The paymasters have a pretty fairly safe job and certainly the men in the line do not begrudge it to them. Everybody likes the paymaster and it is certainly amusing when we are out to rest to see the way that the men try to wile out advances from the paymaster for all kinds of frivolous reasons.
The instructors at the various schools of instruction have all fairly bomb-proof jobs, but these jobs as instructors are usually given after a man has been in the line, although there are instances where probably a specialist in some branch of the service may hold one of these jobs without having to go in the line to secure it.
We now come to the brass hats. This is the term that is used by the Tommy to all staff officers, and their entrance into a trench usually is the forerunner of an advance. So Tommy always looks with a certain amount of suspicion when any staff officer makes a tour of the trenches. Even these staff officers are not always immune, many of them having been killed in the course of their duties.
The A.S.C. (Army Service Corps) are always looked upon as men who have bomb-proof jobs. They are really non-combatant, but many of them have been killed in their line of duty. We now come to the butchers, bakers, cooks, shoemakers and tailors—all of which have bomb-proof jobs. But in the recent attack by the Germans on the Lys Front one of our Major-Generals got together a scratch battalion of these non-combatant men, had them armed with rifles, and they bravely held the line against the advancing Huns.
How the Tanks Are Parked in the Tankdromes
Railway construction troops were supposed to have bomb-proof jobs, but many of these men have taken up the rifle to assist the infantry when required, and very capable they have proven themselves to be.
The forestry battalions are a non-combatant corps and their job can be described as a bomb-proof job, although the work they do is very essential to the forces in the field.
Bomb-proof jobs are few and far between in France, although in the various Base headquarters the orderly room clerks, etc., have all bomb-proof jobs. These are about the only men who have them.