The New Training Ground for the Canadian Militia

A Description of the Petawawa Camp

Harbor Brace Standard, 4 November 1905

The following are the impressions of a Canadian artillery officer with respect to the new camp grounds at Petawawa, as given to the "Canadian Military Gazette": —

I have just returned from the new camp grounds at Petawawa, just west of Pembroke on the C.P.R. and can not speak too highly of this new place as a camp. Or the treatment extended to me there, my only regret being that I could not remain there longer, although it was cold. I profited by the careful and friendly instruction given willingly by the officers in charge, as well as by the N.C.O.'s. I will confess that I learned more and got a better idea of real soldiering than I have obtained in several camps, and have taken more hard knocks from tree branches in a few days than I ever took in my life.

The country is of a most interesting nature, hills, valleys, and rivers, with very few 'billiard table parade grounds.' This does away with ceremonial work and permits the targets being so placed that it requires keen sight to pick them out and keep them in sight, thus training the eyes. It also makes the correct observations of rounds more than ever necessary, and which, by the way, is not by any means an easy task at the Petawawa ranges, even with a good field glass, as the trees and sandy soil sometimes swallowed the projectile, seemingly without a sputter, so that hot a few rounds must be marked doubtful and acted upon accordingly.

The woods, although not of heavy timber, are thick, and the necessity of keeping the waggon line (400 yards in rear) correctly in touch with the guns, has been more clearly demonstrated. It is not so easily done, as has been proved in our other camps, and my sympathies are with the captain if he does get lost, waggons and all, as happened more than once. The placing of guns in action under real (not imaginary) cover, and the use of aiming posts, was the feature of the war game this year, and it certainly was the most interesting procedure, the real importance of which cannot be over-estimated, as exposure to enemy's fire and heavy casualties reduce efficiency and may mean loss of guns or position. Apart from this advantage, it enables the battery to come into action quietly and without unnecessary hurry or exceitment, thus saving the men and gun layers, and enabling them to move perfectly and at the same time carry out their work correctly.

The actual shooting scores of the competing batteries from all accounts do not seem to be brilliant, but the work has been gone through and mistakes and difficulties pointed out or explained will no doubt pave the way for excellent work next year on these hard and yet unknown ranges.

The first day was occupied by the visiting battery teams in qualifying the gun layers, the second being instructional day, in which firing was done and general matters thoroughly explained. The third day there were the firing competition, but in some cases where the weather was bad the instructional part took place in the morning and the competitions were carried out in the afternoon, making a fairly heavy day of it.

The drawbacks to Petawawa as a camp seem to be those particularly affecting the N.C.O.'s and men. The place does not suffer from any over-supply of visitors —in fact, it is lonely. Reading matter is scarce, and the darkness comes down early, so that it is a case of all work (and hard work, too) and no play. Perhaps this may be remedied next year. I think a good big tent (not a little marquee for 150 men), well lighted, where the men could have some sport of listen to 'their bands,' would be a perfect boon, and more than appreciated by one and all.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 24 March 2015 7:27 PM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

An Avoidable Death, South Africa

With the Royal Canadians, Stanley McKeown Brown, 1900

Two nights sufficed for the Canadians at Orange River, during the first of which a very sad shooting accident occurred in the Shropshire regiment, which was lying side by side with our men and which battalion was at a future date to form part of the now famous 19th Brigade along with the Royal Canadians.

The country around for miles was strongly patrolled at night and every precaution was taken to keep the Boers from taking our little garrison by surprise.

Out into the dark night the Shropshires sent a heavy picket with instructions to the men to be very careful to challenge every person who might come in or out of camp. At the foot of a kopje one of the men of the Shropshires stood on sentry, another private of the same regiment was returning to camp. The sentry promptly challenged, "Halt! who comes there?" and failing to call "Friend," the returning soldier said, "Oh, to you know me." These were fatal words, for no sooner had they been spoken when three ringing shots sounded through the Orange River garrison, three steady shots from the sentry's rifle, and his companion-in-arms fell, never to rise to life again. It was an unfortunate occurrence which cast gloom over the whole camp, but it shows that the rigidity of military discipline should not be trifled with.

For the first time the seriousness of the actual campaign broke on the Canadian regiment, and again the next day as a sad and impressive funeral cortege wended its way out over the sandy veldt, the men from our Dominion saw in reality a dark side which to them was new, and attended with a solemnity which was doubly solemn on the sands of Africa.

