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Canadian soldiers move toward the front

Men of the 16th Infantry Battalion (Canadian Scottish) moving up to the front line near Inchy in northern France during the crossing of the Canal du Nord by the Canadian Corps, 27 September 1918.

Image courtesy Imperial War Museum
Catalogue number: CO 3289
Permission of the Imperial War Museum must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Visiting a South African grave

A South African nurse places a wreath on the grave of her brother, Private D.B.H. Fynn of the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment, at Delville Wood, 17 February 1918. It was here that the South African Brigade suffered 2300 casualties out of 3153 officers during the Somme offensive, July-August 1916.

Image courtesy Imperial War Museum
Catalogue number: Q 10677
Permission of the Imperial War Museum must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Indian cavalry

Indian cavalry of the 9th Hodson's Horse pause to consult a map near Vraignes in northern France, April 1917.

Image courtesy Imperial War Museum
Catalogue number: Q 2061
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Indian soldiers in Belgium

Indian VCOs and other ranks of the 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis take aim in trenches on the outskirts of Wytschaete in Belgium, October 1914. A row of houses is just visible behind them, showing their proximity to the town.

Image courtesy Imperial War Museum
Catalogue number: Q 56325
Permission of the Imperial War Museum must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Paths of Glory

In one of C.R.W. Nevinson's most famous paintings, we see the bodies of two dead British soldiers behind the Western Front. The title is from the poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray. Whereas the poet reflects on bodies dead and buried in a churchyard, the so-called 'Paths of Glory' have led these soldiers to death in a wasteland.

'Paths of Glory' was famously censored by the official censor of paintings and drawings in France, Lieutenant-Colonel A.N. Lee. Lee was presumably concerned with the representation of rotting and bloated British corpses while the war effort was ongoing. Although this decision was confirmed three months before the opening of Nevinson's exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1918 he still included the painting with a brown paper strip across the canvas, blatantly inscribed with the word 'censored'. As a result, Nevinson was reprimanded for exhibiting a censored image and for the unauthorised use of the word 'censored' in a public space. Predictably, the stunt created the publicity Nevinson desired. The painting was purchased by the Imperial War Museum during the course of the exhibition.

Image courtesy Imperial War Museum
Catalogue number: IWM ART 518
Permission of the Imperial War Museum must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland - facts and stats

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1914 Map

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General facts

Population: 46 million (including 4.3 million in Ireland
Capital: London (1914 population of Greater London 7.1 million; ‘Inner London’ 4.5 million)

Government

Head of State: King George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936)
Head of Government:
- Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith (5 April 1908 – 5 December 1916)
- Prime Minister Lloyd George (5 December 1916 – 22 October 1922)

Participation in the War

Entered the war: 4 August 1914 (British Empire declared war on Germany)
Ceased hostilities: 11 November 1918 (armistice with Germany)
Ended belligerent status: 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sèvres signed with Ottoman Empire)

Military Forces

Army

Peacetime strength 1914: 247,500
Reserves 1914: 414,000 (Territorial Force 258,000; Army Reserve 156,000)
Total mobilised during the war: 4,006,000 (England 3,041,200; Scotland 557,600; Wales 273,000; Ireland 134,200)

Navy

Peacetime strength 1914: 136,500
Reserves: 28,000 Fleet Reserve and 30,000 Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR)

Fleet (1914)

Battleships (Dreadnoughts): 24
Battleships (pre-Dreadnoughts): 38
Battlecruisers: 10
Cruisers: 47
Light cruisers: 61
Destroyers: 225
Submarines: 75

Conscription

Introduced: 27 January 1916
Total conscripted by end of war:
Total number of conscripts sent overseas by the end of the war:

The Military Service Act was passed by the wartime coalition government of Prime Minister Lloyd George. All single men in England, Scotland and Wales aged 19 and 41 were liable for compulsory military service in the British Army. Only those deemed to be medically unfit, in work essential to the war industry or officially recognised as conscientious objectors were granted exemptions. The Act was amended in May 1916 to include married men. Continued heavy losses led to further amendments to the Act in April 1918: its coverage was extended to Ireland (although in fact it was never implemented there) and the minimum age was reduced to 18.

