German Bau Companies

[Chris Henschke]

I have a few references to Bau Companies being formed by German regiments in September 1917, 'by withdrawing one Gruppe (about eight men) from each of its 12 companies.'

It appears that they were trained in some basic field engineering, but, in the regiments I have looked at, were often used as carrying parties, being located behind the Artillery Protection Line. Strengths vary, but are usually around 100 men.

I have two questions. Were these in addition to the Division's Pioneer Companies and was it common?

I can find no reference to them in Handbook of the German Army 1918 or Imperial German Army 1914-1918 by Cron.

Any information to clarify this matter would be appreciated. If anyone else has knoweledge of these companies I would be interested to here more about them.

Chris Henschke

[Ron Clifton]

Chris

This is a new one on me and I suspect that the British didn't know about them, and they were possibly too short-lived for Cron to take note of.

At a guess - and it is only a guess - they would correspond to the British Labour Corps or Pioneer battalions (British Pioneers were infantry battalions not forming part of a fighting brigade: the German Pioniere equated to the British Royal Engineers, who supervised the field works).

The British also formed temporary Entrenching Battalions, mostly from men from disbanded units in Feb 1918.

The purpose of all these units was to relieve the fighting infantry of most of the heavy digging and related tasks, and allow them proper rest when out of the front line. I suspect that the German Bau companies were similar.

Ron

[Steven Broomfield]

Entrenching Battalions?

[sjustice]

Bau is a building or construction so it sounds like the labour companies.

Behind the lines in September 1917...fortifications?

Kind Regards,

SMJ

[Chris Henschke]

Thanks for the replies so far. It is a factor to consider that no one else seems to have heard of them.

1. There were a number of factors that kept me from initially comparing them with the British equivalent of pioneer battalions or labour corps;

a) That they were formed from the regiment and stayed with them to be used as carrying parties, so were not a seperate unit.

They were still part of the regiment and within the regiment's sector.

c) and they were given instruction in basic field defences and some demolition work (they were not trained in concreting).

They seem to be more similar to the work of a pioneer section within a British battalion.

My understanding of the engineer assets in a German Division is that they were part of the war establishment and the field engineer element of them was about two companies.

2. But if no one on the forum has heard of them, (which is significant) that seems to indicate that ;

a) they may have been an experiment at regimental level, not widespread, and probably short-lived.

Bau is a 'slang' word for pioniere and there was a mistranslation.

Any more comments greatfully received!

Chris Henschke