"John Kulp" wrote in message
news:481a4d05.38110980@news20.forteinc.com...
....
> Pioneers were soldiers weren't they, not civilian workers? I noticed
> that more of the Maoris died from sickness than combat. Must have
> been a fun environment.
Advances in both medicine and ways of killing people meant that the Great
War was the first war in history where more soldiers died as the result of
enemy action than died of disease. So, the fact that more Maoris died of
disease does suggest that they were not primarily front line troops. That
makes sense if they were Pioneers, as most engineering work took place
behind the lines, to keep supplies moving up to the front. The main job in
the front lines would have been digging mines, which, again, should have
kept them out of the line of fire.
Colin Bignell
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