ARMY engineers tested their mettle as took on a competition to celebrate the corps’ patron saint.

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers from the 16 Air Assault Brigade took part in Exercise Pegasus Bluebell.

The soldiers, who are responsible for maintaining and repairing vehicles, equipment and weapons, were challenged with a log race, replacing a car engine and navigating a blindfolded driver around the Colchester barracks.

Exercise Pegasus Bluebell, which took place at the Merville Barracks, was named for the call sign used by the units during the Second World War.

The competition results were announced on St Eligius Day – the patron saint of the corps – at a service led by the brigade’s senior chaplain the Reverend Mark Grant-Jones.

In the end 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment Light Aid Detachment emerged the winners and were presented the Lance Corporal James McCue Memorial Trophy, named in honour of a McCue who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2003.

Team captain Aaron Disney said: “Everyone worked really hard and it’s a proud moment for us to win.

“We’ve just come back from an exercise in France and went straight on to this event; we didn’t know what to expect, were given limited tools and just had to get on with it – which is what being an airborne craftsman is all about.

“Events like this are great to remind us that as REME soldiers we’re all part of one team.

“We can all now put faces to the voices that we’ve spoken to in different units over the phone in barracks or the radio on exercises, and we’ll work better together because of that.”