To slow music with bayonets fixed and arms reversed the creeping kharki procession passed by the lines of the Royal Canadians, and a hush came on the camp. Then it was that many a man shuddered as he thought of a burial in South Africa, thousands of miles from where any of his friends could ever see his grave or ever plant a flower on his last resting place.

There are times at war when one is pensive and reflective, that is when one sees a comrade buried with all the impressive ceremony of a military funeral. When the muffled drums resound but to a slow dirge; when the gun carriage with its gloomy coffin load, wrapped in a Union Jack death pall, lumbers along to a waiting grave, unsympathetically jolting the soldier on the way to his last lone bed. Sorrow is written on the faces of every rugged and sunburnt man of arms, as with reluctant steps he nears the burial place of his lost companion. The funeral notes of the mournful music have the effect of striking into a living man's soul a deep hatred of death in a foreign clime. The sand or limestone "six feet of earth," on a South African field, seems but a mean mockery of a proper grave; the shallow bed seems too short for that last long sleep, too narrow for a quiet rest of such duration as it is bound to be. The sewn-up blanket in which the soldier is shrouded makes at times but a poor, scanty apology for the sound coffin one is used to seeing on such occasions in peace time. The spades of earth thrown in on the human form as it bulges in the blanket seems a scarce sepulchre; the volleys from the muzzles of the rifles over the grave are like empty messages to the dead, and the quivering "last post," which the bugles blast over the silent mound after the burial service, are but a brazen farewell to the soldier as he lies free from the care of campaign, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest."

Then, according to military custom, the burial party starts from the lonely spot, and, where they before had come marching to slow music, the band at once strikes up a quickstep, and as if tired of the tedium of the service, swing with a dashing air back to the camp, till Death's hand beckons another fighter home, and the dead marches are again called into requisition.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Saluting in the Field

Gen. Chris Vokes sees strength in saluting gesture with the Canadians in Italy

Canadian Army Training Memorandum, No 36, March 1944

1.     In a "message from the G.O.C." in the army newspaper Red Patch, Major-Gen. Christopher Vokes of Ottawa told the men of his Canadian division that "to command-incomparable fighting men such as yourselves is an honour which does not sit lightly on my shoulders."

2.     His message was directed at saluting. The salute, he said, is the "hallmark" of a soldier's training.

3.     The Commander said that he had been in the army since the age of 17 and that there is nothing he would rather be than a soldier.

4.     THE BASIS OF TRAINING

(a)     "The basis of all our training is good discipline," he went on. "This makes us steady in battle and receptive to the wills of our commanders. Our discipline aims at a mutual respect and understanding between officers, NCOs and men and a deep all-consuming pride in one's self, one's comrades and one's unit. This must always remain the core of our existence as a fighting force.

(b)     "An indispensable part of our discipline is that the soldier (officer or man) should recognize his superior at all times. Custom decrees that this recognition be normally achieved by a form of greeting known as a salute. The junior salutes, the senior. returns the salute. Even generals salute each other.

(c)     "In civil life one raised one's hat or touched one's cap to one's father, one's father's friends or others whom one wished to greet in a respectful way and smilingly said, 'Hello, Dad' or 'Good morning, Mr. Brown.' I was brought up by my parents to do so. My own son and your sons are being brought up in this fashion.

(d)     "So in the army so long as we remain part of it let us not forget these courtesies. When we salute our superiors in rank, let us smile and pass the time of day. Let it be a cheerful and comradely gesture. We are all comrades in arms in the Allied armies. That is part of our strength which will help defeat the Hun as surely as our shells and bullets."

5.     He concluded the message "Nothing can keep us from Victory. Nothing will."

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Military Matters

The Work and Pay in "A" and "B" Batteries
Some Very Mistaken Notions Answered

The Toronto Daily Mail, 11 March 1882

To the Military Editor of The Mail.

Sir.—I read with much interest a letter signed "Ex-Cadet" in The Mail a couple of weeks since. The writer complained of the high-handed way in which military matters had been conducted at the Royal Military College, Kingston, resulting in the removal of Major Ridout and the wigging of other officers. I admire the frank and honest outspoken words "Ex-Cadet," and as a Canadian fully concur in his remarks. I believe an investigation into these matters will likely take place in the House at Ottawa, when we will get more definite information respecting the occurrences alleged to have taken place. Till then I would wait before offering any more remarks on the subject.

