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Canadian Expeditionary Force
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For the organisation that fought in Europe, see Canadian Corps.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were further divided into field formation in France, where they were largely organized into divisions and eventually a Canadian Corps within the British Army. Four divisions ultimately served on the front line.
The C.E.F.
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Encyclopedia
For the organisation that fought in Europe, see Canadian Corps.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were further divided into field formation in France, where they were largely organized into divisions and eventually a Canadian Corps within the British Army. Four divisions ultimately served on the front line.
The C.E.F. eventually numbered 260 numbered infantry battalions, two named infantry battalions (The Royal Canadian Regiment and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry), 13 mounted rifle regiments, 13 railway troop battalions, 5 pioneer battalions, as well as numerous ancillary units including field and heavy artillery batteries, ambulance, medical, dental, forestry, labour, tunnelling, cyclist, and service units.
A distinct entity within the Canadian Expeditionary Force was the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. It consisted of several motor machine gun battalions, the Eatons, Yukon, and Borden Motor Machine Gun Batteries, and nineteen machine gun companies. During the summer of 1918, these units were consolidated into four machine gun battalions, one being attached to each of the four divisions in the Canadian Corps.
Composition
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was comprised mostly of men who had volunteered, as conscription was not enforced until the end of the war when call-ups began in January 1918 (see Conscription Crisis of 1917). Ultimately, only 24,132 conscripts arrived in France before the end of the war.
Canada was the senior Dominion in the British Empire and automatically at war with Germany upon the British declaration. According to Canadian historian Dr. Serge Durflinger at the Canadian War Museum, popular support for the war was found mainly in English Canada. Of the first contingent formed at Valcartier, Quebec in 1914, 'fully two-thirds were men born in the United Kingdom'. By the end of the war in 1918, at least 'fifty per cent of the CEF consisted of British-born men'. Recruiting was difficult among the French-Canadian population, although one battalion, the 22nd, who came to be known as the 'Van Doos', was French-speaking.
To a lesser extent, other cultural groups were represented with Ukrainians, Russians, Scandinavians, Italians, Belgians, Dutch, French, Americans, Swiss, Chinese, and Japanese men who enlisted. Despite systemic racism directed towards non-whites, a significant contribution was made by individuals of certain ethnic groups, notably the First Nations, Afro-Canadians and Japanese-Canadians.
The Canadian Corps with its four infantry divisions comprised the main fighting force of the CEF. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade also served in France. Support units of the CEF included the Canadian Railway Troops, which served on the Western Front and provided a bridging unit for the Middle East; the Canadian Forestry Corps, which felled timber in Britain and France, and special units which operated around the Caspian Sea, in northern Russia and eastern Siberia.
After distinguishing themselves in battle from the Second Battle of Ypres, through the Somme and particularly in the Battle of Arras at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, the Canadian Corps came to be regarded as an exceptional force by both Allied and German military commanders. Since they were mostly unmolested by the German army's offensive manoeuvres in the spring of 1918, the Canadians were ordered to spearhead the last campaigns of the War from the Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918, which ended in a tacit victory for the Allies when the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force lost 60,661 men during the war, representing 9.28% of the 619,636 who enlisted.
The C.E.F. was legally distinct from the Canadian Militia which did not mobilize in 1914. The Militia remained active in Canada during the war. After 1918, it was decided (after lengthy dissertation by the Otter Committee) that units of the C.E.F. would be disbanded, and that the Militia would be reorganized. Individual units of the Canadian Militia, notably infantry and cavalry regiments, were permitted to perpetuate the battle honours and histories of the C.E.F. units that had actually fought the war.
Equipment
Vehicles
Armoured carriers and armoured tractors
Tanks
Mark I tank training tank, UK
Service rifles and carbines
.303 rifles
Service pistols
Approved private purchase and secondary side-arms
Machine guns, light machine guns and other weapons
Infantry anti-tank weapons
Grenades, mines and other explosives
Infantry mortars
Bayonets and combat knives
Ammunition
Uniforms, load bearing and protective equipment
Uniforms
See also: Battledress, Uniforms of the Canadian Forces
Load bearing equipment
Head dress
See also
Further reading
- Berton, Pierre (1986). Vimy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-1339-6
- Christie, Norm. For King & Empire, The Canadians at Amiens, August 1918. CEF Books, 1999
- Christie, Norm. For King & Empire, The Canadians at Arras, August–September 1918. CEF Books, 1997
- Christie, Norm. For King & Empire, The Canadians at Cambrai, September–October 1918. CEF Books, 1997
- Dancocks, Daniel G. Spearhead to Victory – Canada and the Great War, Hurtig Publishers, 1987
- Morton, Desmond and Granatstein, J.L. Marching to Armageddon. Lester & Orpen Dennys Publishers, 1989
- Morton, Desmond. When Your Numbers Up. Random House of Canada, 1993
- Newman, Stephen K. With the Patricia's in Flanders: 1914–1918. Bellewaerde House Publishing, 2000
- Nicholson, Col. G.W.L. Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914–1919, Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War, Queen's Printer, 1964
- Schreiber, Shane B. Shock Army of the British Empire – The Canadian Corps in the Last 100 Days of the Great War. Vanwell Publishing Limited, 2004
External links
- Regimental Rogue site
- Links to Nicholson text and maps (see book reference below: )
- at Library and Archives Canada
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