Rest camps
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by
Stork
Can someone explain why many members of this R E Coy get sent to a rest camp? It's obviously not a privilege limited to officers, since Sappers are getting sent. Ault is on the shore of the English Channel, so I'm guessing that the camp is like a spa. It just seems strange that this unit sends so many men 130 km away to rest, and I've rarely seen it done before. I can understand wanting to give the men a break from their duties, but soldiers in fighting units must be more in need of a break than Engineers.
I'm using Departed: Leave and Returned: from leave tags for this- is that right, or should I use Other?
Posted
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The British Army worked on a 16 day timetable. Each soldier usually spent eight days in the front line and four days in the reserve trench. Another four days were spent in a rest camp that was built a few miles away from the fighting.
Link: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrontline.htm
I would imagine that all troops were entitled to spend time at rest camps.
Posted
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by
cyngast
moderator
in response to Stork's comment.
I think the rest camp referred to here are the type also called a convalescent camp. This is different from the "rest" camp an entire unit went to when they came out of the trenches for a few days.
Men would get sent to a rest camp while recovering from an illness, wound, or shell shock. They weren't ill enough to need intensive nursing or medical care, but they weren't fit enough yet to be back in the trenches. Remember, that there were no antibiotics back then, so a case of bacterial pneumonia could require weeks of rest to overcome.
I tag men going to a rest camp as Departed: Sick and Returned: From hospital when they come back.
Also, many of the hospitals and convalescent camps were based in big luxury hotels on the English Channel because they were relatively safe, close to transport, and the hotels were large enough to hold a lot of beds. As well, they weren't used by tourists during the war.
I don't know about that 16-day timetable. It may have been an ideal, but the infantry battalion diaries I've tagged show units spending anywhere from 2 to 14 days in the front line, with probably 6 or 7 as an average.
Posted
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
Also, don't make the mistake of thinking that just because these men are not in an infantry battalion, they're not on the front line. The Sappers were often right up there at the very front and beyond, fortifying positions, laying communications lines, working on trenches etc. They are combat engineers.
Posted
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When the army was short of men, soldiers had to spend far longer periods at the front. It was not uncommon for soldiers to be in the front line trenches for over thirty days at a time. On one occasion, the 13th Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment spent fifty-one consecutive days in the line.
Link: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWfrontline.htm
Posted