Kent Fortress Royal Engineers

The Kent Fortress Royal Engineers (KFRE) were a volunteer Territorial unit of the British Army. They are notable for their successful actions in May 1940, when they destroyed substantial oil stocks and installations just ahead of the German advance.

The unit was formed in 1932 to provide coastal defence, in place of regular troops. They were a company-sized unit recruited almost entirely from the staff of the Blue Circle Cement Company. Under their first commanding officer, Major (later Brigadier) Clifford Brazier, the KFRE gained a reputation as an efficient unit.

This article records the wartime deployment of the KFRE and the units which it subsequently joined with.

XD operations
In May 1940, the German Army invaded the Netherlands and Belgium. The British military authorities were determined that the large oil installations at the major ports should not fall into enemy hands. The KFRE were despatched in secrecy on 11 May to Amsterdam to negotiate with the local commanders and destroy the installations and the large oil stocks and assist with dockyard demolitions; these were called "XD Operations". They were successful in spite of the lack of planning and specialised equipment. After Amsterdam, detachments carried out more oil demolitions at Rotterdam and Antwerp, and assisted with the evacuation of 40 tons of Dutch gold from Rotterdam. At times they exchanged fire with German advance patrols.

The German advance continued into France, and KFRE were sent to destroy the oil depots along the lower Seine. Initial, but understandable, French reluctance dissipated as the Germans reached the area, and the installations at Rouen, Le Havre and Honfleur were all destroyed. In addition, a large British military fuel dump near Saint-Nazaire was destroyed. A British general ordered that no demolition was to be done at a refinery at Donges; the supplies were subsequently thought to have been used to re-fuel U-boats.

As an afterthought, detachments were sent to destroy smaller depots at Dunkirk, Boulogne and Calais. These were abortive, however; those at Dunkirk were destroyed by German bombs, Calais' facilities were unapproachable due to the heavy fighting and Boulogne, in fact, had none.

Further oil demolition operations were attempted at Caen, Cherbourg and St Malo, but only St Malo was successful. The installations near Caen were captured before the British arrival, and the French authorities prevented demolition at Cherbourg; KFRE assisted with the general harbour demolitions there.

Although these actions remained secret at the time, there was official appreciation. At the time, the KFRE became the most highly decorated unit in the British Army. Major Brazier received an OBE, three officers (Captains R Keeble, T F TGoodwin and B Baxter) received DSOs, Second Lieutenant B J Ashwell received the MC. A DCM was awarded to Corporal J T Hearnden and three NCOs (Staff Sergeant A H Smart, Sergeant A R Blake and Corporal J Matthews) received Military Medals).

During the British evacuations from western France (Operation Ariel), the final KFRE detachment lost seven men on the Lancastria when it was sunk at St Nazaire. One more went "missing, presumed dead" during the destruction of the British dump near St Nazaire and another died of wounds sustained at Boulogne.

Kirkuk
There was concern that the Germans might attempt to capture the large British-owned oilfield at Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Although far from the war zones, the Germans were interested in the region. There were pro-Nazi factions in Iraqi politics, German aircraft had reached Baghdad via Vichy Syria (see Anglo-Iraqi War), and some German special forces had been planning to establish bases in the Kirkuk area using aircraft from Kampfgeschwader 200, a specialist unit.

An officer from the KFRE was despatched there with some urgency to review the situation. Apart from three wells needed to supply the British Eastern Fleet, all the wells were filled with concrete and drilling rigs were removed. Local management had already made adequate plans to render the pipelines useless to the enemy.

Expansion
During the latter half of 1940 KFRE was joined by other Territorial Army Royal Engineer units to form Corps Troop Engineers. After helping the construction of coastal defences against the anticipated German invasion, and clearing up and making safe bomb damage in London, the new unit was moved to a camp near Portadown, Northern Ireland as III Corps Troop Engineers. The time was spent on training exercises and assisting in Belfast after the city had been bombed.

Opportunities were taken - out of uniform - to spend weekend leave in Dublin, in neutral Ireland, and sample peacetime life.

Spitsbergen
The Norwegian northern islands of Spitsbergen were inhabited by Russian and Norwegian miners who exploited the rich coal seams there. A detachment from the KFRE was part of Operation Gauntlet to destroy the coal mines and stockpiles and deny their use to the Germans.

Gibraltar
A party of nine officers and NCOs spent four months at Gibraltar training local sappers in the destruction of oil storage. This was a preparation for any German threat to capture "the Rock".

Greece
In response to the axis invasion of Greece, at the end of 1940 a company was sent to Greece to assist with preparations for allied troops, train Greek army officers in demolition techniques, and carry out demolitions themselves. The first task on arrival was, however, to instal electric bells in the Hotel Acropolis - a task considered to be anti-climactic.

The engineers were transferred to Salonika and Volos and, when the Germans reached the city, successfully demolished installations of use to the enemy, including oil refineries, engineering works, gas works, port facilities and fortifications at Volos. Outside Athens, a new airfield and its equipment was destroyed. Some members of the RE detachment were lost, as casualties or captured, before the bulk were evacuated to Crete, where others were captured or killed when the Germans invaded. One captured officer (Dennis Alabaster) escaped while being transported through Yugoslavia and joined the Chetniks; he was subsequently killed there.

Middle East
Those who escaped Crete were then based in Palestine. A detachment was employed during the allied invasion of Vichy Syria in July 1941: during this operation a two-man team was flown behind Vichy lines, where they destroyed a vital bridge and were recovered by aircraft.

Once absorbed into the local military organisation, they assisted with the wide variety of tasks performed by the Royal Engineers: construction and destruction, booby trap and mine clearance (often under fire), water supply, construction of dummy installations to deceive the enemy, etc.

2 Parachute Squadron
The newly formed British airborne units required sapper support and in early 1942, one of the companies in Northern Ireland was selected for conversion to this role, subject to the willingness and suitability of individual sappers.