Casualties

British Army

Dead (all causes): 702,410
Wounded: 1,622,625

Royal Navy

Dead (all causes): 32,287
Wounded: 5135

Royal Air Force (from 1 April 1918)

Dead (all causes): 4042
Wounded:

British Merchant Marine

Dead : 14,000
Wounded:

Civilian casualties from German attacks on England 1914-1918

Air raids (by aircraft and airships)

Dead: 1117 (including 252 children)
Wounded: 2886 (including 542 children)

Naval bombardments of English coastal towns

Dead: 143 (including 43 children)
Wounded: 604 (including 230 children)

Total Casualties (Military)

Dead:

Sources

Ian Beckett and Keith Simpson, A Nation In Arms: A Social Study of the British Army in the First World War, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1985
Keith Jeffery, Ireland and the Great War, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000

Lance-Corporal Charles Alfred Jarvis VC

Western Front, 23 August 1914: Under constant and heavy German fire, Lance-Corporal Charles Alfred Jarvis, Royal Engineers, successfully attaches demolition charges to the Jemappes bridge and blows it up during the British Expeditionary Force’s retreat from Mons. In recognition of his bravery during this action Jarvis is subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross, thereby becoming the first soldier in the British Expeditionary Force to receive this award, the British Empire’s most prestigious military decoration for valour in the face of the enemy.

Union of South Africa - facts and stats

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1914 Map

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General facts

Population: 6 million (1914)
Capitals:
Cape Town (legislative)
Pretoria (administrative)
Bloemfontein (judicial)
Pietermaritzburg (archival)

Government

Head of State: King George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936)
Prime Minister: General Louis Botha (31 May 1910 – 27 August 1919)

Participation in War

Entered the war: 4 August 1914 (British Empire declared war on Germany) - South Africa declared support on 14 September
Ceased hostilities: 11 November 1918 (armistice with Germany)
Ended belligerent status: 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sèvres signed with Ottoman Empire)

Military forces and casualties

This section is a work in progress

According to Wikipedia: 'More than 146,000 whites, 83,000 blacks and 2,500 people of mixed race ("Coloureds") and Asians served in South African military units during the war, including 43,000 in German South-West Africa and 30,000 on the Western Front. An estimated 3,000 South Africans also joined the Royal Flying Corps.

The total South African casualties during the war was about 18,600 with over 12,452 killed – more than 4,600 in the European theater alone.'

See also: 'First World War', MyFundi (South African Encyclopedia)

Dominion of New Zealand - facts and stats

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General facts

Population: 1,158,436 (1914)
Capital: Wellington (1914 population 71,507)

Government

Head of State: King George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936)
Head of Government: Prime Minister William Massey (6 July 1912 - 10 May 1925)

Participation in the War

Entered the war: 4 August 1914 (British Empire declared war on Germany)
Ceased hostilities: 11 November 1918 (armistice with Germany)
Ended belligerent staus: 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sèvres signed with Ottoman Empire)

Military Forces

Army

Peacetime strength 1914: 578 (Permanent Forces)
Reserves 1914: 25,902 (New Zealand Territorial Force)

The Permanent Forces were made up of the New Zealand Staff Corps, the New Zealand Permanent Staff and the Permanent Regiment of the Royal New Zealand Artillery.

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Total mobilised during the war: 117,175
Served overseas: 100,000

Immediately after the declaration of war against Germany the New Zealand government offered to raise an expeditionary force for service overseas alongside British imperial troops. The British government accepted this offer and voluntary recruitment for the force – the ‘New Zealand Expeditionary Force’ (NZEF) – began on 8 August 1914.

The troop convoy carrying the Main Body of the NZEF left Wellington harbour bound for Egypt on 16 October 1914. On 29 October the NZEF convoy arrived at Albany, Western Australia, where it joined the troop convoy carrying the Main Body of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). The two contingents formed a single combined convoy for their journey across the Indian Ocean to Egypt. The NZEF portion of the convoy consisted of 8534 soldiers and their horses embarked on 10 transport ships.

The convoy entered the Suez Canal, Egypt, on 30 November 1914 and began to disembark at Alexandria a few days later. The NZEF and AIF were allocated areas in the countryside near the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in which to establish their base camps.

