Hi All, I've found a newspaper story about a relative being presented with a casserole, a silver stand and an identity bracelet by the staff of the D.C.R.E. Alnwick where she worked when she left and joined the ATS in 1943. Can anyone tell me what the DCRE was please? All I keep finding is Deputy Commander Royal Engineers. Thanks a lot, Michael
CRE was commander royal engineers and they built and maintained airfields for the RAF. nowadays called works group royal engineers. I can only guess the D was Division. I've also seen reference to Divisional Construction Regiment but that was 1945 onwards. Maybe contact the RE museum in chatham, Kent, they may know the location etc etc Alex.
My first thought was D C (whatever that is) Research Establishment, but haven't had much come up yet...
I have a feeling it may be 'District Commander, RE'. My understanding of the setup in Sussex is that from May 1943, Sussex District was formed, with East-, West- and Central Sussex Sub-Districts under command. The district seems to have had a 'CE' (Chief Engineer) while the sub-districts seem to have (this is coming from a location statement) under the heading of 'Works Services' a couple of DCREs, under whch are a handful of 'GEs' (Garrison Engineers), each based in the larger local towns. This setup was separate from the field army divisions and was a static element to relieve the fighting divisions of admin that interfered with their training. - Pete
A Commander Royal Engineers (CRE) was usually a Lieutenant-Colonel with two Majors under him termed Deputy Commanders Royal Engineers (DCREs). These were located with divisions, garrisons, commands, areas etc. The term DCRE also referred to the units commanded by a DCRE, rather than just referring to an individual appointment. Richard
Thanks a lot for the help everyone, so it sounds like it was some sort of an RE sub unit she was working for. I quite like the idea of her being involved in the building of RAF Boulmer. Thanks a lot, Michael
Each D.C.R.E. reported to the relevant Command of the region they were based in. In this case it was Northern Command. Depending on the workload in the command, the region was split into Areas and sometimes sub districts. This picture could change from year to year. For instance many English counties were heavily committed under Bolero to building US Army facilities. Some Areas were so heavily committed that, from dealing with several counties in one Area office, sub district offices were opened that controlled only parts of one individual county. The office would be staffed by military and civilian personnel, reporting to the D.C.R.E. After D Day and the wholesale movement of allied soldiers abroad (don't forget the Poles, Czechs, French, Belgians, Dutch etc who commands had to service as well as the British and US) many sub district offices closed. You can often find sub district RE war diaries in the NA, starting by putting the relevant regional command name and date range in the advanced search of the Discovery NA search engine..
#9 I should say this analysis is based on my research into Western Command, but I suspect there was not much organisational variation between regional commands.