As the armies moved rapidly across northern FRANCE and into BELGIUM an acute shortage of military labour was felt throughout the L of C. In addition to the existing commitments in the RMA which still had to be catered for, the early weeks of this period coincided with the arrival of the last L of C depots which required their allocation of companies, while in the newly liberated territory there were bridges to construct, railways to repair, and the Channel ports to operate.

Two examples of unexpected labour demands which had to be met quickly, were the provision of companies to work for the AOD and to operate the railhead-railtail on the SEINE. It had been hoped to employ civilian labour in the AOD, but as the civilians were not available in sufficient numbers up to eight and a half pioneer companies had to be diverted there from other tasks.

On the SEINE where stores in transit were often handled four times between railhead and railtail, eight companies were employed SOUTH of the river and seven on the NORTH side.

Another factor which contributed to the scarcity of labour, was the necessity to throw of sections on the line of advance to clear up, guard and move forward the residue of roadheads and cushions.

At the beginning of this phase the supply of civilian labour could not make up for the deficiencies of military labour. The lack of civilians was due to the fact that 21 Army Group was operating in a thinly populated agricultural area from which the best and youngest workers had been sifted by the enemy.

Moreover, many of the remaining aole-bodied men who in normal times might have formed a labour reserve were now playing a vital operational role within the Maquis organisation.

At the end of the period, however, the strain on labour resources was eased by the use of the liberated manpower of industrial northern FRANCE and BELGIUM. On 1 August 2-1 Army Group employed only 2,600 civilians but by the end of September there were 13,200 civilians working for the military (of which one in every three was a skilled man).

Early in August FRENCH pioneer companies started forming, the first of which was ready for work in mid-August. A decision which greatly eased the situation was to retain prisoners of war on the Continent to work under the direction of the Director of Labour.

If this latter decision had not been made it would have been necessary for HQ 21 Army Group to press SHAEF for permission to recruit civilians from the AMERICAN zone, and there was in point of fact an instruction governing these circumstances which had been foreseen in the planning period. Similar conditions, however, did not arise again during the campaign and SHAEF never had to decide on priorities between the US and BRITISH.

The evacuation of prisoners of war partially ceased in the second week of August and soon afterwards eight thousand GERMAN prisoners were employed in the L of C area. PW camps were situated near base installations and prisoners were employed on a day-to-day basis under BRITISH pioneer supervision. Late in September this form of labour was made more mobile by forming forty PW companies around BRITISH cadre staffs for deployment in the L of C where the labour situation demanded.

The policy was to replace military by civilian labour as far as possible in order to release pioneer companies for work in forward areas. It also permitted the build-up of a reserve of companies in BELGIUM ready to take over any commitment, either in L of C areas or within army boundaries, which the Directorate might be called upon to fulfil at short notice. As a part of the same policy preparations were made to accommodate a PW Brick in the advance base if the many political and economic problems which agitated the BELGIAN people at this time led to strikes.

The following figures illustrate the growth of the number of civilians employed.

Nearly half of these were comprised of artisans employed by the technical services of the army.

In the engineer base workshops at BRUSSELS and in the advance base workshops at ANTWERP a large number of skilled men were employed as welders, electricians, mechanics and instrument makers.

Ordnance used civilians as boot repairers, packers, checkers and sorters.- Without such skilled help the technical services would have been unable to keep pace with the amount of work which was needed at this time to maintain the armies.

As each port was liberated the pilots and fishermen were particularly useful in work connected with the clearing of minefields, wrecks, and under-water obstacles. Local divers were employed on the entrances of the harbours,

While technical artisans of the local port authority began to repair winches and railway sidings. This labour was recruited by the Administrative Units (Civil Labour) and worked under the direction of the Royal Navy, (Movements) and Transportation.

At the end of September the labour bureaux in the liberated countries were able to give sufficient information as to the exact rates of pay in issue before our entry for detailed instructions on that subject to be published by SHAEF.

Until October all payment was made by the officers of the AUCL on wage lists prepared from time sheets. However, with the tremendous growth of the number of civilians employed this responsibility became too onerous. In consequence an agreement was reached with the BELGIAN, FRENCH and DUTCH authorities by which the Governments became responsible for paying all wages, workmen’s compensation, family allowances and social insurances under a mutual aid agreement.

Despite the many difficulties encountered however, there were no hold-ups during the winter months amongst the thousands employed through the agency of the AUCL, even though during the same period many strikes occurred among workers employed on civilian enterprises and contract labour.

In this respect it is important to mention the great help which the various SHAEF Missions gave to the Labour Directorate in settling many questions which affected the employment of civilians, for through their agency there was direct access to the various governments on a ministerial level.

The introduction of a mid-shift meal for civilian workers proved of great value in smoothing out certain problems for men would often work for food when money was of little attraction. The provision of anti-gas capes and condemned army boots to civilians employed in roadheads and depots was also useful in overcoming the reluctance of workers to engage for outside work.

One of the great difficulties which arose, particularly in ANTWERP, was the controversy between labour directly employed by the military and contract labour when working alongside one another in the same area under different terms of service.

