Canadian Corps

“ The rapid move which the Canadian Corps now made was the most sporting thing we ever did, and it appealed strongly to the hearts of young men who were keen on games and had been inured to a hardy life in Canada. Swiftly and secretly the battalions entrained at various points and left for parts unknown. I went in my side-car to the machine-gun headquarters at Liencourt, and on the next day to the Curé's house at Le Cauroy. I found out from Headquarters that our Division was going south within a day or so, but that I was not to tell the men. ”

“ All the officers of the Canadian Corps have in one respect or another contributed to the collection of these facts, and have done so often in the face of grave danger and complete exhaustion, when they might well have been excused from troubling about such trivialities as to what posterity would think about them. ”

“ They were, however, much surprised to find that the Canadians were most excellent soldiers, that they were as highly trained as any British soldier who had come to France, that their discipline could not be questioned, and that their behavior in the trenches had been splendid. The British generals at first thought the Canadian technical troops, such as the artillery and the engineers, might lack skill. They found that the artillery knew their business as well as the best British artillery, that the engineers were superior in many ways and that now every corps commander wanted the Canadians. ”

“ The business man, with his experience in organization and executive, became a military administrator in a wonderfully short space of time. The corps commander had never been in any military school except the Canadian militia. Of the seven or eight men who served as divisional commanders, not more than three could qualify as professional soldiers before the war. Of the brigadiers and battalion commanders probably 90 per cent had never attended a military school for more than a month. Canada's army was a citizen army, commanded and administered by men without business training. ”

“ Apart from his qualities as a soldier, however, a simple and noble personality illumines his character. It is not too much to say that every officer and man under his command loves and trusts him. Not only, however, have they confidence in his military leadership, but they know that in his personality, and in his whole outlook upon humanity, he is to be respected and trusted too.
With the arrival in France of the 2nd Division, [3] and the formation of the Canadian Army Corps, a point is reached which clearly marks the end of the first phase of Canada's part in the world war. ”

“ Of the special corps, outside the regular classifications into which all armies are subdivided—infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc., special emphasis and more detailed description should be accorded the Canadian Forestry and the Canadian Railway Corps. The extraordinary dimensions which these arms of the service acquired must be considered when the number of Canadian troops on the actual field of battle is compared with those who did not reach the front. ”

“ In 1812 the Republicans attacked Canada with two corps, amounting in the whole to 13,300 men. The British troops in the Province were but 4500, of which [194] 3000 were in garrison at Quebec and Montreal. But 1500 could be spared for the defence of Upper Canada. From the capture of Michilimacinac, the first blow of the campaign, down to its close, the Canadian Militia took their share in every military operation. French and English vied with each other in loyalty, steadiness, and discipline. ”

“ The regiment had always paid a great deal of attention to musketry and in 1913, the year the writer became Commanding Officer, the blue ribbon of Rifle shooting, the King's Prize, was won at Bisley by a member of the corps, Sergeant Hawkins. In that year the Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment, General Sir Ian Hamilton, arrived in Canada on a tour of inspection of the Overseas Forces of the Crown. He reviewed the regiment and expressed himself as well pleased. This visit was considered a great honor. ”

“ Many battles we have won,
along with the boys in blue.
And we'll go and capture Canada,
for we've nothing else to do."
Meanwhile the Canadian Government deemed it prudent to place troops at some of the exposed points along the border, and on the 15th of November, 1865, the following volunteer corps were called out for Frontier Service, and were stationed at the following places, the whole force being under the command of the Lieutenant-General commanding Her Majesty's Forces in North America:—
At Prescott—The Ottawa Garrison Battery of Artillery; Capt. A. G. Forrest. ”

“ Fifty masters and mates of trading vessels were enrolled in the same battalion. The whole of the shipping was laid up for the winter in the Cul de Sac, which alone made the Lower Town a prize worth taking. The 'British Militia' mustered three hundred and thirty, the 'Canadian Militia' five hundred and forty-three. These two corps included practically all the official and business classes in Quebec and formed nearly half the total combatants. ”

“ Since the outbreak of war, he has given much of his time and means to patriotic movements and other work tending to promote Canada’s whole-hearted participation in the war. Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard is in command of No. 2 Detachment, Corps of Guides. He is a member of the Mount Royal Club, Montreal; Rideau and Country Clubs, Ottawa; National Club and the Engineers’ Club, Toronto, and the Tourilli Fish and Game Club, Quebec. He is an ardent advocate of all outdoor sports, especially in the woods. He is an independent in politics, and in religion an Anglican. ”

“ I forgot to mention that the Royal Flying Corps had a school at Lark Hill near Amesbury and that every day the aviators sailed above us. On several places on the Plains monuments have been erected by the Flying Corps in memory of officers who had given their lives in the interests of the new science. Some of the Canadians joined this Corps. Lieut. Lawson of the 48th, an engineer of ability and experience, subsequently joined and served in Mesopotamia. ”

“ Troops under your command will remain in their present location. You will be held personally responsible for their discipline and that no movement of your troops, either individually or otherwise, takes place without authority from the Allied Headquarters specified in paragraph 17 below. ”

“ Only local affairs—education, excise, municipal matters, drainage, local railroads, etc.—are left to the provinces.
Every man in Canada is supposed to be liable for military training if called on, but the number of men annually drilled is about fifty thousand. Hitherto a man appointed from the Imperial Forces has been the commanding general in Canada. It need scarcely be said that if Canada is to hold her own in Imperial plans, if she is to become a power in the struggle for ascendency on the Pacific, her equipment both as to land forces and marine are ridiculously inadequate. ”

