British soldiers from the Cheshire Regiment man a trench during the First World War
Entrenching battalions were temporary units formed in the armies of the British Empire during the First World War. Entrenching Battalions were trained as infantry, but were primarily utilized for manual labour duties such as trench repair, wire laying, road making and assisting tunnellers, pioneers, engineers and signals. The Battalions were also used as pools of men from which drafts of replacements could be drawn by conventional infantry battalions.[1][2][3][4][5]
^Bean, C. E. W. (1941). The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1916. Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 (12 ed.). pp. 177–178. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
^"Military Labour During The First". Labourcorps.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2013-08-07. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
^"Entrenching Battalions" (PDF). Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
September 1916 the battalions remaining manpower was absorbed by the Australian Infantry battalions. The 1st Anzac EntrenchingBattalion later absorbed the...
infantry battalions. From September that year until the battalion's disbandment in October 1917 it was used as a tunnelling unit. The 1st Anzac Entrenching Battalion...
Three entrenchingbattalions were also formed in February 1918 from the recently disbanded 4th Infantry Brigade. The entrenchingbattalions were a reserve...
brigade in the 24th EntrenchingBattalion. During its service 228 men of the battalion are known to have died. The 3rd Line battalions of the Gloucesters...
Company 1st EntrenchingBattalion 2nd EntrenchingBattalion 3rd EntrenchingBattalion 4th EntrenchingBattalion Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion Anti-Aircraft...
battalions and a Special Reserve battalion, and a further 18 battalions were added to the regiment's establishment during the war. Sixteen battalions...
infantry regiment of the British Army, consisted of 7 battalions, eventually expanding to 52 battalions, although not all existed at the same time, of which...
surplus men were sent to join remnants of 17 other battalions to form the 3rd EntrenchingBattalion. The 3/6th Bn was formed at Belle Vue Barracks on 25...
up to strength. The surplus troops formed the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd EntrenchingBattalions, one for each brigade, and this provided a pool of trained reinforcements...
42 men from the 8th EntrenchingBattalion at the end of May. On 1 July, 1/6th Bn was in support behind the attacking battalions of 139th Bde. A and B...
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