"REME exists to keep the punch in the Army's fist"
(Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein)
Pre-REME Summer Training Territorials 49th (Mtd) Div Ordnance Coy Nottingham with Mobile Workshop
Recovery - 1937 Style...
... and Today
Maintaining and Repairing the Army's equipment has always played an important part in ensuring the fighting efficiency of the Service. Until the late 19th century, however, the relative simplicity of the equipment in use with the Army made a specialist corps of tradesman unnecessary. The soldier carried out minor repairs on his own equipment, assisted as necessary by the armourer, the regimental farrier, the carpenter and the leatherworker.
The industrial and technological developments which changed the face of society also bought about a greater complexity in the machinery of war. By 1896 it was clear that the Army required an organisation of specialists to carry out the provision and repair of Army Weaponry. Thus the Army Ordnance Corps was born.
The First World War provided a major impetus to the production of technologically advanced military equipment. The machine gun dominated the battlefield until the introduction of the tank. The wireless set and the motor vehicle made their first appearance in the arena of war and, overhead, the machines of the Royal Flying Corps demonstrated that technology would henceforward play a vital part in the conduct of military operations.
Light Aid Detachment Unit Tradesmen - 1938
At first, the maintenance and repair of this new equipment was carried out ad hoc by the users but, as the quality of machinery increased, the need for a rational system was clear. In the post First World War years, therefore, the responsibility for the repair of tanks and some of the motor vehicles was added to the armament repair function of the Ordnance Corps.
Recovery in the Western Desert - 1943
Inside a Tank Workshop - Belgium - 1945
In 1926 this became the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC). The three other corps which used specialised equipment on a large scale (The Royal Engineers (RE), Royal Signals (R SIGNALS) and Royal Army Service Corps (RASC)), were generally responsible for the repair and maintenance of their own equipment, and had their own engineers and workshops.
The early years of the Second World War brought the realisation that the existing repair system was not able to support the massive scale of equipment being deployed in every theatre. In 1941 the War Cabinet directed Sir William Beveridge to carry out an enquiry into the employment of technical manpower in the Services. As a result of the recommendations of this enquiry, the Royal Corp of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers was formed on 1st October 1942.
REME Workshop - Belgium - 1945
REME Mechanics on the Chindwin - 1945
The First Members of the new Corps were engineers and tradesmen from RAOC, RE and RASC, supplemented by the transfer of skilled man from other units. By May 1945, REME had proved to be indispensable and had expanded in response to the scale, variety and deployment of the weapons and equipment in service until it numbered 8,000 officers, 150,000 soldiers and 100,000 civilians. From its inception, REME was deemed to be a combat corps, and REME detachments served in the front line in every major theatre of operations.
Changing a Sherman Tank Barrel - India - 1945
Preparing to Move - Korea - 1950
After the Second World War, demobilisation and the need to return technical manpower to industry bought about the last major adjustment to the organisation of the Corps. In 1951, REME assumed responsibility as the technical agency for almost all of the Army's equipments and engineering manpower which remained on other units was units was transferred to REME. Since then the functions of the Corps have increased in line with technological progress, and the REME soldier has provided engineering support for every military operation of significance.
Recovery - Malaya - 1967
REME in UN Worldwide Role
Operational Tours have included roulement tours (rolling system of tours) in Northern Ireland since the trouble began in 1969, the Falklands war in 1983, the First Gulf War in 1991, Angola, Zaire, Iraq (Op Safe Haven), Bosnia Herzegovina, Afghanistan and in 2003 the Second Iraq War. These roles have presented many challenges to REME in what have often been harsh and unforgiving engineering environments.
The roots of REME may therefore be considered to be in the engineering branches of four of the major corps on the Army and it is this evolutionary lineage, and the distinction of having been forged in the furnace of war, which forms the foundation of the tradition of the Corps.
Craftsman on Peacekeeping Duties - Former Yugoslavia - 1995