“ The small army in Canada could be massed together, with its artillery and transport, in a very short time, and directed with precision to any one point, though it is a series of detachments on garrison duty rather than a corps d’armée, and it has neither cavalry nor baggage animals. With all the liberal (if not occasionally extravagant) [96] outlay, and the cost of transporting it, the force in a few weeks would be far less expensive than an American corps of the same strength; and it is no disparagement to the latter to say they would be less efficient than the British. ”

“ Even the deluge of gas—the first used in the war—gained them less benefit than they expected. That battle of Ypres was decidedly a Canadian victory.
Captain F. A. C. Scrimger, of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, was attached at the time to the 14th (Royal Montreal) Battalion. On April 22nd he was in charge of an advanced dressing station situated in an old farm building near the battered city of Ypres. The house was surrounded by a moat over which there was only one road; and that afternoon, during the heavy fighting, the [Pg 10] German artillery found the lonely house and began to shell it. ”

“ Any man serving in the Active Militia who may require to leave Canada shall first return to the Captain of his Company all articles of public clothing, or public property which he may have had in his possession, and shall obtain a written discharge from the Commanding Officer of his Corps ”

“ One wonders on what Canada is pinning her faith in security from attack in case disaster should come to the British navy. Whether Canada is conscious of it or not, her greatest defense is in the virility of her manhood. Her men are neither professorial nor an office type. They are big outdoor men who shoot well because they have shot from boyhood and lived a life in the open. All this, however, is not national defense. It is unused but splendid material for national defense. ”

“ Within two months of the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Germany, the Dominion of Canada concentrated, armed, and sent to Europe an Expeditionary Force of 33,000 men. A voluntary army, the first complete Canadian Division ever assembled, with more than half a Reserve Division, this force was by far the greatest body of soldiers that had ever crossed the Atlantic at one time. ”

“ After coming to Canada, he became identified with the Active Militia of this country, and commanded the 16th Horse, a Western organization, from 1907 to 1911. In 1911 and 1912, he was in command of the 7th Cavalry Brigade, and in 1913 he was appointed to the Headquarters Staff at Ottawa as Director of Cadet Services for the Dominion. In 1914, the year of the outbreak of the great war, he became Director of Mobilization, with the rank of Brevet-Colonel and in that capacity performed very important services in connection with the organization of Canada’s overseas forces. ”

“ I have described, as fully as is permissible, the general disposition and the general organisation of the British Army in the field as it was when the Canadians first set foot in France. It now becomes necessary to deal in detail with the "Front"—that almost endless succession of warren-like lines where scores of thousands of men stand to arms by night and day, and where the Canadian troops have already fought with a gallantry and a dash, and yet a tenacity, which have seldom, if ever, been equalled in military history. ”

“ Except for fishing patrols and insignificant cruisers, Canada has no marine force, absolutely none, though she can requisition the big merchant liners which she subsidizes. Canada has an excellent military school in Kingston and a course of instruction at Quebec, but the majority of graduates from these centers go into service in the British army simply because there is no scope for them in their own land. At Esquimalt off Victoria, British Columbia, and at Halifax, Nova Scotia, before the outbreak of the present war, were Imperial naval stations ”

“ Under national service the State calls all its manhood to arms but relieves from odium and suspicion all those who can better serve its interests on the farms, in the factories, or in other necessary civil activities. The Military Service Act of Canada, as has been said, was passed by Parliament in obedience to a general public demand and in assertion of the Government’s deliberate conviction that only by selective draft could the necessary reinforcements for the army in France be obtained and the orderly continuance of production and industry assured. ”

“ They are confident that a considerable force would be available for service abroad, as under section sixty-nine of Canadian Militia Act the active militia can only be placed on active service beyond Canada for the defense thereof. It has been suggested that regiments might enlist as Imperial troops for a stated period, Canadian Government undertaking to pay all necessary financial provisions for their equipment, pay and maintenance. ”

“ Within a week Canada had sprung to arms; within three weeks 35,000 men were marshalled on Valcartier Plain, which had been transformed, as if by magic, into a great military camp; within six weeks from the outbreak of war a Canadian Division, fully organised and equipped in every branch of the service, with a surplus of guns and ammunition nearly sufficient for another Division, and with a detail of reinforcements amounting to 10,000 men, was ready to proceed overseas. ”

“ In the case of the Canadians, the Y.M.C.A. is actually a part of the military force, and that is a remarkable thing. Six of the Canadian officers of the Association in the first contingent were at the same time officers in the Canadian Army, and were told off to the service of the Y.M.C.A., but they were none the less officers for that. In this way the Association is recognised, and the officers can go with the men right into the trenches, and do. Fine men were [16] these first six officers, four of them with the infantry brigades, one with the cavalry, and one with the artillery. ”

“ I believe there are troops enough there for the defence of Canada forever, and even for the accomplishment of any reasonable offensive plan that could be formed from the Canadian frontier. I am quite sure that all the American armies of which I have ever read would not beat out of a field of battle the troops that went from Bordeaux last summer, if common precautions and care were taken of them. That which appears to me to be wanting in America is not a general, or a general officer and troops, but a naval superiority on the Lakes. ”