Sapper - Specific usage

Novelist, born in Bodmin, Cornwall, SW England, UK. He trained as a soldier before achieving fame as the creator of ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, the aggressively patriotic hero of a series of thrillers written between 1920 and 1937. The Final Count (1926) is a typical example.

A sapper, in the sense first used by the French military, was one who sapped (undermined) another's fortifications.

When an army was defending a fortress with cannon, they had an obvious height and therefore range advantage over the attacker's own guns. 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.

A sapper is an individual usually in British or Commonwealth military service.

Sapper (abbreviated Spr) is the Royal Engineers' equivalent of Private.

In France, the civil firefighters and the military firefighters of the Paris Fire Brigade are called "sappers-pumpers" (sapeurs-pompiers, SP): the first fire company created by Napoléon I was a military sappers company.

Specific usage

US Army

In the US Army, Sappers are combat engineers who advance with the front-line infantry, and they have fought in every war in American history.

The US Army authorizes six skill tabs for wear above the unit patch on the left shoulder. Three of these tabs identify soldiers who have passed a course proving their leadership and adaptability: the Special Forces tab, the Ranger Tab, and the Sapper Tab, in that order of wear from highest to lowest. 82d, 101st, Special Forces, Special Operations Command, etc.), the Mountain Tab (worn by the 10th Mountain Division for traditional reasons), and the President's Hundred Tab, worn for the best marksmen/women in the Army.

To be a sapper, a Soldier must complete the Sapper Leader Course which is operated by the U.S. Engineer Officer Basic Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The Sapper Leader Course is a 28-day course designed to train joint-service leaders in small unit tactics, leadership skills, and tactics required to perform as part of a combined arms team.

Phase I lasts 14 days and covers general subjects including medical, navigation, demolitions, air and water operations, mountaineering, and land mines and weapons used by enemy forces.

Leadership is emphasized throughout the SLC. The results of the Sapper Leader Course are soldiers who are hardened combat engineers who are qualified to fight and lead on today’s battlefields.

PAVN and Viet Cong

In the PAVN and Viet Cong, the sappers were special operations soldiers who used infiltration, sabotage, and ambush to attack enemy forces.

Fictional References

In the novel The English Patient Ondaatje's character Kip is a sapper during World War II. The computer game Warcraft II has a military unit called Goblin Sappers which are used to demolish enemy units and structures. The computer game City of Heroes includes a secret paramilitary organization called the "Malta Group," which employs agents called "sappers," equipped with distinctive and widely dreaded endurance-draining weaponry. In the Computer Game series Icewind Dale, Dwarven shock troops were designated "sappers," although they acted more in the manner of kamikaze shock troops (explosives fitted to their backs and said dwarves charging the Player's party).