899-190	1903	H.M. Stationery Office	London
Greathead, J.M.	The Construction and Operation of a Temporary Train-Ferry on the Orange River at Upington, South Africa.	1917	Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 202, Paper 4179, 378-388.
Haarhoff, J.	Prieska-Klakfontein Railway Line,	2015	Civil Engineering, South African Institute of Civil Engineers, Vol. 23 Nos. 2,4 & 7
Heymans, Hennie	Trains in War		NONGQAI VOLUME 10 NO 4A (1)
Hoy, W.W.	Construction and Working of Railways in South-West Africa During Military Operations and Since Surrender of German Forces.	1917	The Railway Engineer, January 1917, 19-24.		This piece consists of abstracts from a longer, more detailed report.
Kipling, Rudyard,	"With Number Three" A journey with a hospital train from Cape Town to the north during the South African War	1900	Daily Mail	London
Kleynhans, Evert	61 Tunnelling Company: South African miners in the Middle East during the Second World War	2012	Journal for Contemporary History, 37, 20121201, 52
Liebenberg, Elri	The Springboks in East Africa : the role of 1 SA survey company (SAEC) in the East African campaign of World War II, 1940–1941	2016	Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, 44, 20161201, 87
Miescher, Georgio	Arteries of Empire: On the Geographical Imagination of South Africa's Railway War, 1914/1915	2012	Article in Kronosn38 (20121101): p.22-46
Orpen, Neil and H. J. Martin	Salute the Sappers /1. The formation of the South African Engineer Corps and its operations in East Africa and the Middle East to the Battle of Alamein.	1981	Sappers Association	Johannesburg
Orpen, Neil and H. J. Martin	Salute the Sappers /2. The operations of the South African Engineer Corps in the North African and Italian theatres of war	1982	Sappers Association	Johannesburg
Petitie	No 491 – 1910/11 aan het Parlement, Smekende om een Spoorweg, om de Distrikten van Gordonia, Kenhardt en Hay en de Dorpen Upingon en Kenhardt te dienen. Annexure B of Report of the Railways Board of 7 September 1914.	1914
Prettejohn, N.K.	The Survey and Construction of the Prieska – Kalkfontein Railway.	1916	Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, 14, 171-179, discussion 263-267.
Seeliger, H.J.G.	Notes and Unit Costs of the De Aar – Keetmanshoop Relaying	1932	Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, 30, 72-114, discussion 216-217.
Shannon, J.D.	Locomotive Water Supplies	1914	Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, 12, 104-120.
Sinclair, A	With the Sappers : the activities of the South African Engineers Corps in Italy as recorded by the South African War artist, LT(Ben) Burrage during the Second World War (1939-1945)	2001	Military history journal, 12, Jun 2001, 1		ISSN: 0026-4016
Smit, Hennie	Topographic mapping support in the South African military during the 20 th century	2004	Scientia Militaria : South African Journal of Military Studies, 32, 20040101, 32		ISSN 1022-8136
Van der Waag, Ian	The origin and establishment of the South African Engineer Corps (SAEC), 1918-1939	2012	Journal for Contemporary History: Military History 1912–2012. 37 (2): 1–31.
Visser, Deon	South African Military Water Diviners in Kenya during World War II	2011	Water Wheel, 10, Sep/Oct 2011, 32		ISSN: 0258-2244
Visser, Deon and Ezekiel Nyanchaga	The South African Engineer Corp's water supply operations in Kenya during the Second World War : its wartime impact and postwar legacy	2012	Journal for Contemporary History, 37, 20121201,32		ISSN: 0258-2422
Walker, H.J.	Earthworks on Prieska – Kalkfontein Railway Construction.	1919	Proceedings of the South African Society of Civil Engineers, 17, 84-89, discussion 136-137, 202-203.
Waters, P.E. Dr and John Julian Rainbow (eds)	British Military Railways Overseas in the Great War 1914-1919	2018	BORHT	London
Waters, P.E. Dr and John Julian Rainbow (eds)	Final reports on the military engineering work in the campaign against German South West Africa in 1914 & 1915: South African Engineer Corps	2020	BORHT	London
Wessels, Andre	Boer guerrilla and British counter-guerrilla operations in South Africa, 1899 to 1902	2011	Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, 39, 20110101, 1
Williams, George Bransby	Repairs to and maintenance of the Pretoria Eastern Railway (Part 1)	1999	Civil Engineering = Siviele Ingenieurswese, 1999, 19990301, 23
Williams, George Bransby	Repairs to and maintenance of the Pretoria Eastern Railway (Part 2)	1999	Civil Engineering = Siviele Ingenieurswese, 1999, 19990301, 25

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