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aldi
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Mike, Wayne et al . . . the battalion Pioneer Platoon was stricken from the order of battle in 1970, confirmed in the 1971 Defence White Paper. The rationale given at the time was that the minor engineering tasks performed by the unit pioneers up until then would henceforth be performed by the brigade's Field Engineer Squadron. And then, in a stroke of brilliance only an NDHQ wonk could understand, the brigade's engineer squadron was reduced by one troop. It was all part of the same reduction in force that lost one rifle company from each Infantry battalion, one squadron from each Armoured Regiment and one battery from each Artillery Regiment. If the mathematics are hard to follow, just try finding the entire battalion that was lost when 3 Mech Cdo was formed from two former battalions and the Colours and name of 2RCR went from Germany to be taken over by TWO battalions of The Black Watch. The year 1970 was a terrible time for the shrinking army and the loss of the Pioneer Platoon was just the tip of the iceberg. Their spirit never left, though, and that's why there were "unofficial" pioneers ever after. aldi
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