There is a question, however, which I would ask. Could you or any of your readers explain what it is causes so many desertions from A and B Batteries at Quebec and Kingston? Are the men properly treated in respect of food, clothing, lodging, and medical treatment, and are they not overworked in respect to drill and fatigues" I think from what I have personally seen that they are both poorly clad and overworked, whilst the pay is not sufficient in this country of good wages and plentiful work to induce respectable young men to join and remain in these batteries. I have seen then drilled and marched out in heavy rains. They seem to grow dissatisfied, and so desert in far too many instances, and so old men, some grey-headed ones, and army life pensioners are brought in, who would be unable to undergo the hard work of active service if called upon tomorrow. I remember a soldier of one of these batteries in conversation with a friend and myself some time ago complaining of the incessant fatigue he had, in particular of cutting so much wood for staff-sergeants. Does the government pay these staff-sergeants or not sufficiently to enable them to pay for their own wood being cut, and thus to enable soldiers to learn their drill instead of cutting wood? The uniform this soldiers was wearing was not of good quality, and he had often to pay for extras from his small pay—this is another complaint that should be seen to at once by someone. Treat men as men, and not as schoolboys, and desertion would stop at once, and in a short time we would have a force upon which we could rely, and so be independent of deserters from the British and American services. Such men are never to be depended upon in seasons of real peril and danger. Make the service worth and steady respectable young man joining, and then we can dispense with the riff-raff we are often obligated to take in the ranks of our two schools of gunnery, I speak from personal observation, and as I am a taxpayer, I have a personal interest in the matter; we pay for an article, and we naturally expect our money's worth in that article. There has been far too much desertion already, and it is high time it was stopped.

Yours, &c.
A Canadian

March 7, 1882

From the Editor, Military Column,

If our correspondent knew more about the management of "A" and "B" Batteries he would not be make assertions like those contained in his letter. Both batteries are well conducted and governed, and if a man occasionally deserts it is not the fault of the management. A good soldier has nothing to complain of; it is only the shiftless fellows who expect that a couple hours' drill each day embraces every duty of a soldier. They entirely overlook the fact that wood has to be cut for cooking and heating purposes, the barracks cleaned, the platforms in Fort Henry and the different towers traversed and cleaned occasionally, together with guard duty and a score of other things. In reference to cutting wood for the staff-sergeants, it is only defaulters who have this task to perform. The clothing is the same as that issued to the artillery in England, and every man on joining gets a full kit. (For particulars see para. 817, R. and O., 1879.) Marching men out in wet, sloppy weather is a very rare occurrence in either battery, and does them no harm, as they are generally allowed a half-holiday afterwards to give their kits a thorough overhauling. What is required, however, is better pay, which, of course, would induce a better class of men to present themselves and give the commanding officer a chance to secure good men, The plan adopted in the United States army of increasing the pay in each rank according to length of service is a good one, and might be adopted with advantage in these corps.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Saturday, 7 March 2015 2:58 PM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Officer Retention

[US Army] Chief of Staff of the Army's Leadership Survey, Command and General Staff College Survey of 760 mid-career Students (Majors with a Few LTCs), 2000

Reference Officer Retention. Instead of looking for outside influences, the Army needs to look inward. Good units with good leaders retain more soldiers. The same is true for the officer corps. When junior officers have strong, positive leadership, they are more inclined to stay in the Army. When presented with bad leadership, they want out. Talking with peers, most notably in the past 6 months, there seems to be an alarming number of bad leaders out there. Leaders who sugar coat things to higher; leaders who lie; leaders who are immoral; leaders who won't think twice about killing a career over an honest mistake or a difference of opinion; leaders who lead by fear and intimidation; leaders who care more about themselves than their soldiers/officers; leaders who look away at transgressions of others "for the good of the Army". Who wants to work under conditions where they are exposed to bad leadership? Who wants to be in an Army where the people who succeed do not fit the mold of the person you want to be? Who wants to be in a unit where the leadership would not think twice about overworking you or exposing you to unnecessary hardship and/or risk? Who wants to serve in an organization where they are disgraced by the acts of a few? While I can't voice the percentage of bad leaders, what number of examples would indicate that there are too many? I would argue that in the profession of arms, one would be too many. If in an officer's first couple of years in the Army he exposed to bad leaders without any examples/exposure to good leaders, you can bet he will leave. If exposed to an even mix of good and bad, the severity of each and/or the sequence relative to the time of the decision to stay in the army is made, will effect the decision. If exposed to only good leaders, there will still be some who elect to leave the service but at a much lower rate.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Massacre At Ulundi, by James E. McConnell

Ulundi

The Washing of the Spears; The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation, Donald R. Morris, 1965