The NZEF at Gallipoli 1915

The NZEF contributed an infantry brigade to the British-led Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) that landed in the Dardanelles on 25 April 1915. The New Zealanders were grouped together with Australian troops as the ‘Australia New Zealand Army Corps’ – ‘ANZAC’ – and tasked with landing and seizing the heights of Gaba Tepe (overlooking what was soon to be known as Anzac Cove). The New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade (minus their horses) arrived as reinforcements in May.

The New Zealanders suffered 8000 casualties during the eight-month Gallipoli campaign and were involved in some of the fiercest fighting on the peninsula. The most renowned New Zealand action of the campaign was the Battle of Chunuk Bair, the seizure and subsequent defence of a key ridgeline overlooking the Dardanelles on 7–10 August by a New Zealand-dominated force during the Sari Bair Offensive. One New Zealand soldier, Corporal Cyril Bassett, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during this battle.

The NZEF in the Middle East 1916-1918

After the Gallipoli campaign the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade of the NZEF returned to Egypt, where it was rested and reinforced during the first four months of 1916. When the New Zealand Division left for France, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles regiments remained behind to serve with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) against the Ottoman Turks, first in the Sinai campaign of 1916 and then in the Palestine campaign of 1917–18. Together with the Australian Light Horse and British Yeomanry mounted units they provided the EEF commanders, General Archibald Murray and his successor, General Sir Edmund Allenby, with the mobile strike force that helped to deliver the EEF victories such as the Battle of Romani in 1916, the Third Battle of Gaza in 1917 and the Battle of Megiddo in 1918.

Notable New Zealand actions of the campaigns included the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade’s seizure of Rafa in January 1916, the storming of the Tel el Saba redoubt during the Third Battle of Gaza in October 1917, and the capture of Hill 3039 during the First Trans-Jordan Raid in March 1918.

The NZEF on the Western Front 1916-1918

After the Gallipoli campaign the infantry and artillery components of the NZEF were reorganised and expanded in Egypt during the first three months of 1916. This resulted in the formation of the 20,000-strong New Zealand Division which served on the Western Front from May of that year.

The first major operation involving New Zealand troops on the Western Front saw the New Zealand Division suffer 7048 casualties in only 23 days on the Somme (service which included taking part in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, 15–22 September 1916). This was nearly as many casualties as in the entire Gallipoli campaign. Even for Gallipoli veterans, the Western Front was a much more brutal and intense form of industrialised warfare than anything they had experienced before.

The New Zealand Division served alongside Australian infantry divisions in ‘II ANZAC Corps’ until November 1917, when the Australian divisions left to join a new ‘Australian Corps’ set up following a Canadian precedent. The New Zealanders remained in the ‘22nd Corps’, as II ANZAC Corps was renamed, alongside a number of different British divisions for the rest of the war.

New Zealand troops took part in most of the British offensives on the Western Front from late 1916, including the later stages of the Battle of the Somme, Messines and the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). The most notable victories won by the New Zealand Division on the Western Front were those resulting from its part in the British Army’s great advances of the ‘100 Days’ in August–October 1918, such as the Battle of Bapaume and the capture of Le Quesnoy.

Royal Navy (New Zealand Division)

Peacetime strength 1914: 60 (New Zealand Royal Naval Reserve)

Fleet (1914)

Cruisers: 1 (HMS Philomel)

Conscription

Introduced: 1 August 1916
Total conscripted by end of war: more than 30,000

The Military Service Act introducing conscription was passed by the wartime coalition government led by Prime Minister William Massey. It made all men aged between 20 and 45 liable for service in the NZEF. Only those deemed medically unfit for overseas service, working in essential war industry jobs or officially recognised as conscientious objectors were granted exemptions.

Casualties (NZEF)

Dead (all causes): 16,918
Wounded: 41,317

Dominion of Newfoundland - facts and stats

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General facts

Population: 250,000 (1914)
Capital: St John’s (1914 population 30,000)

Government

Head of State: King George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936)
Head of Government:
- Prime Minister Edward Morris (2 March 1909 – 31 December 1917)
- Prime Minister William Lloyd (5 January 1918 – 22 May 1919)
- Prime Minister Michael Cashin (22 May – 17 November 1919)
- Prime Minister Richard Squires (17 November 1919 – 24 July 1923)

Participation in the War

Entered the war: 4 August 1914 (British Empire declared war on Germany)
Ceased hostilities: 11 November 1918 (armistice with Germany)
Ended belligerent status: 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sèvres signed with Ottoman Empire)

