"Far From Home, Canada and the Great War” An Excellent Series on the History of the Canadian Expeditionary Force
By Joe Corrigan
In preparation for commemorating the centennial of the
Great War here at Lang Pioneer Village Museum, I have been researching a number
of books and videos on the subject over the past few months. There’s one
documentary program that I came across recently which is particularly
impressive. It is a series entitled “Far From Home, Canada and the Great War”.
There are three episodes in the series; each runs for 90 minutes and covers the
evolution of the Canadian Corps from mobilization in 1914 to the final stages
of the war and its aftermath.
The series is narrated by Canadian actor Paul Gross who
created and starred in the feature film “Passchendaele” in 2008. Borrowing much
of its style from the landmark Ken Burns’ documentary series “The Civil War”;
“Far from Home” tells its story with contemporary images and film punctuated by
passages from correspondence written by the participants and read in character
by voice actors. The episodes include “Sam’s Army”, “The Battle of Vimy Ridge”
and “The Last Hundred Days”.
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| Sir Sam Hughes |
“Sam’s Army” is an insightful look at how Minister of
Militias, Sir Sam Hughes, came to prominence and how he controlled the
mobilization of troops for service overseas. In some respects what Hughes was
able to accomplish was quite remarkable. In one instance starting from scratch
to create the training facility at Valcartier, Quebec and managing to send the 30,000
troops of the 1st Division to England in a matter of months. These
achievements were wholly negated, however, in the face of his blatant cronyism
and ill-conceived sponsorship of the Ross Rifle and the “Shovel Shield”, the
former being ill suited for combat and the latter being useless both as a
shovel and a shield. The episode ends with Hughes’s fall from grace as the
Canadian Corps and the political leaders of the day are able to distance
themselves from this bombastic figure. (Watch Episode 1 here: https://youtu.be/tC3UjtekQsM)
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| Ross Rifle |
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| Shovel Shield |
In episode two we are introduced to the various strategic
and tactical innovations that allowed the Canadian Corps to seize Vimy Ridge
from the Germans where British and French troops had failed with heavy
casualties in the past. We get to appreciate the tactical genius of Arthur
Currie with his emphasis of spending shells rather than lives to take an
objective. We also are introduced to Andy McNaughton, the brilliant artillery
officer whose innovative use of technology helped pave the way for the
successful advance of the Canadian Corps on April 9th, 1917 taking
their objectives in a matter of hours. (Watch Episode 2 here: https://youtu.be/w2OslpiDVwI)
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| Vimy Ridge |
The final episode deals with the last 100 days of the war,
a period in which Canada’s small army became recognized by both the allies and
the Germans as perhaps the finest fighting force on the western front. The
Canadian Corps gained a well-earned reputation as shock troops and when the
Germans learned that the Canadians had moved into their sector that they could
expect an attack in short order. One highlight of this episode is how the
narrator underscores the skill of the Canadian troops by comparing their
statistics over the last 100 days of fighting with those of the American
Expeditionary Force. The numbers are quite illustrative:
Categories
|
American Forces
|
Canadian Corps
|
# of
Troops
|
650,000
|
105,000
|
# of
Days Engaged
|
47
|
100
|
# of
Miles Advanced
|
34
|
86
|
# of
Divisions Engaged
|
46
|
47
|
# of
Casualties Per Division Engaged
|
2,170
|
975
|
# of
Prisoners Taken
|
16,000
|
31,500
|
# of
Guns Captured
|
468
|
623
|
Total
Casualties
|
100,000
|
45,830
|
The Canadian soldier’s retort to American claims that they
won the war was to simply state that the American Rainbow Division was aptly
named as they had arrived “after the storm”. (Watch Episode 3 here: https://youtu.be/XgzJ9bK-blo)
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| Canada's 100 Days |
I wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone wanting to
know more about the tremendous contribution that was made by the Canadian
Expeditionary Force for the allied victory in World War I.
Joe Corrigan has been Museum Manager at Lang Pioneer Village since February of 2003. He has been a lifelong student of history. His specific areas of interest are Canadian and world political, military and sports history with a particular focus on biographical works. Joe has been interpreting Sir John A. Macdonald at the Museum's Historic Dominion Day event since 2007. 