[Following the battle of Ulundi,] Chelmsford finally ordered the guns to limber up, broke the square and marched the men to the banks of the Mbilane, where the force rested and dined on the contents of its haversacks. A surprising number of officers had packed a bottle or two of champagne into their kits for just this occasion, and they toasted the victory in the warm and gassy wine. A few working details were still busy on the knoll; the engineers were gathering equipment, and the dressing station was preparing the wounded for the trip back to the laager. The outline of the square was perfectly marked on the rise by the thick windrows of expended cartridges; the troops had fired over 35,000 rounds. The surgeons made their report. Wyatt-Edgell was dead and Lieutenant George Astell Pardoe of the 1st/13th had been shot through both thighs. Eighteen other officers had been wounded more or less seriously, including four of the mounted staff officers. Chelmsford's aide, the naval lieutenant Milne who had climbed a tree to observe the camp at Isandhlwana, had been grazed by a bullet. Ten men had been killed and 69 wounded. There was no accurate count of the Zulu dead, and not even an estimate of their wounded, but over a thousand bodies lay on the slopes and in the path of the mounted pursuit.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Application of Fire
Visual Training

Canadian Army Training Pamphlet No. 1; A General Instructional Background for the Young Soldier, 1942

Military Vocabulary

Men will be familiarized with all terms applied to features of ground, colours, shapes and military objects, so that their powers of description and recognition may be improved. A specimen military vocabulary is appended; it is intended to be a guide to instructors. The terms should be introduced as opportunity offers, during the soldier's service. It should be increased by teaching the local equivalent for, or additional terms appropriate to, the station in which the unit is serving, for example (in Canada, and respective of region) the added or dissimilar artificial features such as "silos," "elevator" (grain), "power dam," "snake fence"; the term equivalents: "trail" for ride or path, "gully" for ravine, "muskeg" for marsh, "rapids" for shallows; the sometimes necessary subdivision of conifers into the many local tree variants of the type, "balsam," hemlock," etc.; "scrub" or (perhaps) "sugar-bush" for copse, "prairie" for moor or common, "semaphore" for railway-signal, "turn-pike" for metalled road, "creek" for watercourse, etc.

i.    Features, artificial:—

ii.    Colours:—

iii.    Features, natural:—

iv.    Topographical:—

v.    Field Engineering:—

vi.    Fire,—types of:—

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Torpedo Boats at Halifax; 1901

While the many ships of the line have well recorded histories and available photos. Often the smaller vessels of navies have been overlooked in the same respect. The image used in the postcard displayed above shows two unnamed (un-numbered?) torpedo boats at Halifax. The posting of a copy of the original photo on the image sharing site fickr dates the image to 1901.

The presence of Royal Navy torpedo boats at Halifax can be confirmed in a selection of news items during the period of the photo.

Torpedo Boats for Halifax

Daily Mail and Empire, 25 January 1896

It is stated in naval circles that two first-class torpedo boats will be sent to Halifax in the spring. They will be larger and more powerful than those now there. The torpedo boats will be accompanied to Halifax by one of the transports.

War Vessels' Novel Race

Torpedo Boat, With Ten Miles Start, Will Be Chased by Destroyer

The Evening News (San Jose, California), 26 August 1899

It is learned that a notable speed test between the torpedo boat destroyer Quail and torpedo boat No. 61 is to be held off Halifax soon.

The proposed test will have two objects, says the New York Press, in that it will demonstrate how long it will take a torpedo boat destroyer of the Quail's class to overtake a torpedo boat of 22 knots when the torpedo boat has a ten mile stat, and also it will decide whether the torpedo boat in these days is of much importance to a fleet.

No. 61 will be given 30 minutes start to enable her to get ten miles out to sea. Then the Quail will stat in pursuit. In a run of 100 miles, it is said, she will overtake the torpedo boat on her way back, pass her, and anchor in the dockyard 50 minutes ahead.

Naval Fight at Halifax

Torpedo Boat Attack on Fleet Planned by Admiral

The Montreal Gazette; 28 August 1901

Halifax, N.S., August 27.—Admiral Bedford has ordered a torpedo boat stack on the fleet on Thursday at midnight. During the day the ships will leave port and, during the night attempt to enter the harbour. An attack will be made on all the vessels by the torpedo boats. The manoeuvres will be the first of the kind attempted here.

