By Joe Corrigan
The Canadian Corps first came together in the early months
of 1917. The four divisions moved into the line opposite Vimy Ridge and began
making preparations for the coming spring offensive which would be known as the
Battle of Arras. The ridge they faced had already been assaulted by British and
French troops resulting in costly failures with over 100,000 casualties
sustained by the allies. In order to prepare for the battle and give themselves
better odds of success, a tremendous amount of preparation had to be undertaken
and a stunning amount of infrastructure put in place.
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| General Byng |
The Canadian Corps commander at the time was British General
Sir Julien Byng. He was a skilled and popular leader as attested to by the fact
that his Canadians referred to themselves as “Byng’s boys”. The four divisions
of the corps consisted on 97,184 troops. This was augmented by a British
Division in reserve along with support staff and services bringing the total
population of this 6 km wide by 10 km deep section of the Western Front to 170,000
people. To put this in perspective, the total population of this concentration
of troops was only exceeded by that of the cities of Montreal and Toronto back in
Canada at the time. Every day these 100,000 troops, 50,000 horses & mules
and their 1,000 artillery pieces needed to be supplied with ammunition, food,
water, clothing, equipment, transport, medical services, communications,
engineering, training facilities, billets, entertainment and other forms of general
infrastructure.
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| Ammunition supplies by horse |
To meet these needs, the Canadian Corps built 50 kms of
plank roads. These roads were subject to wear and tear from usage and shelling
and required daily maintenance. They also created 20 kms of tramways to bring
artillery shells to the big guns and evacuate casualties from the front. They
constructed 13 “subway” tunnels that covered a collective distance of 12 kms.
These passages, which were 8 meters below the surface, extended right up to the
front lines and protected the troops as they massed for the attack. Most
tunnels were outfitted with telephones and electric lights. There was also one
with a water main that supplied the 600,000 gallons of water required on a
daily basis. This system required 21 pumping stations to keep the liquid
flowing through almost 70 kms of piping. Portable sawmills were set up by the
forestry companies to produce the 30,000 metres of rough planking needed each
week to support the building of the roads and tunnels. In addition to that, there were 1,800 kms of telephone wire laid on the surface and underground. All
of this was built up over the course of six months. Once the Battle of Vimy
Ridge was fought, all of this infrastructure would have to be recreated behind
the new front line.
Although the front line troops get most of the credit for
the tremendous victory that took place from April 9 – 12, 1917, if not for the
combined efforts of the Service Corps, Ordinance Corps, Engineers, Signals
Corps, Medical Corps, Forestry Companies and work Battalions the casualties rates
at Vimy would have been much greater than they were.
The source for information provided in this blog comes from
“The Great War” YouTube channel’s episode entitled “The Great War by Numbers”
which can be accessed through the following link: https://youtu.be/QxuOxdbK-BI . The
next installment of “In Flanders Fields” will deal with the tactics developed
to help reduce casualties and improve the Canadian Corps chances for victory at
Vimy Ridge.
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. 