The Canadian Corps

[Grythius Avalorius]

Let me first declare that I am an American recently moved to Canada by way of marriage (and degrading quality of home nation), and as a huge history fan, decided to educate myself on Canadian military history.

That said, this thread is mostly just to exchange facts and myths about the corps and their battles, from the Somme to the Hundred Days. All views and opinions welcome!

For those unaware, like me until recent, the Canadian Corps was comprised of 4 divisions fighting as part of the larger BEF. They suffered considerably at the battle of the Somme in 1916, and thus went through a revolution in tactics and command structure. By 1917, the Canadians, under General Byng, had changed their entire fighting tactics, by learning from the slaughters of 1915-16, eventually becoming an elite "Storm Trooper" Corps that was rightly feared by the Germans on the other side. To achieve this new echelon, the Corps radically changed the way they planned and executed set-piece battles.

For one, they devoted themselves to preperation. Huge sand-pit models of upcoming offensives were constructed, and every battalion, down to each company, knew their jobs and their neighbors jobs. The second new idea, was a decentralization of command. As the battle went on, communications and command would break down, leaving juniour officers and even NCOs to make hard decisions, and advance when others fell. The third, and arguably most importn new revelation, was a combined arms battle. The Canadians mastered the art of sound ranging and counter-battery work, reducing the enemys artillery power while simultaniously providing a 'creeping barage' to keep enemy heads down, and destroy wire entanglements while the men at the sharp end made their assault.

In short, it seems the Canucks were the real deal when it came to the Trench Warrior. Comments welcome.

[Highlander_23]

Nice. I'm an american too. I'm a huge patriot but I also don't like the way the country is going. I'm tempted to move up north too. Maybe the UK though I have much better connections there. All in all however back to the point, Canada is a fine military nation and I get pissed off when my countrymen make fun of it. Many of them don't realize the Reason the white house was Burned down was because we tried to invade Canada. Or that Canada sent 1 million men to fight in World War 2 when it only had a population of 11 million.


Good Post,
Highlander

[RO Citizen]

The Canadian forces, like the rest of the major Commonwealth forces (Australia, NZ, etc.) were/are rightly feared it seems

[Sithrain]

As a Canadian, it's nice to see some Americans taking a look at our military history.

Sadly, our schools don't properly educate our own population about the importance of Canadas role in the World Wars, but the performance of Canadian forces through both conflicts ultimately earned for us the international recognition we enjoy today despite our small population. Starting with a Canadian signature on the Treaty of Versailles.

There was even a Canadian fighter ace, Billy Bishop, who served some time in Washington helping to form an American Air Force, and was credited with over 70 victories by the end of the war.

In Canada Vimy Ridge is the most well-memorialized battle of the war, being the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps saw action together, as well as a notable success of the innovations mentioned in the OP.

Lastly, in a fit of patriotism I'll encourage anyone interested in Canadian military history of the Second World War to look up the Dieppe raid, the battle of Ortona, and actions following the Juno beach landings on D-Day.

[Highlander_23]

As a Canadian, it's nice to see some Americans taking a look at our military history.

Sadly, our schools don't properly educate our own population about the importance of Canadas role in the World Wars, but the performance of Canadian forces through both conflicts ultimately earned for us the international recognition we enjoy today despite our small population. Starting with a Canadian signature on the Treaty of Versailles.

There was even a Canadian fighter ace, Billy Bishop, who served some time in Washington helping to form an American Air Force, and was credited with over 70 victories by the end of the war.

In Canada Vimy Ridge is the most well-memorialized battle of the war, being the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps saw action together, as well as a notable success of the innovations mentioned in the OP.

Lastly, in a fit of patriotism I'll encourage anyone interested in Canadian military history of the Second World War to look up the Dieppe raid, the battle of Ortona, and actions following the Juno beach landings on D-Day.

I'll look those up! Wasn't the battle of Vimy Ridge mentioned in the movie Passchenadaele? (Great movie even if that's not what it is about, I recommend it if you haven't seen it.)

[Jakethe_Snake15]

Paeschendaele (both the movie and battle) was something of all kinds of terrible, no offence meant. But I don't know if they really mentioned Vimy in that movie, my brain shut down after 10 minutes of the unneeded romance story. But anyways...
Canadian-developed tactics and techniques helped change the way wars are fought. Flash-spotting, one man in 4 having a map of the offensive (Starting at Vimy), etc. It is indeed unfortunate that our schools kinda skip over our contributions other than "Ypres bad, Vimy good, Paeschendaele terrible."

[Whukid]

Paeschendaele (both the movie and battle) was something of all kinds of terrible, no offence meant. But I don't know if they really mentioned Vimy in that movie, my brain shut down after 10 minutes of the unneeded romance story. But anyways...
Canadian-developed tactics and techniques helped change the way wars are fought. Flash-spotting, one man in 4 having a map of the offensive (Starting at Vimy), etc. It is indeed unfortunate that our schools kinda skip over our contributions other than "Ypres bad, Vimy good, Paeschendaele terrible."

Ha. Atleast they mention battles in your schools. in the Virginia public schools, they mention the battle of the Marne, the battle of the Somme, and then its on to the Great Depression and why capitalism is so bad.

[King Sama]

Ha. Atleast they mention battles in your schools. in the Virginia public schools, they mention the battle of the Marne, the battle of the Somme, and then its on to the Great Depression and why capitalism is so bad.

