Combat engineers have three major taskssurmounting obstacles to the army's operation (bridging rivers, building roads and airfields), preparing fortifications, and helping defeat enemy fortifications.

 The first task involves the basic building blocks of the engineer's tradethe bulldozer and the prefabricated bridge, which is either a series of metal and wood roadway sections that are strung between pontoons (small floats or barges) or a number of prefabricated trestle bridge sections that can be (relatively) quickly connected to cross rivers. Although all such work is backbreaking, especially under combat conditions, a good engineer unit can bridge a river in hours.

 Preparing fortifications involves many things, including:

 1) Setting minefields

 2) Improving positionsfor example, a tank that is hull down behind a hill is tough to beat, but when it is carefully camouflaged, dug into a speciallybulldozed notch in the hill, it may be nearly impossible, unless the opponent outnumbers you by greater than ten to one.

 3) Clearing fields of fire—removing anything that an attacking enemy can use for cover.

 4) Building Major Fortifications—Infantry in concrete pillboxes are any advancing army's nightmare. Read about Iwo Jima.

 Helping to defeat enemy fortifications includes:

 1) Clearing Minefields

 2) Reducing enemy positions, through the use of Demolition charges, Flamethowers, and other special equipment (driving bulldozers over bunkers is not unheard of). For more information on these activities, read about the battle of Stalingrad.

 Whatever the task, combat engineering is a backbreaking task, whether building a bridge under fire, or setting up a minefield as the sound of advancing tanks wafts towards you...

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