Military Forces

Royal Naval Reserve Force

Peacetime strength 1914: 565

Fleet (1914)

Training sloops: 1 (HMS Briton)
Total mobilised during the war: 1964

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment

Total mobilised during the war: 6339
Total sent overseas: 4984

Immediately after the declaration of war against Germany the Newfoundland government offered to raise an infantry regiment to serve overseas alongside British imperial troops. The British government accepted the offer and voluntary recruitment for the ‘Newfoundland Regiment’ began on 12 August 1914. The regiment served at Gallipoli in 1915 and on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918. It took part in the Battle of the Somme (see Casualties section below), the

Newfoundland and Anzac Day

The Newfoundland Regiment was the only unit from North America to fight on Gallipoli. To mark its role in the campaign the Newfoundland Regiment commemorates Anzac Day, a unique tradition in the modern-day Canadian Forces. Every 25 April the regiment marches through St John’s to the National War Memorial where wreaths are laid and an official ceremony takes place. New Zealand and Australian military representatives from the High Commissions in Ottawa are invited to take part.

On 18 December 1917 King George V granted the Newfoundland Regiment the use of the prefix ‘Royal’ in its title. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment was the only regiment or corps in the entire British, Dominion and Indian armies to be awarded this prefix while the war was still being fought.

The Newfoundland Forestry Battalion

In early 1917 the Newfoundland government raised a forestry battalion of 500 men from volunteers who had been classed as unfit or too old for front-line combat service.

The battalion was sent to Scotland where it worked on the pine plantations of the Duke of Atholl’s estate near Perth producing lumber for the war effort until it returned to Newfoundland in 1919.

Conscription

Introduced: 11 May 1918
Total conscripted by end of war: 3629
Total number of conscripts sent overseas by the end of the war: 1573

The Military Service Act was passed by the wartime National government of Prime Minister William Lloyd. This was a fragile coalition of the People’s Party, the Fishermen’s Protective Union and the Liberal Party.

All single men aged between 19 and 39 became liable for compulsory military service in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Only those deemed medically unfit for overseas service or officially recognised as conscientious objectors were granted exemptions. None of the conscripts sent overseas had completed their training in the United Kingdom when the war ended.

Casualties

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment

Dead (all causes): 1240
Wounded: 2314
Total casaulties: 3554

Royal Naval Reserve Force

Dead (all causes): 179

Total Casualties

Dead (all causes): 1,419
Wounded: 2,314
Total casualties: 3,733

The 1st Battalion, The Newfoundland Regiment, was the only Dominion unit to fight on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, when the British Army suffered its highest losses ever in a single day’s fighting: 57,000 casualties, including 20,000 dead. The Newfoundlanders were assigned to the second wave of the British attack on the German trenches in the Beaumont-Hamel sector of the line. The attack failed and the Battalion was cut to pieces – of the 801 Newfoundlanders who took part in the assault, 710 were killed, wounded or missing by day’s end. The scale of this loss was unprecedented in the history of Newfoundland’s small and tight-knit community, and thereafter 1 July was commemorated annually as Memorial Day in the tiny dominion. This practice continues, even though Newfoundland officially gave up its dominion status to become Canada’s tenth province in 1949.

Private Thomas Ricketts VC

Western Front, 14 October 1918: Private Thomas Ricketts, 1st Battalion, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment, volunteers to join his section leader in an attempt to outflank and knock out a battery of German field guns which have opened fire at point-blank range on Ricketts’ platoon, inflicting heavy casualties. Having run out of ammunition for his Lewis gun during his initial assault on the German position, Ricketts re-crosses the exposed ground to retrieve more and resumes his attack, eventually forcing the Germans to abandon their guns, which are then captured by the rest of his platoon without any further casualties. For these actions Ricketts becomes the first soldier of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Aged just 17 at the time of the action, Ricketts is the youngest soldier ever to receive the award. Born on 15 April 1901, he falsified his age to enlist.

