Who actually filled all the sandbags seen in trench photographs? Who was in charge of loading the firearms, ammo, and food onto trucks or trains? Who was in charge of cleaning up after a train derailed or a headquarters building was bombed? The Chinese Labour Corps provided the solution. They were volunteers from the Chinese countryside who were dispatched to Europe to play a critical, but mostly unnoticed, part in ensuring an Allied victory. They were paid pittances and were viewed as disposable 'coolies' by both the British and the French. They generally served behind enemy lines, which minimised their fatalities from enemy action, however they were devastated by the 1918 'Spanish' flu epidemic.<