All of the vessels of the fleet will be engaged by the attacking force, and it is the intention to bring very gun into use. The torpedo boats will be laying in wait in one of the coves for the fleet and will suddenly pounce upon the war vessels. The admiral and officers will have no previous knowledge as to the whereabouts of the torpedo boats. The torpedo boats destroyer Quail will act as an advance guard and she, with the assistance of the search lights on the cruisers, will endeavour to locate the enemy and when located the entire fleet will engage them.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

British Artillery; Ammunition Considerations (1908)

Military Engineering (Part 1), Field Defences, 1908

Horse and field artillery fire shrapnel shell of about 12 and 18 lbs. weight, with time and percussion fuzes. At short and medium ranges these light projectiles, owing to their high velocity, are easily deflected by very small parapets. At longer ranges, their penetration, before burst, is slight. Field gun shells therefore, used against troops behind earthworks, depend for their effect chiefly upon their searching power when burst in the air.

The principal use of common shell, which is used with a percussion fuze, is for ranging. It may also be used for the destruction of field magazines and earthworks, and for the attack of buildings. The small amount of bursting charge in the common shell of field guns reduces the possibility of good effect against earthworks, while as a man-killing projectile it is very inferior to shrapnel.

Percussion shrapnel is use for ranging, and against troops in buildings of behind cover such as walls. The fire of percussion shrapnel will be effective against troops defending any ordinary building.

Time shrapnel is employed against troops under all conditions other than the above. The present fuze is effective up to about 6,000 yds.

The angle of the cone of dispersion of the bullets (generally called the angle of opening) is about 20°. The angle increases slightly with the range, because the forward velocity of the shell decreases more rapidly than the velocity of rotation, so that the influence of the latter increases. In estimating the front covered by the spread of the bullets, it may be taken as from 35 to 40 per cent. of the distance at which the shell is burst short of the target.

The searching power of the bullet varies directly as the angle of its descent. To find approximately the greatest searching power of a shrapnel, half the angle of opening should be added to the slope of the descent of the shell. The slope of descent of the shell is:—

• At 1500 yds, about 1 in 20.
• At 2000 yds, about 1 in 13.
• At 3000 yds, about 1 in 7.
• At 4000 yds, about 1 in 4.

The splinters of common shell from guns, even of those high high explosive bursting charges, all go forward, whether burst in the air with time fuze, or on impact with percussion fuze. If burst in the air, their searching power is much greater than that of shrapnel, but it is very difficult, even under peace conditions, to burst the shell in exactly the right place over a trench.

Field gun shells are not intended to destroy earthwork. Against deep trenches with low, flat parapets, field artillery has but little effect. The tendency of the shell to glance on striking an earth parapet is specially marked in the cae where the latter is composed of sand and light soil. Such soil falls back into the craters formed, and thus little impression can be made on good earth at moderately long ranges.

The 60-pr. B.L. and 4.7-in. Q.F. are examples of heavy artillery guns. Their range is longer than that of field artillery, and their shrapnel bullets are heavier; their searching power is, however, little greater, and their shells are equally liable to be deflected by a very slight bank of earth,

These guns can best be employed against trenches or other earthworks by bringing an oblique or enfilade fire to bear. Their long range frequently enables them to sweep the enemy's position whilst keeping out of range of his rifle fire.

Field howitzers have been introduced into the British as well as into several foreign armies. They produce results otherwise unobtainable, since their high angle fire will search out troops behind cover which would render field artillery harmless. They are also used to attack closed works, overhead cover, villages, fire trenches, etc.

The 5-in. shell of 50-lbs. weight, with bursting charge of 9 lbs. 15 ozs. of high explosive, is especially effective against troops crowded together in such works as field redoubts, or in buildings or villages. Shrapnel shell with field howitzers can be used effectively at ranges up to about 5,000 yards; the angle of descent of the bullets may be anything up to 1/1.

Plate I gives an idea of the action of various kinds of projectiles. It will be observe that piratically the only one which has any backward effect after burst is the howitzer common shell, fired at high angle of elevation.

This question is one which should be carefully studied by all officers, since it is impossible to design field defences properly without a clear and accurate conception of the effects of artillery projectiles.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Marine Officer Training

A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo, 1977

Basic School was a school in fact as well as in name, a halfway house between the campus and the real Marine Corps. Its purpose was to turn us into professional officers. Because of the Corps doctrine that every marine is a rifleman, the course emphasized infantry fundamentals—weapons-training and small-unit tactics. It was dry, technical stuff, taught in the how-to-do-it fashion of a trade school: how to take a hill by frontal assault or envelopment; how to defend it once you have taken it, how to deliver searching and traversing fire with an M-60 machine gun.

