Military history of Canada during World War I
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When World War I broke out in 1914, all of the Commonwealth nations, including Canada, were called to defend Great Britain. Like most of the Commonwealth nations, Canadians' sacrifices and contributions to the war would change many facets in Canadian history. For the first time in its history, Canadian forces would fight as a distinct unit under a Canadian-born commander. Battles such as Vimy Ridge, Second Battle of Passchendaele and the Battle of the Somme are still remembered today as some of Canada's founding myth, to both its identity and culture. As well, The First World War did much to highlight the bifurcation between French Canada and English Canada, both groups that had very different perspectives on their loyalty to the British monarchy.
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[edit] Outbreak of the war
When Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, Canada and the other members of the British Empire were automatically involved. on August 5, 1914, the Governor General declared a war between Canada and Germany. Since most Canadians were of British decent, there was unanimous support from coast to coast that Canadians had a duty to protect their Motherland. Indeed, Sir Wilfrid Laurier spoke for the majority of Canadians when he proclaimed: "It is our duty to let Great Britain know and to let the friends and foes of Great Britain know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart and that all Canadians are behind the Mother Country." [1] Prime Minister Robert Borden offered assistance to Great Britain, which was quickly accepted.
[edit] Preparations
Prior to the war, Canada had a small standing army and a much larger Canadian militia. Sam Hughes, the minister of militia, was ordered by Robert Borden to train and recruit an army for overseas service. At the time, Canada had a regular army of only 3110 men and a fledgling navy. [2] However, within a mere two months, Canada could boast of an army of over 32,000 men as men flocked to recruiting stations. Most of the militia trained at CFB Valcartier, just north of Quebec City and within two months the First Contingent, Canadian Expeditionary Force, was on its way to England in the largest convoy ever to cross the Atlantic.
[edit] Opening Battles: 1915 to 1916
[edit] Neuve Chapelle
The Canadian Expeditionary Force saw their first battle of World War I in the French town of Neuve Chapelle. After arriving from the Salisbury Plan, the Canadian forces were instructed to prevent the Germans from reinforcing the sector of Neuve Chapelle. This would allow the British 1st Army, under General Douglas Haig, to successfully push through German lines and establish a new Allied front line on conquered territory. In the subsequent Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the Canadian forces suffered 100 losses.
Although the British were unable to exploit their advantage due to poor communication, it taught Canadians that artillery bombardment was too light to suppress the enemy trenches; that more good artillery observation points were necessary; that reserves were too few to follow up success quickly; and most importantly, that the procedure of transmitting information and sending orders to the advanced troops was slow and difficult, and that the systems of communication were much too vulnerable. [3]
[edit] Second Battle of Ypres
In the first week of April 1915, the soldiers of the 1st Canadian Division were moved to reinforce the Ypres salient where the British and allied line pushed into the German line in a concave bend. On April 22, the Germans sought to eliminate this salient by using poison gas. Following an intensive artillery bombardment, they released 160 tons of chlorine gas from cylinders dug into the forward edge of their trenches into a light northeast wind. As thick clouds of yellow-green chlorine drifted over their trenches the French defences crumbled, and the troops, completely bemused by this terrible weapon, died or broke and fled, leaving a gaping four-mile hole in the Allied line. [4]
All through the night, the Canadians fought to close this gap. On April 24, the Germans launched another poison gas attack, this time at the Canadian line. Over 6000 Canadians lost their lives before the reinforcements arrived. Canadians gained a reputation as a formidable fighting force. Moreover, it was the first time that a colonial force caused a major European power to retreat.
[edit] The Battle of the Somme
The next area where Canadians fought was at the Battle of the Somme from mid-September to mid-November. Initially launched as a campaign to relieve pressure from the belegaured French forces at Battle of Verdun, the Allied casualties actually exceeded those at Verdun. On July 1, 1916, the British launched the assault which resulted in the largest massacre of British forces - over 57,550 dead in one day. Among them were 255 men from the 1st Newfoundland Regiment ; of the 801 men of the Newfoundland Regiment, only 68 men answered the regimental role call after the attack. 255 were dead, 386 were wounded, and 91 were listed as missing. Every officer who had gone over the top was either wounded or dead. On the day that the British forces suffered their worst losses in history, the 1st Newfoundland Regiment also suffered its worst loss in its history.
As the fighting continued, the Canadians (with the support of a new 4th Canadian Division) were asked to secure the town of Courcelette. In the major offensive which began at dawn on September 15 the Canadian Corps, on the extreme left of the attack, assaulted on a 2,200 yard sector west of the village of Courcelette. By November 11th, the 4th Canadian Division finally secured most of the German trenches in Courcelette and then rejoined the Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge.
