Cornwall Fortress Royal Engineers
The Cornwall Fortress Royal Engineers, was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers formed in 1908. It helped to defend the coastal towns of Cornwall and sent engineer units to work on the Western Front. Converted to an air defence role before World War I, it served as a searchlight unit during the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, then, as a light anti-aircraft gun unit, it served in the most heavily attacked part of the South Coast of England throughout 1942–44, including the V-1 flying bomb campaign.
RE Cap badge (King George V cipher)
90 cm Projector Anti-Aircraft, displayed at Fort Nelson, Portsmouth.
Cap Badge of the Royal Artillery.
150 cm Searchlight with AA Radar No 2.
The 1st Devonshire Engineer Volunteer Corps, later the Devonshire Fortress Royal Engineers, was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers whose history dated back to 1862. The unit helped to defend the vital naval base of Plymouth, and supplied detachments for service in the field in both World Wars. During the North African campaign in the Second World War, the unit's sappers distinguished themselves in bridging the Nile and clearing minefields during and after the Second Battle of El Alamein. Their successors served on the postwar Territorial Army until 1969.
RE Cap badge (King George V cipher)
Sappers demonstrating the new Mark I mine detector in North Africa, August 1942.
Churchill on the podium takes the salute at the Tripoli victory parade, 4 February 1943.