THE ROYAL ELECTRICAL MECHANICAL ENGINEERS.

History

In the days of bow and arrow, pike, sword and battle-axe it was reasonable enough to expect every soldier to be responsible for the maintanance of his own Weapons and equipment but with the invention of gunpowder came more complicated weapons and the problem of ammunition supply. At the same time ordnance and other "engines of war" increased in size and quantity demand. This requirement was met by employing civilian tradesmen and by establishing government arsenals and powder factories. Eventually the civilian artificers and armourers became military tradesmen and were combined with the providers of military stores in 1896 into the Army Ordnance Corps.

The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century affected the army and by World War I (1914-1918) had influenced an elite modern force with machine guns, aircraft, motor vehicles, tanks, optical range finders and radios. Responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the varied new equipment was at first accepted, rather naturally, by the arms and services that used them most, and a number of separate repair organisations began to grow up side by side. As a result, by the end of World War I The Royal Tank Corps had its own workshops, the Royal Engineers repaired most of their own specialist equipment, and the Army Service Corps had become generally responsible for the repair of mechanical transport, while it was the responsibility of the Army Ordnance Corps to repair most other equipment, including small arms, guns and instruments. At this time many of these Corps gained their 'Royal' prefix. There were thus four different repair organisations functioning simultaneously in the Army with many other regiments and Corps having some of their own tradesmen to carry out minor repairs. Not only was this arrangement most uneconomical in manpower and plant, but it also created administrative difficulties for the unfortunate units that had to deal with two or more authorities in order to get all of their equipment repaired.

Many efforts were made between the two World Wars to introduce a centralised and more efficient repair organisation which could deal with all technical equipment. Unfortunately most of these attempts failed either on the grounds of initial expense or because of a strong reluctance on the part of the various arms and services to accept any change that might conceivably weaken their self-reliance. A first major step in the right direction was approved in 1926 when the Engineering Branch of the RAOC (Engineering branch) was given responsibility for the repair of armoured fighting vehicles and of some of the Army's mechanical transport: but the Royal Engineers, Royal Signals and Royal Army Service Corps were still allowed to retain their separate organisations for repairing most of their vehicles and specialist technical equipment. For the Royal Engineers this mostly applied to civil engineering plant and machinery; for the Royal Signals, radio, telegraph and telephone equipment and for the Royal Army Service Corps (the predecessors of the Royal Corps of Transport), all forms of motor transport. The Royal Tank Corps and many other units still provided their own unit tradesmen for immediate repair tasks.