Canadian Corps

The Canadian Corps was a World War I corps formed from the Canadian Expeditionary Force in September of 1915 after the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division in France. The corps was expanded by the addition of the 3rd Canadian Division in December of 1915 and the 4th Canadian Division in August of 1916. In February of 1917 the organization of a 5th Canadian Division began but in February of 1918 before it was fully formed, it was broken up and its men used to reinforce the four divisions fighting at the front.

The soldiers were mostly volunteers as conscription wasn’t implemented until the end of the war. (See Conscription Crisis of 1917 )

Canada’s political leaders insisted throughout the entire duration of the war that the Canadian Corps must fight as a single unit and resisted all pressure from the Allies to piecemeal out its formations to suit the whims of the Allies’ army commanders. Nevertheless, the Canadian Corps was originally commanded by British Lieutenant General E.A.H. Alderson until 1916 when another British Lieutenant General Julian Byng took over. When Byng was promoted to an Army command during the summer of 1917, he was succeeded by the commander of the 1st Division, General Arthur W. Currie, giving the corps its first Canadian commander.

In the later stages of the war, the Canadian Corps, like the Australian Corps, was among the most effective and respected of the military formations on the Western Front. This was, in large part, relative to the British and French armies, which had suffered constant and extreme rates of casualties since August 1914, resulting in large-scale conscription, and the resulting dilution of experience and commitment among the European armies.

The Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge in one of the most successful and daring attacks of the war. Between August 8 and 11th 1918, the Corps spearheaded the offensive during the Battle of Amiens. Here a significant defeat was inflicted on the Germans which compelled the German commander-in-chief, General Erich Ludendorff, to call August 8th "the black day of the German army." This battle marked the start of the period of the war referred to “Canada’s Hundred Days”. After Amiens, the Canadian Corps continued to lead the vanguard of an Allied push that ultimately ended on 11 November 1918 at Mons where the British Empire first met in conflict with the Germans in 1914.

At the end of war the Canadian 1st and 2nd Divisions took part in the occupation of Germany and the Corps was eventually demobilized in 1919. Upon their return home the veterans were greeted by large and welcoming crowds all across the country.

The Canadian Expeditionary Force lost 60,661 dead during the war. That's 9.28% of the 619,636 who enlisted.

Formation:

• 1st Canadian Division
• 2nd Canadian Division
• 3rd Canadian Division
• 4th Canadian Division
• 5th Canadian Division

Battles:

• See individual Divisions.

Related topics:

• No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force

External links

Websites about the Canadian Corps:

• Canadian Great War Project
• The C.E.F. Paper Trail
• The C.E.F. Study Group
• Central Ontario Branch – Western Front Association
• Library & Archives Canada Canada and the First World War
• National Defence – Books/Publications Online – Contains a link to download a copy of Nicholson’s Official History of the C.E.F.
• Veteran Affairs Canada – History of the First World War

Suggested Reading on the Canadian Corps

Berton, Pierre. Vimy

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

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

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