DELVILLE WOOD

LONGUEVAL - SOMME - FRANCE

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Sinking of the Mendi.

On the 21st February 1917, the SS Mendi, with aboard more than 800 black soldiers of the South African Native Labour Corps, collided with a ship off the Isle of Wight. The Mendi quickly sank and 626 men of the Corps lost their lives in the icy waters of the English Channel. More than 20 000 volunteers of the South African Native Labour Corps served in France in support of the Allied forces, maintaining roads, working as dockers in harbours, loading or unloading trains, cutting wood, digging trenches… etc. More than 400 of them died in service, the majority are buried at Arques-la-Bataille British Cemetery, near Dieppe.

Sinking of the Mendi