For me, the classroom work was mind-numbing. I wanted the romance of war, bayonet charges, and desperate battles against impossible odds. I wanted the sort of thing I had seen in Guadalcanal Diary and Retreat, Hell! and a score of other movies. Instead of the romance, I got the methodology of war, Clausewitz and his nine principles, lines and arrows on a map, abstract jargon, and a number of bewildering acronyms and abbreviations. To be in battle was to be "in a combat situation"; a helicopter assault was a "vertical envelopment"; an M-14 rifle a "hand-held, gas-operated, magazine-fed, semiautomatic shoulder weapon." I had read somewhere that Stendhal learned his simple, lucid style by studying Napoleon's battle orders. Literature should be grateful that Stendhal didn't live in the present; the battle orders we studied were written in language that made the Rosetta Stone look like a Dick-and-Jane reader.

"Enemy sit. Aggressor forces in div strength holding MLR Hill 820 complex gc AT 940713-951716 w/fwd elements est. bn strength junction at gc AT 948715 (See Annex A, COMPHIBPAC intell. summary period ending 25 June) … Mission: BLT 1/7 seize, hold and defend obj. A gc 948715 … Execution: BLT 1/7 land LZ X-RAY AT 946710 at H-Hour 310600 … A co. GSF estab. LZ security LZ X-RAY H minus 10 … B co. advance a~is BLUl~ H plus S estab. blocking pos. vic gs AT 948710 … A, C, D cos. maneuver element commence advance axis BROWN H plus 10 … Bn tacnet freq 52.9 … shackle code HAZTRCEGBD … div. tacair dir. air spt callsign PLAYBOY … Mark friendly pos w/air panels or green smoke. Mark tgt. w/WP."

I was not the only one to find this eye-glazing. During one particularly dull lecture, a classmate named Butterfield leaned over to me. "You know," he whispered, "the trouble with war is that there isn't any back-ground music."

Our Hollywood fantasies were given some outlet in the field exercises that took up about half the training schedule. These were supposed to simulate battlefield conditions, teach us to apply classroom lessons, and develop "the spirit of aggressiveness." The Corps prized elan in its troops. The offensive was the only tactic worthy of the name. We were taught the rudiments of defensive warfare, while retrograde movements were hardly mentioned, and only then in tones of contempt. The Army retreated, the Marines did not, although they had —at Chosin Reservoir in Korea. The essence of the offensive was the frontal assault: "Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle." This was the supreme moment of infantry combat; no tricky flanking or encircling movements, just a line of determined men firing short bursts from the hip as they advanced on the en-emy at a stately walk.

It was easy to do in the bloodless make-believe of field problems, in which every operation went according to plan and the only danger was the remote one of falling and breaking an ankle. We took these stage — managed exercises seriously, thinking they resembled actual combat. We couldn't know then that they bore about as much similarity to the real thing as shadow-boxing does to street-fighting. Diligently we composed our five-paragraph attack orders. We huddled in pine — scented thickets, soberly playing the roles assigned to us — student platoon leader, student squad leader — and with our maps spread flat, planned the destruction of our fictitious enemy, the aggressor forces. We fought them throughout the spring and summer, enveloped them, went at them with squad rushes, and made frontal assaults against the sun-browned hills they defended, yelling battle cries as we charged through storms of blank cartridge fire.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Our Permanent Troops, III.

"C" Company, Infantry School Corps, Toronto.

The Dominion Illustrated, Vol. VI. No. 136; Montreal and Toronto, 7 January 1891

This well-known company was raised at the same time as "A" and "B" companies, under the following officers: Lieut.-Col. Otter, Commandant; Major Smith, Lieutenants Sears and Wadmore, Sr. Strange. Particulars of the recruiting and organization of the corps has already been fully given in this journal (Vol. v., p. 303. — Unfortunately, this edition is not in the accessible archive).

The detachment now under mention was stationed in Toronto, occupying the New Fort barracks. The buildings were erected in 1840-41, and were continuously occupied by Her majesty's troops until 1870, when all Imperial garrisons were withdrawn from British North America, with the exception of Halifax; the barracks are of a most substantial nature, replacing the ruinous sheds known as Old Fort, so long the only home of the garrison. On the memorable 27th March, 1885, when the news flashes through Canada of the armed rebellion in the North-West, and of the killing and wounding of many loyal volunteers by the rebel half-breeds, "C" Company was one of the first corps ordered out for active service. Its record there was an highly honorable one, and can best be summed up by a paragraph in one of General Middleton's reports:—

"C" School, owing to its comparative propinquity to the scene of the action, was the only one of the schools fortunate enough to go to the front in the late expedition. Its conduct during the severe and trying march through the gaps, and subsequently during the campaign, whether on the march or in the face of the enemy, was such as to deserve the highest praise, and redounds greatly to the credit of its commandant, Lieut.-Col. Otter, and his officers. Lieut.-Colonel Otter also did good service in command of a column.

