Quote:
Originally Posted by malcolm erik bogaert
my own father Ian Bogaert passed away yesterday morning in the middle of a snow-storm at home in Spittal next to the North-Sea...whilst a reservist with 10 Rly Sqn RE and at his annual camp in Longmoor his unit was mobilised and he was sent by aircraft to the canal Zone Egypt to :salute return 12 months later(some annual camp)....50 years later he received his Suez medal in a plain cardboard box and printed letter from the MOD...I can honestly say he couldnt have cared less at this late period in his life...some of his last words where about the Royal Engineers...as a former soldier myself...I was mighty proud of him and his generation!best regard malcolm erik bogaert  |
Malcolm, please know that the more arduous one's travails are on earth in defence of peace, the easier one's passage to Heaven. I'm sure God has a special place for Sappers.
Allow me to re-post the
Salute to the Engineers which was written by Corporal Claude Albert Radley of the 18th Field Company RCE during WWII.
SALUTE TO THE ENGINEERS
Now the Lord of the Realms has glorified the Charge of the Light Brigade,
And the thin red line of infantry, when will it’s glory fade?
There are robust rhymes of the British Tars and classic Musketeers,
But I shall sing till your eardrums ring of the muddy old Engineers.
Now it’s all very well to fly through the air, or humour a heavy gun,
Or ride in tanks through the ranks of the broken and shattered Hun.
And it’s nice to think when a U-boat sinks, of the glory that outlives years,
But whoever heard of a vaunting work for the muddy old Engineers?
Now you must not feel as you read this rhyme that a Sapper’s a jealous knave,
That he joined the ranks for a vote of thanks or in search of a hero’s grave.
No, your mechanized is all right and your Tommy has darned few peers,
But where in Hell would the lot of them be if it weren’t for the Engineers?
Oh they look like tramps but they build your camps and sometimes lead the advance.
And they sweat red blood to bridge the flood, to give you a fighting chance.
But who stays behind when it gets too hot, to blow up the roads in the rear?
Just tell your wife that you owe your life to the muddy old Engineers!
No fancy crest is pinned on his chest; if you read what his hat badge says,
Why “Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense”, is a queersome sort of phrase.
But their modest claim to immortal fame has probably reached your ears,
The first to arrive, and the last to leave, are the Glorious Engineers.
CHIMO!