They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
L Binyon
A group of black South Africans on the Western Front. These men had contracted to work
in the South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC). In general the native
police and NCOs were recruited from tribal chiefs or high-status native
families. Some 20,000 South Africans worked in the SANLC during the war. They
were not meant to be in combat zones, but there were inevitable deaths when the
docks or transport lines on which they worked were bombed.
The greatest tragedy
was the sinking of the troopship SS Mendi on February 21, 1917, when 617
members of the SANLC were drowned in the English Channel.
http://altyn73.livejournal.com/570420.html
