Military punishment battalions during wartime I had heard of. Germans and Soviets both had them during World War Two. The French army during the colonial period also having penal units and deploying even in times of relative peace.
From the Internet web site "Kaiser Cross".
"Maroc 1923: Hell on earth in the Bat' d'Af"
"The Bataillon d' infanterie légère d' Afrique better known as the BILA or Bat d´Af served for over a century as the infamous penal battalions of the French Army."
"Men with prison records who still had to do their military service or soldiers with serious disciplinary problems were shipped of to Tatahouine, headquarters of the Bat d´Af, to serve a term in a hell."
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Bat' d'Af' personnel with typical convict tattoo body art. Manpower deemed as less than worthy performing duty mostly of an engineering aspect, road building, construction of all sorts, hard pick and shovel labor. Still soldiers and expected to engage in combat with a colonial opponent on demand.
coolbert.
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