Between 1915 and 1916, with the World War I conflict at its height between the allies and the Central Powers of Germany and Austro-Hungary, the British recruited more than 100,000 Chinese (Chinese Labour Corps) and their French allies some 40,000, and shipped them to the French western front as desperately needed labour to relieve an acute manpower shortage. They cleared mines, repaired roads and unloaded ships, with their contribution going unrecognized for decades. Mainly aged between 20 and 35 and hailing from the northern Chinese provinces of Hebei, Jiangsu and particularly Shandong, as well as Wenzhou, they served as labour in the rear echelons or helped build munitions depots, repair railways and roads, and unloaded ships at Allied ports. Some worked in armaments factories, others in naval shipyards, for a pittance of three to five francs a day. At the time they were seen just as cheap labour, not even allowed out of camp to fraternise locally, dismissed as mere coolies. When the war ended some were used for mine clearance, or to recover the bodies of soldiers and fill in miles of trenches.