A LABOUR UNIT'S BIT IN THE WAR.
The Ypres Times.
155
Since the Armistice little or no mention has been made of the part played in the great
conflict by the Labour Corps. Although strictly a non-combatant corps, and rifleless
•until the closing months of the struggle, nevertheless several of its units experienced very
active service and suffered many casualties as the army records will testify. All the same,
like their brothers in the trenches, they, too, had a grim and grimy time of it. If they
did not actually fight, they laboured strenuously, and often in perilous places. Mention
of the dockyards at Le Havre and Calais revives in many of us strange memories of hard
work by day and night in novel surroundings and under all weather conditions. Especially
did those of us feel ourselves up against it who in civil life were not labourers in the strict
-sense of the word. However, there was a war on, and it was part of the price of the
victory to bé.
The great hangar at I.e Havre docks was the venue of our first work in France.
From seven in the morning until nearly the same hour in the evening the place was the
scene of much liveliness among war stores. All day long vessels were unloading their
•cargoes. Flour, oats, hay and iron rations from the holds, were piled on barrows or trolleys
and drawn by the soldiers of labour to various parts of the shed, where they were stacked
almost roof-high. Other squads would be filling wagons with the goods for conveyance
up the line. Such work was the principal occupation of the labour soldier at the base,
but other duties of a minor character also came his way. An occasional day in a wood-
yard arranging and stacking the timber varied the activities of the hangar. Again, a day
given to the clearing of a compound stored with empty bottlesnot whisky bottles, but
bottles bearing the names of well-known sauce makersmade another diversion. Alto
gether, the labour men handled no small amount of the provender that kept horse and
mule and man primed for the business of war.
The day's work over, the troops were paraded and marched back to camp, a very
drab abode that rejoiced in the apt name of Cinder City." By contrast, however, the
-ocial life was wonderful, for Tommy was a true Mark Taplev, and could make himself
happy in dismal surroundings. Canteens and Y.M.C.A. huts met his stomach's needs,
while concerts, lectures and church services were at his choice otherwise andsuch his
protean soulhe was to be met with in all these circles.
Having "done" Le Havre our unit was transferred to Calais. At the docks there we
handled, perhaps, a greater variety of material than at Havre. There were less foodstuffs
but more of the actual implements of war, such as rifles, ammunition, petrol, shovels, picks,
etc., etc. Again, the hangars and dumps were stocked full with Red Cross supplies, cloth
ing, blankets and much of the paraphernalia which these stern days demanded. At Calais
the soldier went into the ship's hold to work, as well as on to the quay side. He was now
a soldier-stevedore complete.
If Cinder City was a grey metropolis, the camp at Calais was some degrees greyer,
and it says much for the soldier that he defeated his environment and became cheerful at
times. The camp was a big one, housing many units, and lay alongside the ramparts-
that high bank that runs along the sea front. It made a good promenade for the men
when not engaged otherwise. From its elevated position a view across the channel,
almost to the Dover cliffs and home, was possible.
Our next change was, on the whole, more to our liking. A few miles from Calais,
on the canal bank, there was a great park, where hay for certain of our armies was stored.
Brought to the canal side in barges, the bales were transferred to deckables that ran
on rails. Two men would then push the loaded trolley across the roadway into the park,
where the bales were stacked, or, as at Le Havre, pushed into long trains for up the line
use. The train might comprise thirty or forty wagons, and as each deckable arrived it
