That title should get some views.
As part of the discussion on what combat engineers do that came up on the topic, was going to post this over on the 'How good were combat engineers at killing tanks thread.' But thought it might be of more general interest.
Back in college (an engineering school), there was a selection of military related books. The school had a Corps of Engineer cadre for it's ROTC program.
One of the books was the 'Battle of Booby's Bluff.' A rather slim volume published in 1928. Based on WWI experience it was a compilation of articles from the Infantry Journal. It had two sections one was the defense of the Bluffs and the other was a corresponding attack on the Bluffs.
The articles were a set of 6 'dreams' in which the commanding officer a a battalion worked out mistakes that he made in the previous 'dream.' One set for the attack and one for the defense. All of course in the context of the current tactical doctrines.
The series on the attack is on line here at the RCR website – link
In the 'final' attack the engineers are used to facilitate terrain crossings by the accompanying tanks (in this case a creek) and to cut wire. Pretty much the limits of the tech of the day.
Unfortunately the Defense of Booby's Bluff is not apparently on line (the RCR site has some other studies though – one from post-Boer War by a British officer on defense using the same technique).
At any rate in the series on the defense of Booby's Bluff the engineers as they are properly employed at the end spend their time improving the defenses. They lay additional mines, prepare fall back MG nests, dig additional trenches, string more wire, etc.
Interesting series of tactical lessons vis-a-vis interwar combined arms.
Interestingly the Boer War defensive study (Duffer's Drift) and the attack on Booby's Bluff have been released as an audio book recently. There is also an edition with the Defense of Duffer's Drift as a supplement to The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa done using the same 'dream' technique on defense in modern combat (specifically Iraq).
