Engineers in pre-Civil War Spain were relegated*
to the artillery branch of the service, itself*
considered the poor sister of the other branches.*
*
These engineers were construction workers,*
signallers and other types of skilled and unskilled*
laborers. They were not combat engineers (i.e.*
Zapadors). During the Civil War the engineers*
were eventually divided into two groups: the*
Sappers (Zapador/Combat Engineer) and the Signallers*
(construction engineers and all the others).*