Were there any African American combat engineers/sappers on the Western Front in WWI? I couldn’t find any reference to any online. Could it have been one of the jobs not permitted them by the AEF?
1279th Combat Engineers (michigan.gov)
Beyond that, the 92nd Infantry Division (“Buffalo Soldiers”) had an integral combat engineer battalion - the 317th Engineer Battalion as part of the standard division TO&E.
Lots of other engineering units (i.e. construction units) were all-Black as well- many of the airfields in England that the USAAF flew out of to bomb Germany were constructed by Black engineering units.
Engineers/sappers - yes, many. Combat, most often no. African Americans generally (but see below) were not employed as combat troops, but rather as non-combatant support services including a lot of engineer units. They dug trenches and built bridges, unloaded ships and trucks, cleared barbed wire and unexploded ordnance/mines, and buried the dead. But they usually weren’t even issued weapons.
However two combat divisions were eventually created - the 92nd and 93rd. Insomuch as the former included an engineer regiment, those were probably full combat engineers with firearms.
I think your posts mostly covers WWII, @Octagon was asking about WWI.
The bit about bombing Germany tipped me off that you got the wrong war.
Though the 92nd fits the bill. I see the 317th Engineer Regiment listed for WWI.
As for the 1279th:
First organized in 1937, the unit that became the 1279th Combat Engineer Battalion
Crud… Misread the title.