LABOUR BATTALIONS AT THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 234, 21 June 1918, Page 6

LABOUR BATTALIONS AT THE FRONT

HOW THEY FILLED THE BREACH (By Lieutenant F. J. Sleath.) [Published by the War Office and circu luted by the Itoyal Colonial lusti tute.) When the Germans - couuter-attackei after the British broke through tin vaunted Eindenburg line before Cambrai it was announced that a very gallan share had been taken by certain labou units in checking the enemy advance. Ii the present figuting labour battalion have again gained prominence by tin promptness with which they stepped inti a breach in the British line. And thesi are but two of many honourable men tious' earned during the course of thi war. In the early days of the war they hai their progenitors in the navvy battalions recruited from special classes of work ers to carry out their vocations in tin service of the Government. Thus ther were docker battalions, and navvy bat talions pure aud simple for road-inakiiv behind the lines, consisting for the nios part of men well over military age. Bu a large amount of necessary work hai still to be done by infantrymen win would have been better employed in tin firing line itself; and out of this deuiani for labour arose the labour battalions. They consist of men of military age who, while not thought fit enough fo the arduous trench service, could yet b usefully employed in doing jobs behim the lines, for which infantry regiment formerly furnished fatigue parties, o were turned over in a body. Should tin Itoyal Engineers require a working part; to build a row'of dug-outs, or a lengtl of reserve trench, or lay down a buriec cable, then the labour battalions providi the necessary men. Should a road be come obstructed or a railway require b be laid to new gun emplacement, agaii the labour battalions are called upon They follow in the track of an advance making good or clearing away the damag done by the enemy; and wherever in th long battle fringe tasks requiring ban manual labour are to be done, there th labour units with their engineer instruc tors are to be found. These battalions are not to be contuse with the labour corps organised iron Chinese, African, and Indian labourers whose work lies well behind the line out of the reach of ordinary shell-fire The scope of the British battalions ej tends right up lo the firing-line itsell Often they work at roads eaten up b, the enemy barrage, or carry up materia and lay down lines for guns and men t move forward in full view of the Gei mans. It was labour battalions wh helped to bridge or fill in some of th huge craters blown to obstruct the Brit isli advance after the Sonimo, and man a labour man was seriously injured o killed whilo working among the ruin of evacuated towns and villages by tli explosion of infernal machines left be hind by the unscrupulous Hun. These battalions have been sent t every theatre of war, mid have don splendid service wherever they havi gone. In tho form of labour companie they are even distributed among th work centres and farming districts o the Homeland, though in this case the; consist largely of disabled men stil doing their bit in Britain's cause o working themselves slowly back to well being among healthy surroundings. Ai interesting development of this lam work is to bo seen in Franco also, when many uncultivated fields have beei worked, and much assistance renderei to French fanning folk, by detachment: from labour battalions. That they- should have done so wei in action against German infantry ha, come as no surprise to service circles for the men composing Ihese labour bal talions are soldiers first, and labourer! afterwards. In their ranks are man; infantrymen slightly disabled in the war, and the men recruited in Britair are first given a thorough military train ing, exteiidine: over several months before being drafted out to France Their average age may be slightlj higher than that of tiring-line battalions ami their marching powers may not 1)| so qrcat as troops accustomed to the long journevs between the trenches niu! rest billets.' But they are certainly formidable fighting units of a much higher standard of physical fitness than rules Mn many enemy divisions, as til! Germans have found lo their cost, and will find again should ever the emergency arise. _„_