Dominion of Canada - facts and stats

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General facts

Population: 7.8 million (1914)
Capital: Ottawa (1915 population 102,000)

Government

Head of State: King George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936)
Head of Government:
- Prime Minister Robert Borden (10 October 1911 – 10 July 1920)
- Prime Minister Arthur Meighen (10 July 1920 – 29 December 1921)

Participation in the War

Entered the war: 4 August 1914 (British Empire declared war on Germany)
Ceased hostilities: 11 November 1918 (armistice with Germany)
Ended belligerent status: 10 August 1920 (Treaty of Sèvres signed with Ottoman Empire)

Military Forces

Army

Peacetime strength 1914: 3100 (Permanent Forces)
Reserves 1914: 60,000 (Non-Permanent Active Militia)

The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)

Total mobilised during the war: 619,636
Total sent overseas: 425,821

Immediately after the declaration of war against Germany the Canadian government offered to raise an expeditionary force for service overseas alongside British imperial troops. The British government accepted the offer and voluntary recruitment for the ‘Canadian Expeditionary Force’ (CEF) began on 7 August 1914.

The troop convoy carrying the first contingent of the CEF left its assembly point in Gaspé Bay, Quebec, for the United Kingdom on 3 October 1914. The convoy consisted of 32,000 soldiers and 7500 horses embarked on 31 transport ships. It arrived at Plymouth, England on 15 October 1914. The Canadians were allocated a portion of Salisbury Plain, a large chalk plateau covering parts of the counties of Hampshire and Wiltshire, in which to set up their training camps and other base facilities. In 1916 the New Zealanders and Australians would also establish base camps on Salisbury Plain.

The CEF on the Western Front

On 8 November 1914 No. 2 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Canadian Army Medical Corps, was transported across the English Channel and disembarked at Boulogne, becoming the first unit of the CEF to land in France.

The CEF served almost entirely on the Western Front. By the end of 1916 some 80,000 Canadian troops were in the trenches, serving in four infantry divisions that were grouped together as the ‘Canadian Corps’. This played a leading role in most of the British offensives on the Western Front from mid-1916, including the later stages of the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) and the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in late 1918. The most famous victory won by the Canadians during the war was the capture of Vimy Ridge (9–12 April 1917).

Lance–Corporal Frederick Fisher VC

Western Front, 22 April 1915: Lance–Corporal Frederick Fisher, 13th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, fights a lone rearguard action to cover the retreat of a nearby artillery battery during the Second Battle of Ypres. Fisher, the leader of a machine-gun section, single-handedly holds off a German infantry attack after the rest of his section is killed or wounded. He is eventually overwhelmed and killed by the Germans, but the artillery battery is saved. For his actions Fisher becomes the first soldier of the CEF to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

The CEF In Palestine

A small unit of railway troops, the 1st Canadian Bridging Company, was sent from France to join the British and Anzac forces in Palestine in September 1918. It arrived in the region a month before the Ottoman Turks agreed to an armistice and carried out repair work on the rail network until February 1919.

Navy

Peacetime strength 1914: 350

Fleet (1914)

Cruisers: 1
Light cruisers: 1
Submarines: 2

Royal Naval Reserve

Personnel: 3000

Upon mobilisation men of the Royal Naval Reserve were called up to serve in the Royal Navy. They were soon scattered across the globe in all sorts of postings to all sorts of British ships and shore bases. It is thought that approximately 1 in 10 of the estimated 3000 Canadian Royal Naval Reservists called up during the war died while on active service with the Royal Navy.

Conscription

Introduced: 29 August 1917
Total conscripted by end of war: 125,000
Total number of conscripts sent overseas by the end of the war: 25,000

The Compulsory Military Service Act was passed by the wartime Union government of Prime Minister Robert Borden. This was a fragile coalition between Borden’s Conservative Party and a number of members from the opposition Liberal Party. The Compulsory Military Service Act was opposed by every French Canadian Member of Parliament and caused much friction between the French Canadians of Québec and the rest of the country (the majority of which voted in favour of it).

Under the Act, all men aged between 20 and 45 were liable for service in the CEF. Only those deemed medically unfit for overseas service, working in civilian jobs essential to the war or officially recognised as conscientious objectors were granted exemptions.

Casualties (CEF only)

Dead (all causes): 59,680
Wounded: 149,732
Total casualties: 209,412

Sources

René Chartrand, The Canadian Corps in World War I, Osprey, Oxford, 2007
David Mackenzie (ed.), Canada and the First World War: Essays in Honour of Robert Craig Brown, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2005
Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of World War I: Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara CA, 2005
Alexander Turner, Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng’s Canadians Triumph at Arras, Osprey, Oxford, 2007