www.ns.legion.ca 47 No. 2 Construction Battalion continued ... Details on the Front The Black Battalion embarked from Pier 2 in Halifax on 28 March 1917 aboard the SS Southland. Prior to dispatch, a high-ranking officer suggested the battalion be sent overseas on a separate ship without a naval escort to avoid offending fellow passengers. The motion was rejected and the 19 officers and 605 other ranks, along with 3,500 non-Black troops from other units, arrived in Liverpool, England, following a 10-day voyage through submarine-infested waters. As a construction unit, the battalion was tasked with non-combat support roles, which included building roads, railway tracks and bridges, defusing land mines to allow troops to move forward, removing the wounded from the battlefield and digging and building trenches. In early May 1917, orders were received to downgrade the battalion to a company because it had fallen under strength. A battalion is generally comprised of 600 to 800 soldiers, and the battalion had lost a number of men who had fallen ill or lost their lives. The unit proceeded to France and the Swiss border, where it was attached to the Canadian Forestry Corps, CEF, and performed logging operations. The majority of soldiers served at Lajoux in the Jura Mountains, while smaller detachments joined Forestry units at Péronne, a commune of the Somme department in Picardie in northern France, and Alençon, a commune in Normandy, France. Loading Ammunition - Four members of the Canadian Corps pose with ammunition before loading it into tramway cars to be taken up the line. Most black soldiers who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force remained segregated in labour units. Few were allowed to serve in combatant roles. (courtesy George Metcalf Archival Collection, Canadian War Museum/CWM 19930012-397) Soldiers, 1918 (courtesy McCurdy fonds/Archives of Ontario/I0024831)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==