Editing Sapper (section)

=== Sapper ===
{{see also|Sapping}}
[[File:No.2 Company, Bombay Sappers and Miners, China 1900.jpg|thumb|Soldiers of No 2 Field Company, [[Bombay Sappers and Miners]] on duty in China in 1900. The mule carries the tools required for field engineering tasks.]]

A sapper, in the sense first used by the French military, was one who dug trenches to allow besieging forces to advance towards the enemy defensive works and forts over ground that is under the defenders' musket or artillery fire. It comes from the French word ''sapeur'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=What does sapeur mean in French? |url=https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/french-word-sapeur.html}}</ref> itself being derived from the verb ''saper'' (to undermine, to dig under a wall or building to cause its collapse). This digging was referred to as [[sapping]] the enemy fortifications. Saps were excavated by brigades of trained sappers or instructed troops. When an army was defending a fortress with cannons, they had an obvious height and therefore range advantage over the attacker's guns.  The attacking army's artillery had to be brought forward, under fire, so as to facilitate effective [[counter-battery fire]].

This was achieved by digging what the French termed a ''sappe''<ref>{{cite book|last=James|first=Charles|title=An Universal Military Dictionary, in English and French: In which are Explained the Terms of the Principal Sciences that are Necessary for the Information of an Officer|url=https://archive.org/details/universalmilitar00jame|year=1816|publisher=T. Egerton|page=[https://archive.org/details/universalmilitar00jame/page/781 781]|chapter=Sape|quote=''Sappe'' not only signifies the opening which is made but also the act of sapping. Richelet, Boyer, and others write the word with one p, Trevoux, and Belidor with two; but the mere spelling of a word seems not to have been much attended to, even by the best French writers.|access-date=14 March 2018}}</ref> (derived from the archaic French word for [[spade]] or [[entrenching tool]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Brachet|first=Auguste|title=An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language: Crowned by the French Academy|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvENAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA352|year=1882|publisher=Clarendon Press|page=352|chapter=Sape|quote=Image of [https://archive.org/details/anetymologicald00kitcgoog/page/n494 p.&nbsp;352] at [[Google Books]]|access-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726224421/https://books.google.com/books?id=TvENAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA352|archive-date=26 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Roman military entrenching tool|url=http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/78996/roman-military-entrenching-tool|website=Museum of London Prints|access-date=14 March 2018|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315070632/http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/78996/roman-military-entrenching-tool|archive-date=15 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Using techniques developed and perfected by [[Vauban]], the sappers began the trench at such an angle so as to avoid enemy fire [[Enfilade and defilade|''enfilading'']] the ''sappe'' by firing down its length.  As they pressed forward, a position was prepared from which a cannon could suppress the defenders on the fort's bastions. The sappers would then change the course of their trench, [[Zigzag|zig-zag]]ging toward the fortress wall. Each leg brought the attacker's artillery closer until the besieged cannon would be sufficiently suppressed for the attackers to breach the walls. Broadly speaking, sappers were originally experts at demolishing or otherwise overcoming or bypassing fortification systems.