Bengal Sappers Officers Association (Roorkee)

The saga of Glory starts with the Storming of Ghuznee Fort in 1839 when Sub           Devi Singh earned the first Indian Order of Merit. The Corps was honoured with Battle    Honours of ‘Ghuznee 1839 & Afghanistan 1839’. Between 1858 and 1914, the Corps      took part in several campaigns incl the North West Frontier, Bhutan, Lushai Hill, Afghanistan, Burma, Chitral. China and Tibet, and earned three Victoria Crosses and         several Indian Orders of Merit. Bengal Sappers had contribution in both the World       Wars and participated in campaigns in Aden, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia   and France.

Bengal Sappers have been in action in all the ops after Indep from the Jammu and Kashmir Op in 1948 to the recently concluded Op PARAKRAM.  Among the many notable achievements are the air fd at Daulat Beg Oldi at an altitude of 17300 feet made in 1962, the Hajipir Road during the 1965 Ops, the Madhumati Bridge in 1971 War and the engr sp for the Nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1974 and 1999.  Madhumati Bridge, constr by the Bengal Sappers is the largest bridge built by Sappers anywhere, after the Second World War.

Three Bengal Sapper units participated in Op PAWAN and exec imp tasks incl repair of Jetty of Kankesanturai, restoration of electric sup to Jaffna General Hosp, repair of other pub bldgs and neutr of large number of improvised exp devices (IED).  The Bengal Sappers have also proved their mettle in extreme cold and high altitude conditions of Siachen Glacier in Op MEGHDOOT.  Significant achievements incl constr of large number of ae cableways, ice bunkers, fibre reinforced structures, helipads, laying of optical fibre cables and a ppl for tn of kerosene to fwd posts. Op VIJAY provided another opportunity to the Bengal Sappers to excel in comb engg tasks.

Op PARAKRAM provided an opportunity to lay actual minefields, as well as recover them, for the first time since 1971. The Bengal Sappers have also been providing continuous comb engg sp in the counter insurgency environment and have been in the forefront in counter IED operations.  During Op DEEWAR, number of our units were involved in constr of AIOS along the LoC braving the en fire from across. The recent Op SNOW LEOPARD has witnessed grit of Bengal Spr units in rendering indomitable sp to the fd fmn in terms of habitat constr, constr of line of comn and other close sp tasks.