The object was to give training to youths, between the ages of 17 and 23, who, in the wake of the 1929 depression, could find no suitable employment on leaving school.

[2] Lt Col George E Brink was given the responsibility for establishing the battalion at Roberts Heights and was the first commanding officer.

[3]: 87  The SSB was established to save the youth from physical and moral degeneration caused by massive unemployment due to the Great Depression.

The SSB was to teach the young men military discipline, fitness and various trades to enable them to be employed by the Department of Labour and Welfare.

In March 1943 the Field Force Battalion was disbanded and other ranks and some of the officers were transferred to the SSB, thus providing a nucleus of battle-tested veterans.

Because the act could be interpreted as not making provision for active service by UDF units beyond the Union's borders and "the prevailing tense political climate", Field Marshal Jan Smuts, the prime minister, declared that only volunteers would make up a fighting force beyond the country's borders.

According to Professor Andrè Wessels of the Department of History at the University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, "the wearing of these tabs caused a lot of resentment, by stigmatising both those who were prepared to fight and those who opposed active involvement (depending on one's political outlook), and was one way of exerting pressure on UDF members to volunteer for active service".