Among other things contract labour argued that the provision of a mid-shift meal to the directly employed labour Was a privilege which was equivalent to an increase in pay. Although 2-1 Army Group met this complaint by providing contract labour with a mid-shift_meal there still remained many differences which caused friction.

It was therefore agreed in November that in all the ports which were under military control and worked with contract labour, all other installations such as S and T and Ordnance working within the dock boundaries would also employ the same form of labour.

In October the War Establishment of the AUCL, which was re-named the Pioneer and Civil Labour Unit, was increased, enabling it to spread its net further afield by opening branch offices and ensuring better supervision and control of civilian labour.

At the same time two further PCLUs were formed making a total of twenty-two in the theatre. In December a revision of WES for labour staffs was essential to bring the staff organisation into line with the policy of using labour as a pool. A pool of staff officers consisting of three DDs Labour Teams and five ADS Labour Teams was formed, replacing the fixed labour increments to L of C headquarters staffs, which enabled D Lab to move senior staff representatives to meet the ever-changing labour situation.

The extensive utilisation of civilian labour to work base installations at this time enabled the Director of Labour to withdraw pioneer companies from the RMA and to re-deploy them to meet the increasing labour demands of the armies.

Where as at the beginning of the period only just over one quarter of the military labour in the theatre was under command of the two armies, by January nearly one half of the total of two hundred and fifteen companies was employed forward of the army boundaries, participating in the build-up for the late winter offensive.

During this period steps were taken to increase the 21 Army Group labour pool by forming twenty-four BELGIAN and twelve DUTCH pioneer companies. At first progress was hampered by lack of equipment and clothing, but the first six BELGIAN companies were ready by December.

The advantage of these allied units over the FRENCH labour companies which were formed during the previous period was that the BELGIAN and DUTCH Governments gave permission for their nationals to be employed in GERMANY.

When thefts of coal assumed such proportions that they threatened to have a serious effect on military requirements and vital industries, seven pioneer companies were employed as guards in depots, mines and on coal trains.

The enemy attempt to hamper the build-up of the advance base by attacking the ANTWERP area with V bombs failed partly because the effect on civilian morale was not sufficient to bring about evacuation on a scale large enough to diminish the supply of civilian labour.

At the end of January it was decided with the approval of the OMA to pay danger money at the rate of thirty francs a day to all civilians employed in the area and vicinity of the docks and installations. The number of civilians directly employed over the whole BRITISH area continued to increase at an average monthly figure of 19,000, from 105,208 at the end of January to 142,380 on 31 March.

The build up for operation VERITABLE and the programme of road and rail development involved forty-one and a half pioneer companies : of these twenty were employed on road construction and maintenance, ten worked within No. 11 Canadian Army Roadhead, four and a half were employed with corps FMCs, six assisted on railway construction and one supervised the 11,000 civilians who worked at the various railheads.

During the three weeks prior to operation PLUNDER eighty-seven companies, including six BELGIAN and nine L of C companies were under command of Second Army. Four companies were responsible for the smoke screen which covered the operational moves and dumping of stores in the forward areas from 12 March onwards.

At the time of the assault there were twenty-six companies working at the army roadhead, while the allocation to each corps had been raised from four to between eight and ten companies. The latter were used on a variety of tasks which included preparing approaches to the river crossings, accompanying the assault divisions to handle ammunition and supplies, setting up FMCs on the EAST bank of the RHINE and helping to construct the bridges. The bank control group included a pioneer company for stretcher bearing, traffic control and guarding PW. The remaining companies were either used by the DCE on road maintenance or were employed in CCSs and general hospitals.

During the pursuit the number of companies employed in Second Army roadheads was only sixteen and the demands of corps for labour were correspondingly less.

The companies which were released were used for guarding depots and vulnerable points, operating ex-PW camps and guarding PW. Three companies each handled camps holding six thousand GERMAN prisoners of war, while another guarded a special camp in which SS guards were imprisoned. 

As the armies advanced into GERMANY PCLUs organised GERMAN labour exchanges to recruit civilian labour for military purposes; 16,689 GERMANS were so employed, making a total of 147,545 directly employed personnel in the entire theatre at the end of the campaign.

DPs were used in the area between the MAAS and the RHINE and on the EAST bank of the RHINE to overcome the shortage of civilian labour there. At first they were engaged on a day to day basis, but later a decision was made to form three Displaced Person Groups each over one thousand strong and each administered by a pioneer company HQ.

In effect the adequate supply of military labour allotted to armies for the winter and spring operations was due to the successful organisation of civil labour in the L of C as a whole and the rear areas of the armies.

The civil labour organisation had worked well and was based on general experience including the following salient factors :—

Military and civilian labour was run on the pool basis in one channel and thereby pioneer work was covered by indigenous labour at the earliest moment.

Pioneers were thus given an opportunity in the quieter periods to re-fit, train and rest.

The provision of the mid-shift meal was of paramount importance in gaining the goodwill of civil labour. In ANTWERP during the V bomb period it proved a greater incentive to the retention of labour there than was the danger money paid in late January 45.

After the RHINE crossing the availability of Pioneers for essential duties in guarding PW, organisation of PW camps and grouping of DPS was due in a large measure to the promptitude with which pioneer group commanders (with the PCLUS) used local GERMAN civilian labour even while nearby operations were in progress.