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February 2005
EMPIRE'S WAR EFFORT 2. Canada When Britain declared war the Empire was automatically at war but self governing dominions such as Canada were free to decide the nature and extent of their contributions. Canada immediately threw its lot in with Britain and offered a considerable military force. Throughout the war there was a total of 591,478 enlistments for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). Of the 415,017 sent to England, 399,807 went on to France, Numbers of Canadians also served in other theatres. Canada's existing forces consisted of a permanent (ie regular) infantry battalion and two mounted units and The Non Permanent Active Militia (equivalent to the Territorials) The latter was immediately asked to provide volunteers for the CEF which began forming shortly after the outbreak of war. The permanent infantry battalion sailed for Bermuda on 6 September 1914 where it relieved the British 2nd Lincolns. During the next month the privately raised Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry sailed for the UK. It consisted entirely of British ex soldiers living in Canada and practically every British regiment was represented in its ranks. It served in France at first with the 27th Division and then the Canadian Corps The 1st Canadian Division consisting mainly of Militia volunteers arrived in the UK in October 1914 and landed in France the following February and was soon followed by a mounted brigade. The 2nd Division was in France by September 1915. The 3rd was also formed in 1915 and the 4th in 1916. The Canadian Corps was now complete. At the beginning of 1917 a 5th Division commenced forming in the UK. It was intended for Home Defence but In the summer its artillery went to France as army field artillery brigades and its machine gun and engineer units subsequently joined the Canadian Corps, The Division was disbanded in February 1918 and its men used as reinforcements for the Canadian Corps Conscription was introduced in 1917 but did not start to produce- more recruits until the following year. The Canadian Corps always fought as a corps: its divisions did not serve in other corps. After its outstanding success at Vimy, its British commander, Lt Gen Bynq, left to take command of Third Army and was replaced by the Canadian Lt Gen Currie. A Canadian 'amateur” he commanded the Corps for the rest of the war with great success. The CEF divisions followed British Army patterns with some exceptions. Initially they were armed with the Canadian Ross rifle. An excellent rifle in many ways, it proved quite unsuitable in the field and was soon replaced by the British SMLE. The Corps also had two motor machine gun brigades and the divisional field engineer companies together with those from the 5th and the divisional pioneer battalions, were formed into an engineer brigade for each division, the brigade consisting of three engineer battalions and a pontoon bridging and transport unit The machine gun companies from the 5th Division were used to give each divisional machine gun battalion an extra company of eight guns.. Finally reinforcements from the 5th were employed to increase battalion establishments by a hundred. There were many Canadian units other than those in the Corps, for example; air force, tunnelling- forestry, medical etc. Total Canadian casualties were 210,092 including 51,669 killed in action or died of wounds. Sixty-four Canadians were awarded the Victoria Cross, fifty-eight of them while in the CEF. the others by RFC/RAF officers and by the Canadian Cavalry Brigade.
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The Bulletin of the Birmingham Branch of the WFA Compiled by Bob Butcher |
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