3rd Pioneer Battalion 3rd Division, AIF

About This Unit

Each Division was allocated a Pioneer Battalion.  The 3rd Pioneers belonged to the 3rd Division as indicated by the eliptical-shaped  colour patch.

Pioneer Battalions were essentially infantry with light military combat engineer skills and located at the very forward edge of the battle area.  They were used to develop and enhance protection and mobility for supported troops and to deny it to the enemy.  They constructed defensive positions, command posts and dugouts, prepared barbed wire defences and on occasion breached those of the enemy using devices like the Bangalore Torpedo. 

Their skills and capability were broad from building, construction and maintenance to road and track preparation and maintenance. They could also, and did quite often, fight as infantry.

Although they had existed in the Indian Army before 1914, pioneer battalions were used on a large scale by Commonwealth forces on the Western Front during the First World War. Becasue of its largely static nature, there was a much heavier reliance on field defences and the provision of mobility support to get troops, weapons, ammunition, rations and stores up to the front and casualties out.  Roads and railways needed to be built maintained and repaired.

While these were also Engineer tasks, Engineers alone could not meet the heavy demand, while riflemen were always needed at the front. Therefore, pioneer battalions were raised to meet the needs of both and trained to support both engineers and infantry.

The 3rd Pioneers were raised in 1916 and were engaged in every action undertaken by the 3rd Division, starting at Messines then Third Ypres in 1917, the stemming of the German tide in the Spring Offensive of 1918, the "Peaceful Penetration" phase leading up to and including the 'Last Hundred Days' campaign in late 1918.

Battle / Campaign / Involvement

Battle of Messines 1917 (/explore/campaigns/7)

Third Ypres (/explore/campaigns/8)

German Spring Offensive (/explore/campaigns/80)

Peaceful Penetration (/explore/campaigns/31)

Last Hundred Days (/explore/campaigns/31)

Battle of Amiens (/explore/campaigns/14)

Mont St Quentin (/admin/units/67/vwma.org.au/explore/campaigns/15)

Crossing the Hindenburg Line (/explore/campaigns/81)

 

We would particularly like to encourage individual historians researchers or members of unit associations to contribute to more detail to this history, and photographs pertaining to this unit and its members.

Please contact  [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) for details on how to contribute.

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