page_title: North Midland Divisional Engineers
section_title: 213th (North Midland) Army Field Company
hierarchical_section_title: North Midland Divisional Engineers / World War II / 213th (North Midland) Army Field Company
caption_attribution_description: English: The Crossing of the Garigliano River by the Fifth Army, Lauro, Italy, 19 January 1944 Royal Engineers in assault boats embark for the opposite bank to repair the last two sections of the pontoon bridge knocked out by enemy fire.
context_page_description: The North Midland Divisional Engineers was a Territorial Force unit of the British Royal Engineers created in 1908 by conversion of a volunteer infantry battalion from Staffordshire. It saw action in World War I at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, Gommecourt, Ypres, Cambrai, the German Spring Offensive and the Hundred Days Offensive, culminating in the assault crossings of the St Quentin Canal, the Selle and the Sambre. During World War II its component units saw action in the Battle of France, in Greece, Tunisia, Italy, Normandy and the Rhine crossing.
context_section_description: The company was mobilised at Cannock and joined III CTRE in France in April 1940. In May it was detached to 51st (Highland) Division and Arkforce during the Battle of France. The force's engineers blew up the bridges over the River Bresle to slow the German advance, as well as fighting as infantry. The officer commanding 213th Field Company and part of one section were captured with the bulk of 51st Division, but the rest was evacuated from Le Havre in June in Operation Cycle. The company was then assigned to I Corps in Home Defence. In July 1943 it was sent to Italy, where it served under 14th GHQ Troops, RE.
  The company was engaged at the Crossing of the River Volturno (12 October 1943), when it was one of the few RE units present that was trained to use the Bailey bridge. At the Crossing of the River Garigliano (17–21  January 1944) the company was attached to 5th Division. The river crossing was extremely difficult: 213th Fd Co succeeded in getting the first Folding Boat Equipment (FBE) bridge across during the night of 18/19 January, but it was soon put out of action for nine hours until it could be repaired.
  213th Field Company was then returned to England, where it joined 18th (1st London) GHQTRE in 21st Army Group for the invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord). In early July, the unit was involved in improving the bridges over the River Orne in preparation for Operation Goodwood. At the crossing of the Rhine (Operation Plunder), 18th GHQTRE was assigned the task of building a Class 9 FBE bridge codenamed 'Waterloo'. Work started at 09.30 on 25 March 1945, with 213th Field Company working on the eastern (German) side of the river, and the bridge was open for traffic by midnight.
caption: Royal Engineers crossing the River Garigliano, 19 January 1944
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