Apparently technical troops have played a small part in the Prussian Army. In 1806, a pontoon unit of two and half companies numbering about 150 men had the equipment for bridging the Elbe, the Oder and the Vistula rivers. Four companies of miners totaled about 400 men. Miners and Pontoon companies were commanded by the Royal Engineering Academy which also supervised the construction and repair of the fortresses. The Prussian Army, apparently, had no attached sappers or pioneers to infantry regiments or other units like it was common in other armies. After 1806, the Ingenieurkorps was reorganized but no formal organization was done until November 4, 1809. The new Corps included 3 fortress Pioneer Companies and a Corps of 56 officers. A fourth Fortress Company was added in March, 1812. Each company had a strength of 123 all ranks and included troops specially trained and designated as pontoniers, sappers and miners. The Corps was expended in 1813 to 7 Fortress Pioneers companies and 7 Field Pioneer Companies, each of 84 men at least for the Feld-Pioneer-Kompagnien. A Landwehr Pioneer Battalion was raised, it was known as the Mansfelder Battalion. In 1815 the Engineer Corps had been raised to 9 Field and 8 Fortress Companies and the Mansfelder Pioneer Battalion. The above figures show that, in 1806-1815 the technical troops remained a small part of the Prussian Army and very few engineers and pioneers were available in the field. For instance in 1815 Blucher's Army was provided with only 492 pioneers for an Army of some 117,139 men. They were distributed as it tollows: I Corps, 204, II Corps 74, III Corps 63, IV Corps 151. Not very much is available on the training of the Field Pioneers. As reported above some troops apparently received specific and special training like pontoniers, sappers and miners. There is no apparent reason to penalize the Prussian sappers because they were only few of them .... unless, of course, some has the data on hand to the contrary. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 21 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1978 by Jean Lochet This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com