What is a 'sapper' with regards to Corps of Engineers?

Question

By saying theyare an 'individual' does this mean they do not travel in a platoon ? What does this mean exactly -Many thanks.

Answer 1

Ahem! Royal Engineers, if you don't mind!

Answer 2

A sapper is the Engineers equivalent of a Private in the Infantry and is the lowest rank before LCpl. It's nothing more than a rank within a particular trade group.

Answer 3

A Sapper refers to a single soldier. It is the same thing as a Private.

Answer 4

a sapper is the royal engineers name for a private soldier, it's the lowest rank in the army.  

different parts of the army have different names for the same rank - if he was if the royal electrical and mechanical engineers, he's be a craftsman, if he was in the royal armoured corps, he'd be a trooper.  they're all the same rank.

Answer 5

A sapper is an individual engineer soldier.

The singular noun for an soldier in the engineering corps. So a member of the engineering corps.

Answer 6

sapper is the equivalent of private, simple as that, got the name from sapping the strength of the enemy, by tunnelling under their defences

Answer 7

Has the meanings above and now a days also refers to graduates of the school. As many folks have now seen the SAPPER ( how come the RANGERS get one and we don't) tab. Mainly for engineers but many folks attached to them as well as some 11b's and 13F attend. I give them a hard time but it's actually a difficult course. Also has it's own competition now. The best sapper competition. Stresses combat engineer, demo, as well as small unit infantry tactics.

Answer 8

Guys that like things that go "boom".  Just your ordinary engineer guy I think.

Answer 9

A sapper, in the sense first used by the French military, was one who excavated trenches under defensive musket or artillery fire to advance a besieging army's position in relation to the works of an attacked fortification, which was referred to as sapping the enemy fortifications.

Saps were excavated by brigades of trained sappers or instructed troops. When an army was defending a fortress with cannon, they had an obvious height and therefore range advantage over the attacker's own guns. The attacking army's artillery had to be brought forward, under fire, so as to facilitate effective counter-battery fire.

This was achieved by digging what the French termed a 'Sappe'. Using techniques developed and perfected by Vauban, the sapeurs (sappers) began the trench at such an angle so as to avoid enemy fire 'enfilading' (passing directly along) the sappe. As they pressed forward, a position was prepared from which cannon could suppress the defenders on the bastions. The sappers would then change the course of their trench, zig-zagging their way toward the fortress wall.

Each leg brought the attacker's artillery closer and closer until (hopefully) the besieged cannon would be sufficiently suppressed for the attackers to breach the walls with their artillery. Broadly speaking, sappers were originally experts at demolishing or otherwise overcoming or bypassing fortification systems.

Answer 10

A Royal Engineer Sapper is a private.  The lowest rank.  It refers to one of the trades that they do, bomb disposal.  Hope this helps.

Answer 11

A sapper is a member of the Corps of Royal Engineers and is the lowest rank, first used in 1626 by the British. it derives from the French "Sappeur" or one who dug treches and fortifications but has evolved into a broad spectrum of Jobs. Other Armies have also used the term to describe their Engineers, mainly in the commonwealth.

They were described by Rudyard Kipling:  

Sappers

  



  When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear,

("It's all one," says the Sapper),

The Lord He created the Engineer,

Her Majesty's Royal Engineer,

With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

When the Flood come along for an extra monsoon,

'Twas Noah constructed the first pontoon

To the plans of Her Majesty's Royal Engineer,

With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

But after fatigue in the wet an' the sun,

Old Noah got drunk, which he wouldn't ha' done

If he'd trained with her Majesty's Royal Engineer,

With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

When the Tower o' Babel had mixed up men's ~bat~,

Some clever civilian was managing that,

An' none of Her Mjesty's Royal Engineers,

With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

When the Jews had a fight at the foot of a hill,

Young Joshua ordered the sun to stand still,

For he was a Captain of Engineers, etc.

When the Children of Israel made bricks without straw,

They were learnin' the regular work of our Corps,

The work of, etc.

For ever since then, if a war they would wage,

Behold us a-shinin' on history's page --

First page for, etc.

We lay down their sidings an' help 'em entrain,

An' we sweep up their mess through the bloomin' campaign,

In the style of, etc.

They send us in front with a fuse an' a mine

To blow up the gates that are rushed by the Line,

But bent by, etc.

They send us behind with a pick an' a spade,

To dig for the guns of a bullock-brigade

Which has asked for, etc.

We work under escort in trousers and shirt,

An' the heathen they plug us tail-up in the dirt,

Annoying, etc.

We blast out the rock an' we shovel the mud,

We make 'em good roads an' -- they roll down the ~khud~,

Reporting, etc.

We make 'em their bridges, their wells, an' their huts,

An' the telegraph-wire the enemy cuts,

An' it's blamed on, etc.

An' when we return, an' from war we would cease,

They grudge us adornin' the billets of peace,

Which are kept for, etc.

We build 'em nice barracks -- they swear they are bad,

That our Colonels are Methodist, married or mad,

Insultin', etc.

They haven't no manners nor gratitude too,

For the more that we help 'em, the less will they do,

But mock at, etc.

Now the Line's but a man with a gun in his hand,

An' Cavalry's only what horses can stand,

When helped by, etc.

Artillery moves by the leave o' the ground,

But ~we~ are the men that do something all round,

For ~we~ are, etc.

I have stated it plain, an' my argument's thus

("It's all one," says the Sapper),

There's only one Corps which is perfect -- that's us;

An' they call us Her Majesty's Engineers,

Her Majesty's Royal Engineers,

With the rank and pay of a Sapper!

Rudyard Kipling

Answer 12

It's just a slang term for a soldier in the engineers corps.

ALLEN B - she didn't ask what a sapper was historically, so your copied secton from WIKI, and the thumbs down you gave everyone who has given the correct answer is rather stupid.