Miscellaneous records of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion, 1914-18 War

Accession Number	AWM352
Collection type	Official Record
Object type	Paper document
Maker	Commonwealth Government of Australia
Date made	1913-1936
Conflict	First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright	Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain

Description

A Pioneer Battalion was created for each division in the AIF (Australian Imperial Force). On 10 March 1916, the 2nd Pioneer Battalion (Western Australia) was formed in Egypt. The unit served in Egypt and The Sinai before deploying to the Western Front. The 2nd Pioneer Battalion was then assigned to the Second Division, AIF. Pioneer battalions mainly performed construction tasks in the forward area not requiring the special equipment of engineers, such as constructing trenches and dugouts. They occasionally acted in the engineer role on tasks such as the construction of bridges. They had a large proportion of tradesmen and were organised the same as infantry battalions. Pioneers occasionally served as front line infantry.

The official records collection held very little in the way of documentation on this until 1991 when the Memorial purchased three lots of 2nd Pioneer Battalion miscellaneous records from a private seller (items 1-35, OW91/5). How the records came to be in private hands is not recorded. These documents have both informational and historical value and compliment the holdings of the unit war diaries (AWM4). A large proporation of material consists of divisional operations orders and memorandums. The remaining material is a mixture of official and more personal correspondence and a few printed items. Research indicates items 1-35 are the provenance of F.W.G. Annand, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Pioneers and were accessioned to the national collection in 2008. In 2018, the Memorial appraised a second offering of 2nd Pioneer records by a member of the public (items 36-41 OW18/13), the provenance of which appear to be the unit adjutant, 2941 CAPT G.B. Patterson.

Frederick William Gadsby Annand was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, on 7 May 1872 and in working life managed the Brisbane Permanent Building & Banking Company. On the outbreak of the First World War, Annand counted 22 years experience with various light horse units. Annand joined the AIF at Sydney on 11 November 1915 with the rank of Major and appointed to command the 7th Field Company Engineers. He embarked on A23 “Suffolk” at Sydney on 27 November. With the raising of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion in Egypt, Annand was appointed to organise the command of the new unit on 1 March 1916.

Promotion to Lieutenant Colonel was achieved on 12 March and six days later, Annand reported his Pioneers “had been recruited to full strength (except officers).” Serving on the Western Front, he saw action at Pozieres, Ypres and Longueval before being severely wounded on 15 November 1916, following an attack on ‘The Maze’. During the Second Battle of Bullecourt, on 2 May 1917, Annand mobilised his Pioneers to construct a trench up to the Hindenburg Line, a feat described by Official Historian CEW Bean as “one of the finest achievements of the Australian Pioneers.”

When asked to comment upon the service he considered most important or interesting, Annand wrote about the advance on Mont St Quentin, during 2 September 1918: “My battalion did some rapid bridging of the River Somme and Halle and very closely followed the infantry, clearing and opening up the roads and rendering if possible for the field artillery to rapidly follow up the advances of the infantry.” In recognition of his exploits, Annand was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 17 January 1917 and Bar on 2 April 1919, a Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers Decoration (post-nominal: VD) for long and meritorious service and was Mentioned in Despatches by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig on 13 November 1916 (AIF List 138, 8 Feb 1917) and 9 April 1917 (AIF List 186, 6 May 17).