10th Entrench Battalion

[AllenRSmith]

My Great Grand Father served with the 3rd South African Infantry Battalion during the war, i have recently received his service records which state he joind the 10th Entrench Battalion on the 9th June 1916.

My questions are, what was an Entrenching Battalion, and would this have been part of the 3rd south African Infantry or attached to it?

any help / pointers would be much appreciatted .

cheers

Allen

[charlesmessenger]

Allen

The first wave of Entrenching battalions were formed in summer 1915. They acted as a halfway house between the infantry base units and the battalions at the Front. They carried out labouring tasks, especially trench construction, within the combat zone, thus getting new arrivals used to shellfire before they joined their units. Your man would have come frrom the South African Base Depot to No 10 Entrenching Bn and then been posted to his SA Infantry bn once it was out of the line and in a position to receive reinforcements. All these Entenching bns had been disbanded by the end of 1917, because of manpower shortages, but a second wave was formed in February 1918 to abosrob the surplus manpower thrown up by the reduiction in the number of infantry bns per divisions. None of these existed beyond the end of April 1918.

Charles M

[AllenRSmith]

many thanks for the information Charles, it all adds to his records as they are not the easiest for an amateur like my self to understand.

cheers

Allen