I don't think they mentioned a single battle in World History in my school...

They teach that capitalism is bad in Virginia? Things really are changing

[Whukid]

I don't think they mentioned a single battle in World History in my school...

They teach that capitalism is bad in Virginia? Things really are changing

You have no idea. for my freshman year, we spent a day on World War 1 and a week on the depression/how FDR was the best president ever.

Now i live in florida and we use history books that experienced the depression firsthand...

[Jakethe_Snake15]

Ha, thats kinda like the other day, where our WWI stuff consisted of a half hour video which basically referenced the battles and moved on. And that is all we've been taught in class so far about WWI.


If you are looking for a good read on the Canadian Corps and Vimy in particular, pick up Pierre Berton's "Vimy", I know I have pushed it before, but it is very well written and researched (as to be expected of PB).

Another interesting man to look up is Sam Hughes. I believe he was our Minister of the Militia (or something along those lines) at the outbreak of WWI. Berton does talk about him over the first few chapters of Vimy, but I believe he's well worth extra research.

[King Sama]

You have no idea. for my freshman year, we spent a day on World War 1 and a week on the depression/how FDR was the best president ever.

Now i live in florida and we use history books that experienced the depression firsthand...

We spent 3 days on what lead up to ww1, then two days on the treaty of versaille... I don't think we even mentioned the war itself

This, after basic geography, is something which history classes should at least attempt to correct.

['Gunny]

You have no idea. for my freshman year, we spent a day on World War 1 and a week on the depression/how FDR was the best president ever.

Now i live in florida and we use history books that experienced the depression firsthand...

Hehe, can't beat that Floridian education system eh?

[bwc153]

I read a book about the Dieppe raid, about Jack Nissenthall to be more specific, it was a very interesting book. Too bad I forget the name.

EDIT: upon looking around - I believe the name of the book is 'Green Beach'.

[The Stig]

From my textbook

The first World War was caused by dynastic conflicts and a complex series of alliances. Much of the war was static trench warfare. The USA joined the Allies in 1917 and defeated the Central Powers in 1918. The war ended with the treaty of Versailles and led to the Great Depression and World War 2

[crossjon]

You have no idea. for my freshman year, we spent a day on World War 1 and a week on the depression/how FDR was the best president ever.

Now i live in florida and we use history books that experienced the depression firsthand...

Ha, thats kinda like the other day, where our WWI stuff consisted of a half hour video which basically referenced the battles and moved on. And that is all we've been taught in class so far about WWI.

We spent 3 days on what lead up to ww1, then two days on the treaty of versaille... I don't think we even mentioned the war itself

My teacher spent:

1 month for the alliances, political status, etc;
2 days for the war;
1 day for Versailles;
2 months for Soviet revolution and depression;

From my textbook

The first World War was caused by dynastic conflicts and a complex series of alliances. Much of the war was static trench warfare. The USA joined the Allies in 1917 and defeated the Central Powers in 1918. The war ended with the treaty of Versailles and led to the Great Depression and World War 2

lucky people.
Last year I don't think we even mentioned anything that took place outside of the US other then a paragraph or so on the napoleonic wars.

[Aanker]

Oh yes, it seems as education all over the world disregards all things military, as if learning about wars and battles will somehow turn us into brutal barbarians set on killing each other.

In Sweden, we were taught how bad things were for the proletariat (as if you don't get enough of that already) in the early 20th century, but the teachers essentially skip World War I, briefly mention how World War II passed by, and then rigorously inform you how money, capitalism and evil bankers destroyed the lives of completely innocent, working people in the 30s.

[The Vengur]

Oh yes, it seems as education all over the world disregards all things military, as if learning about wars and battles will somehow turn us into brutal barbarians set on killing each other.

In Sweden, we were taught how bad things were for the proletariat (as if you don't get enough of that already) in the early 20th century, but the teachers essentially skip World War I, briefly mention how World War II passed by, and then rigorously inform you how money, capitalism and evil bankers destroyed the lives of completely innocent, working people in the 30s.

commie teacher ?

we had a full week and a small test for ww1, very simple questions and no-one exept me still knows what a dreadnought is.

[Admiral Van Tromp]

commie teacher ?

we had a full week and a small test for ww1, very simple questions and no-one exept me still knows what a dreadnought is.

From my class, there are only two people who know what a trench is: me and another guy.

[BrotherSurplice]

Ergh, in my secondary school we spent 1-2 weeks on the war itself in year 9 that was basically just "trench warfare + conscription = bad" and then moved onto the JFK assasination. In year 10 my teacher told that next year we'd be doing WW1 and I was like but then she said the home front and I was like D: . So we did that and then did the treaty of versailles and then moved on to how the Weimar Republic and the League of Nations were terrible. Then we studied Hitler and the Nazis, but didn't directly study WW2 at all.

I was really looking forward to studying the World Wars in secondary school

['Gunny]

Im going to continue with the off topic by saying that during the Second Great Awakening, my teacher talked so much about womens rights that on the day of the test classmates still dodn't know what temperance was.

However she did an okay ww1 lesson, talked about how wilson violated his campaign promise, the lusitania, the Zimmermann telegram, the Harlem Hellfighters, and briefly even the Second Battle of the Marne. (note that this is US History)