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, sent engineer units to work on the Western Front in World War I and served as an air defence unit during the Battle of Britain and the Plymouth Blitz in World War II.

Precursor unit
In 1886 the War Office (WO) began organising units of 'submarine miners' in the Volunteer Force to man the fixed minefields being installed to defend British seaports. One such unit was the Falmouth Division Submarine Miners, based at Falmouth in Cornwall. However, the proposed unit was soon abandoned: no officers were ever commissioned into it, and its title disappeared from the Army List in March 1888.

Territorial Force
After the Territorial Force (TF) was created by the Haldane Reforms in 1908, a new TF unit of the Royal Engineers was raised to maintain the defences of the Cornish seaports. Designated the Cornwall Fortress Royal Engineers, it had the following organisation by the outbreak of World War I:


 * HQ at Falmouth
 * No 1 (Electric Lights) Company at Falmouth
 * No 2 (Works) Company at Fowey Town Hall
 * No 3 (Works) Company at Bow Hill, Penryn

The HQ and No 1 Company shared the Drill Shed on The Bar in Falmouth with the Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's) Royal Garrison Artillery and No 18 Company of the RE Coast Battalion. No 2 (Works) Company at Fowey maintained a band.

World War I
On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the fortress engineers moved to their war stations in the coastal defences, the Cornwall Fortress Engineers coming under the command of South Western Coast Defences HQ at Devonport, Plymouth. Shortly afterwards, the men of the TF were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service and WO instructions were issued to form those men who had only signed up for Home Service into reserve or 2nd Line units. The titles of these 2nd Line units were the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. They absorbed most of the recruits that flooded in, and in many cases themselves went on active service later.

This process was carried out with the Cornwall Fortress Engineers, resulting in six companies, some of which changed roles to serve with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front. When the TF companies of the RE received numbers in February 1917, they were assigned as:


 * 573rd (Cornwall) Army Troops Company – formerly No 2 (Fowey) Works Company
 * 574th (Cornwall) Army Troops Company – formerly No 3 (Penryn) Works Company
 * 575th (Cornwall) Works Company – formerly 2/2nd Works Company
 * 576th (Cornwall) Works Company – formerly 2/3rd Works Company
 * 608th (Falmouth) Fortress Company – amalgamation of No 1 (Falmouth) Electric Lights Company and 2/1 (Reserve) Electric Lights Company

Of these, 573rd, 574th and 575th Companies are known to have served with the BEF in France. 573rd was with X Corps in June 1917 and with Second Army by the Armistice with Germany in November 1918. 574th was serving with Fourth Army at the Armistice. All TF units were demobilised after the Armistice.

Interwar
The unit was reformed in the renamed Territorial Army (TA) in 1920, consisting of a single company based at the RE Barracks in Falmouth. It formed part of the Coast Defence troops in 43rd (Wessex) Divisional Area. Later it amalgamated with the Devonshire Fortress Engineers to form the Devonshire and Cornwall (Fortress) Engineers (D&C (F) RE).

During World War I, the electric light companies of the fortress engineers, which operated searchlights primarily to assist the coastal defence guns, had increasingly used the lights for anti-aircraft (AA) defence. During the 1930s the threat of aerial bombing was taken seriously, and large numbers of dedicated AA searchlight units were created in the TA. The Falmouth company of the D&C (F) RE was designated No 4 (AA) Company.

World War II
As the international situation deteriorated, the TA was ordered to mobilise on 22 August 1939, and the company draw its equipment from store and began to take up its war stations. Company HQ was moved to the D&C (F) RE HQ at Mutley Barracks, Plymouth, but took its orders from 55th Anti-Aircraft Brigade, which was in the process of formation. Soon afterwards, the company was redesignated 482nd (Devon & Cornwall) Searchlight Company, RE.

During 1940 all the RE's AA units were transferred to the Royal Artillery (RA). On 18 June, the company was informed that its new title was to be 482nd (Cornwall) Independent Searchlight Battery, RA. The following month the opening of the Battle of Britain saw the start of day and night air raids on Plymouth and the searchlights were frequently in action.

Anti-Aircraft Command was expanding rapidly to meet the threat, and new intakes of recruits arrived in Plymouth to form 483rd and 484th S/L Batteries at the end of September. In November the three batteries together formed a new 81st Searchlight Regiment, RA. At the same time 55th AA Bde came under the command of a new 8th Anti-Aircraft Division. As German night bombing increased, 55th AA Bde was responsible for AA defence of Plymouth, Devonport and the vital naval dockyards as well as smaller ports like Falmouth. This culminated in the Plymouth Blitz of March 1941, when large parts of the city were destroyed.

In March 1942, 81 S/L Regiment was converted to a new role as 131st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, equipped with light AA (LAA) guns. This was just in time for the new requirement for LAA guns to reinforce the naval bases from Plymouth to Newhaven in response to raids on South Coast towns in April and May 1942, and later against 'hit and run' raids by small formations of low-lying fighter-bombers.

131st LAA Regiment remained in Home Forces for the rest of the war. It was disbanded in March 1946.

Postwar
A new RE unit was formed in Cornwall in 1956, 409 (Cornwall) Independent Field Squadron, but this was created by converting 409th (Cornwall) Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery, the former Duke of Cornwall's Artillery at Falmouth. From 1961 it was included in 116 (Devon and Cornwall) Engineer Regiment. When the TA was converted into the TAVR in 1967 the unit was reconstituted as a company of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (Territorials) at Falmouth, with the old title restored: B Company (Cornwall Fortress Engineers). However, the restoration was shortlived, because the TAVR units were reduced to cadre size in 1969, and although they were expanded again in 1971, the Falmouth unit only formed a detachment of C (Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry) Company in 6th Battalion, The Light Infantry (Volunteers), based at Camborne.