Proportionately to the strength of the Company, it suffered severely throughout the campaign, having 11 casualties. It was engaged in the actions at Fish Creek, Cut Knife and Batoche, at which fight a detachment, under command of Major Smith, was on board of the steamer "Northcote," intended to operate in conjunction with the main body of the land forces under General Middleton. "C" Company remained on duty in the North-est until November, 1885, when it returned to Toronto, and since then has been of great service as the school for the military instruction of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Ontario Militia, no less than 340 officers and 560 non-commissioned officers and men having been admitted within the last six years. The company is under the command of Lieut.-Col. Otter, who is also the Deputy Adjutant-General for Military District No. 2. A detailed sketch of the life and services of this talented officer will be found on page 342, volume V., of this journal (see below). Lieut.-Col. Otter is ably assisted by the following officers, portraits of whom will be found on another page of this issue, namely: Major Vidal, Capt. MacDougall, Lieuts. Evans and Laurie, and Dr. Strange, surgeon of the detachment.

We also present views of the officers quarters, barracks and other buildings used by the corps; they are beautifully situated on the shores of lake Ontario, and we sincerely hope that before long they and the other barracks occupied by the several companies of the Infantry School Corps will be tenanted by battalions instead of by companies, and that our Canadian Regular Infantry will thus form a brigade with the very moderate establishment of three thousand men. Such an increase would do wonders for the active militia at large by the ability of the permanent troops to then furnish adjutants and sergeants-major to every volunteer regiment in the Dominion, besides furnishing ample detachments to keep occupied and in repair the various forts and military buildings bequeathed to us by the Imperial authorities, and which are presently rapidly falling into decay and utter ruin. In case of war the very points, now neglected, would be of vital importance in the defence of Canada, and their preservation should be of deep interest to the people at large as on them might depend the security of our homes from an invader.

Lieut.-Col. William Otter, D.A.G., Toronto.

The gallant soldier is a native on Ontario, having been born at Clinton, Huron County, on the 3rd of December, 1843. He received his education in part at the Grammar School, Goderich, and in part at Upper Canada College, Toronto. In October 1861, Mr. Otter joined the Victoria Rifles, Toronto, (Now "F" Company of the Queen's own Rifles) and in December, 1864, was promoted to a lieutenancy in the latter corps. He served as an officer of that rank in the 2nd Administrative Battalion on the Niagara frontier in the winter of 1864-65. In the following August, Lieutenant Otter was appointed adjutant, and in that capacity took part in the repulse of the Fenian raid of 1866, being present at the action of Limeridge. In June, 1869, he was advanced to the status of major, and went to England as second in command of the Wimbledon team in June, 1875. A year later he was made lieutenant-colonel by brevet, and in the summer following obtained command of the corps. During the unhappy riots in Toronto, towards the close of 1875, and in the Belleville G.T.R. strike riots of 1877, he had command of the regiment. In 1883 he commanded the Wimbledon Team, and later in the year was sent to Aldershot to acquire information in connection with the proposed formation of military schools. It was during the North-west rebellion of 1885 that Col. Otter especially distinguished himself. He had command, during the campaign, of the Battleford, or centre column, and made a forced march from the Saskatchewan across the prairie to Battleford (a distance of 190 miles) in five days and a half. He commanded the reconnaissance after Poundmaker, the rebel Indian chief, whose junction with Big Bear he prevented by the engagement at Knife Hill. Had those two chiefs effected a combination and been enabled to reach Riel, the issue of conflict would, at least for a time, have been different. Col. Otter also commanded the Turtle lake column sent out in pursuit of Big Bear at the close of the rising. In July, 1886, he was appointed to the command of Military District No. 2, which he held along with the charge of the Toronto Infantry School Corps ("C" Company) which had been assigned him on his return from England in 1883. Col. Otter is the compiler of a useful manual of military interior economy called "The Guide," which has been accepted as a text book in all our schools of military training. The Colonel, who is now Deputy Adjutant-General, has been married since October, 1865, his wife being a daughter of the late Rev. James Porter, Inspector of Public Schools, Toronto, and formerly Superintendent of Education for New Brunswick. By religious profession Col. Otter is a zealous member of the Church of England.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 15 February 2015 12:30 PM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

The Orders of Lieutenant F.P Bethune

Fron a now-defunct version of the Australians at War website

On March 13, 1918, Lieutenant F.P. Bethune, commanding No. 1 Section of the 3rd Machine-Gun Company was instructed to post his guns at Spoil Bank. He considered this position to be suicidal and complained. Neverless, he lead his men there. Before he could get into position a runner reached him with new orders to move to Buff Bank. This was a good position, better than Spoil Bank, but without infantry nearby to cover them, the machine-guns were dangerously exposed. With the safety of that part of the line in his hands, Bethune decided his men should have written orders.

