BOOK REVIEW : WORK OF R.E. IN THE EUROPEAN WAR, 1914-1919. MACHINERY,WORKSHOPS AND ELECTRICITY.

This book is the first I have read of the batch of six new books recently purchased from Naval Military Press. It is a reprint of an original from about 1925 as far as I can tell. It frustrates me when the reprint does not give the original publication date and you have to guess from the narrative, the one big failing of many of the reprints from Navel Military Press.

That said, this is clearly a very specialised book and will not appeal to many. However, if like me you wish to have an in depth understanding of the behind the scenes activities ( logistics ) of the military machine this may be of interest. The book  illustrates clearly yet again that the BEF of 1914 was organised only for a war of movement and the advent of static warfare found it ill prepared. This publication shows the work that took place to provide engineering support to trench warfare.

One thing of particular interest is the detailed list of products manufactured by R.E. workshops in the field to support the army.  Many will know that early hand grenades were made locally but it is amazing how many other products were made and continued to be built through out the war. In fact it is surprising , to me at least, just how comprehensively  equipped the R.E. workshops were and how they were able to manufacture a diverse range of new products so quickly after a need was identified.

An interesting and informative reference book if you like this sort of stuff.