The Battle of the Somme claimed 24,029 Canadian casualties. But it also gave Canadian units the reputation of a formidable assault force. As Prime Minister Lloyd George wrote, "The Canadians played a part of such distinction that thenceforward they were marked out as storm troops; for the remainder of the war they were brought along to head the assault in one great battle after another. Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst." [5]
[edit] Canada's Baptism of Fire: 1917 to 1918
[edit] The Battle of Vimy Ridge
In early 1917, a massive assault was planned with a French attack in the south and a British diversion at Arras. Here, the Canadian Corps were given the responsibility of assaulting and taking Vimy Ridge—the only significant height of land in northeastern France. Since Vimy Ridge guarded most of the German coal production, the capture of Vimy Ridge would provide the Allies with a great military and resource advantage over the Germans.
On April 9, 1917 the Canadians begun their assault on Vimy Ridge. To reduce their casualties, the Canadian commanders created a plan where soldiers followed directly behind an artillery barrage (creeping barrage), a technique that was used in the Battle of the Somme. The area was simulated such that every man knew their role. As well, more photographs were distributed to show where the men would attack. By the end of the day, all four Canadians forces fought as one distinct unit and swept Vimy Ridge.
Although the Canadian Corps suffered 30 000 casualties, the victory at Vimy Ridge is usually celebrated as one of the most important landmarks on the road to Canadian nationhood. Later in the summer, Arthur Currie, commander of the 1st Canadian Division was knighted and became (along with Australian commander Sir John Monash) the only non-British soldiers to achieve corps command in the British Army.
[edit] Third Battle of Ypres
Following the Canadian success at Vimy, Douglas Haig launched his controversial drive in Flanders to seize strategic rail heads and capture the German submarine bases on the Belgian coast. On October 30th, the Canadian forces were ordered to relieve the decimated ANZAC forces in the Ypres sector. General Arthur Currie argued that the milieu was too muddy and protested that the operation was impossible without a heavy cost, but he was overruled. Currie estimated that the Canadian forces would suffer 16,000 casualties in the taking of Passchandaele, an estimation that turned out to be accurate (the Canadian forces suffered 15,654 casualties).
The battle started with an initial barrage of Allied artillery which warned the Germans that the Allies were about to attack and also created a mass of craters, potholes and dust in the battlefield. Heavy rains then turned the field into a bog of thick mud that severely limited mobility, the holes that the artillery made couldn’t even be used to hide in because they were filled with water this making the battle even more dangerous but Haig didn’t care he sent the troops to fight anyway. The British, Australian, and New Zealand forces fought for months, made little advances and had about 100,000 casualties. So the Canadians were called in to help on October 26 then On October 30, with two British divisions, the Canadians began the attack on Passchendaele itself. By November 6 when reinforcements arrived, the village of Passchendaele was taken.
[edit] Canada's Hundred Days: 1918
Canada's final hundred days would last from August 8th to November 11th, 1918. In the final one hundred days of the war, the Canadian Corps would march successfully to Mons. However, during this period, the Canadian Corps would suffer 46,000 casualties. The last Canadian to be killed is George Lawrence Price, 2 minutes before the armistice was signed at 11 a.m. in Compiegne.
Throughout these three final months, the Canadian troops saw action in a plethora of areas. The first was near the salient of Amiens on August 8th where the Canadian Corps (along with the Australians, French and British)was charged with the task of spearheading the assault on the German forces in Amiens. In the subsequent battle, the morale of the German forces were badly shaken. In Ludendorff's words, the battle of Arras was a "black day for the German army." After their breakthrough at Amiens, the Canadians were shifted back to Arras and given the task of cracking the Hindenburg Line in the Arras area.
Between August 26 and September 2nd, the Canadian Corp launched multiple attack near the German front at Canal du Nord. On September 27, 1918, the Canadian Forces smashed the Hindenburg Line by smashing through a dry section of the Canal du Nord. The operation ended in triumph on October 11, 1918 when the Canadian forces drove the Germans out of their main distribution centre in Battle of Cambrai.
[edit] French and English Canada
The underlying tension between French and English Canada exploded during World War I. Prior to the war, the French Canadians did not see themselves obliged to serve the British monarch, especially when the French were the first European settlers to inhabit Canada after the discovery of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and founding of New France (now Quebec) by Samuel de Champlain in 1608.
The issue reached its zenith when Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden introduced the Canadian Military Service Act of 1917. Although farmers and young factory workers opposed the legislation, it was (not surprisingly) in Quebec where conscription was most vociferously denounced. Leading the campaign against conscription was Quebec nationalist Henri Bourassa and Sir Wilfrid Laurier who argued that the war pitted Canadians against each other. In the subsequent election, Robert Borden was able to convince enough English speaking Liberals to vote for him. In the Canadian Federal Election of 1917, the Union government won 153 seats, nearly all from English Canada. The Liberals won 82 seats. Although the Union government won a large majority of seats, the Union government won only 3 seats in Quebec.
Of the 120,000 conscripts raised during the war, only 47,000 actually went overseas. Despite this, the rift between French and English-speaking Canadians was indelible and would last for many years to come.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- www.collectionscanada.ca - extensive coverage of the Canadian Army in the First World War.
- Canada and WWI - Canada and WWI.
- Canada in the First World War and the Road to Vimy Ridge. Veteran Affairs Canada (1992). Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
