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With a Labour Company in France
by Captain T C Thomas
Published 1920

This very rare and hard to find book tells the story of
58 Company Labour Corps and I would love to get my hands on an original copy !

We now have an electronic version of this very rare book and we will be putting it online very shortly. Many thanks to Lieutenant Colonel John Starling for typing this up for us. This book will be available very soon !

With the German Guns  Four Years on the Western Front
by Herbert Sulzback O.B.E.
First Published in Germany 1935, translated to English
and published in London by Leo Cooper 1973 and 1988

Herbert Sulzbach was an interesting guy. Joining the German artillery at the beginning of World War I, Sulzbach fought through the entire war in the process winning two Iron Crosses. After the war, after fleeing the Nazis and emigrating to England, Sulzbach joined the British army. He joined the Pioneer Corps as a private and ultimately being commissioned as an officer during World War II.

To his Iron Crosses (in the Royal Logistic Corps Museum), Herbert Sulzbach has added the German Cross of Merit 1st class and the Grand Cross of the German Order of Merit to wear alongside his British medals of the Second World War. Granted British citizenship and has worn both khaki and field-grey; his war diaries are a major episode on a road which he has trod with great good humor and honest courage.

click here to a synopsis and the memoirs of this remarkable man

The Story of the Bechuanaland Pioneers and Gunners 1941-1946.
This is the story of how the Bechuana acquitted themselves as soldiers in the last war from 1941, when they were raised, until the time in 1946 when they returned home.
It is part of the story of the Royal Pioneer Corps, too, and Pioneers everywhere should read it, for it describes how the Bechuana were formed into Companies of the African Pioneer Corps. There are many people who will read this book and have their reading enlivened by a thousand unrecorded memories - it is a story of well controlled tribal loyalties, effort, hardship, persistence, achievement and frequent danger, and a just tribute to the Bechuanaland generous and wholehearted contribution to the struggle which brought victory.

It don't cost you a penny is written in the familiar cockney style of Ex-Batman who wrote a number of articles in the Corps Magazines. Eddie Harwood is in fact ex-batman who is in fact none other than Major E H Rhodes-Wood who for so long hid his identity. Since these memoirs are true, they are history and history of the Corps at that. But read it not as history but as a damned funny account of a private soldier's soldiering.

Like the book below we are also looking into getting an electronic version of this book online, sometime in 2002. We will be making it available freely to everyone who buys the War History book below.

click here to read a review of this excellent book

A War History of the Royal Pioneer Corps 1939-1945
by Major E H Rhodes-Wood
Published by Gale & Polden Ltd 1960
Converted electronically by Paul and Norman Brown Feb 2002

The Pioneer Corps Association owns the copyright to this excellent rare book and sometime early in 2002 we will be selling an electronic version of this book online. Every page and picture has been professionally scanned in and checked. When it is finished it will be combined together into a PDF file, which any computer can open, as long as you have the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed.

We are looking at charging around £25.00 - all proceeds going to the Pioneer Corps Association. Considering I have seen this book for sale for well over £100.00 you are getting a bargain, especially since you will receive a free copy of the above book
'It don't cost you a penny' when it has been converted.

First published in 1943 and continued to be published until the Corp's disbandment in 1993. These magazines provide enormous information about the Corps during these years. A full set of these magazines are held by myself, the Association HQ and at the Royal Logistics Corp Museum at Deepcut. See the magazines section for more info.

Royal Pioneers 1945-1993
by Major Bill Elliott
Published by Images, Malvern 1993

The Postwar history of the Corps was written by the Association honorary Treasurer,
Major Bill Elliott, who very generously donated his work and rights entirely for the Association's benefit. It is on sale in bookshops at £24. Callers to Association HQ at
51 St. George's Drive, London, SW1V 4DE may buy the book for £17.50. To order the book by first class post please send your cheque for £21 which covers postage.

Pioneer Battalions in the Great War
by K W Mitchinson
ISBN 0-85052-566-7

Although the British army developed a separate and highly skilled Pioneer Corps in World War II, thiswas not the case in World War I. Construction duties were carried out by "pioneer" battalions of regular infantry regiments. Periodic German breakthroughs drove the pioneer battalions into an active combat role, and they fought in most of the major battles of the Western Front. Mitchinson's work is the first detailed study of the active duty and social background of the men in these unique units.
6 x 9, 288 pages, 16 pages b/wphotos, £21.00 Pen & Sword.

England's Last Hope
by Gerry 'Cloggy' Compton and edited by Bob Scott
Published in 1997 and reprinted 1998
ISBN 0-9587312-0-9

This is the true story of Gerry 'Cloggy' Compton, a boy soldier in 1942 and who retired as 521 Royal Pioneer Corps CSM in 1969. Gerry has led a life packed with more experiences than most people would dare to imagine for themselves and this book is a definite must have read ! - I picked it up and read it and never put it down again until I had read it !

If you would like a copy of this excellent book than please send a cheque for £7.50 to include postage and packing, payable to :
Mr G K Compton, 24 Huntwick Road, Featherstone. WF7 5JF.
Phone 01977 796701 (say Norman Brown sent you)

click here to read a synopsis of this excellent book

The Forgotten Tragedy
by Brian James Crabb
ISBN

This book records the tragic story of the sinking of the troopship which was bombed and sunk by Junkers88 dive bombers on 17 June 1940. Crammed with approximately 6,000 troops a third of which did not survive. Men from 27 different companies of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps as well as HQ Labour Control and Base Depot Staff were on board.

If you would like a copy of this book it is avaiable for £19.95 from
Shaun Tyas, 1 High Street, Donnington, Lincs. PE11 4TA.

A book called Lancastria by Geoffrey Bond was published by Oldbourne Press in 1959, which is also worth reading. The story of the Lancastria is also in the history section.

History of the Labour Corps
by Lieutenant Colonel John Starling

Currently being written and details
of its publication will be entered when known.

       Many of the books above are long out of print and are very hard to get hold off. We are in the process of              electronically converting some of the books above that we have the copyright / permission for and these              will be available in the near future. The books with an ISBN number are availalbe and you will be able to              order these from most book shops. The books that we havent got copyright on to reproduce are available              from some excellent online bookstores, that specialise in secondhand books - checkout these sites and              remember to shop around, as prices can vary greatly:-

             2nd Hand Books Database - good site which searches all other book databases.
             AbeBooks.com
             JustBooks.co.uk
             Powells.com

       I also recommend a good piece of software that will be invaluable for searching for books. It is called
             BookSearch and enables you to search a number of large book search engines on the Internet for new
             and used books. Ideal for finding rare or hard-to-find books, or for comparing prices.
             Search by keyword, title, or author name.

             

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