He therefore issued these orders:

1.     This position will be held, and the Section will remain here until relieved.

2.     The enemy cannot be allowed to interfere with this programme.

3.     If the Section cannot remain here alive, it will remain here dead, but in any case it will remain here.

4.     Should any man through shell-shock or other cause attempt to surrender, he will remain here dead.

5.     Should all guns be blown out, the Section will use Mills grenades and other novelties.

6.     Finally, the position, as stated, will be held.

F.P Bethune, Lieut.
O.C. NO.1 Section

Bethune and his squad survived the occupation of the post, holding it for 18 days. The position was held.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 15 February 2015 12:29 PM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Notes on Training

Infantry Training, Vol. 1, Provisional, 1922

The aim of all training is to produce:—

i.     In the leaders:—

The ability to command—developed by actual practice in the command of men. The ability to command includes readiness of judgment, which can be acquired only as the result of sound military knowledge built up by study and practice until it has become an instinct. It includes the capacity for quick decisions and for giving clear orders, and the will-power to ensure that orders are carried out. It includes initiative, i.e., the ability to see when independent action is required, and the necessary self-confidence to take such action promptly and to assume responsibility for it. It includes the ability to execute an order through subordinate commanders without interference with their personal responsibility. Lastly, it includes tact and knowledge of men so that the best may be got out of them.

ii.     In the men:—

(a)     The moral attributes of a soldier; including patriotism, loyalty, pride of race and a high sense of honour.

(b)     The fighting spirit—resolution to close with the enemy, based on confidence in their own superiority.

(c)     Discipline—in ingrained habit of cheerful and unhesitating obedience which controls and directs the fighting spirit. Individually, self-respect and its outward marks, such as cleanliness and a smart bearing; collectively "team work" under the "captain of the team."

(d)     Esprit de corps—the pride in his unit which makes a man unwilling to bring discredit on it, and ready at need to sacrifice himself for its success.

(e)     Physical fitness—to stand the fatigue and nervous strain of marching and fighting.

(f)     Skill at arms—a thorough knowledge by every man of his weapons and their use, and thus absolute reliance upon them to kill the enemy.

These are the qualities which build up a soldier, and they can all be developed by the methods of training described in this manual.

The growth of the moral qualities will be fostered chiefly by environment and it is the duty of all tanks to assist in this object by their conversation and example.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Officers are Gentlemen

Canadian Army Training Memorandum, No 38, May 1944 (From the Fd Arty journal USA)

1.     A few incidents have recently come to my attention which indicate a lack of familiarity with the code of personal conduct required of an officer. I am writing this not in recrimination for any of these incidents but to re-emphasize to you the ethics of our profession.

2.     The Profession of Arms is an ancient and honorable one. The Homeric Warriors, the Knights of the Round Table, Jeanne d'Arc are part of our heritage.

3.     By virtue of our uniform, we, as officers, enjoy not only the privilege of commanding, but the prestige of rank as well. We have thereby the obligation of contributing to that tradition by our devotion to duty, and of enhancing that prestige by irreproachable personal conduct.

4.     The guiding principles of personal conduct for an officer, as for any gentleman, are honor, dignity, and courtesy.

5.     Integrity of deed and statement is an important part of honor. To misrepresent facts in written or oral statements, whether to military or civilian personnel, is infamous to the Uniform. The signature of an officer is tantamount to truth-whether it be in a departure book, on a leave request, on an application for ration coupons, or on a check.

6.     Dignity and courtesy must characterize our activities in public. In uniform our appearance and actions are subject to the closest scrutiny by enlisted men and by civilians. Vulgarity, intoxication, loudness, rudeness, unseemly familiarity, eccentric dancing in public places, all are detrimental to the esteem of an officer.

7.     The enlisted men who entrust us with their lives and the public who depend upon us for their security and happiness have reason to demand these qualities. By tradition and by our obligation to them, we are enjoined, to paraphrase Cyrano de Bergerac, to be in all things worthy.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

The Disaster at Koorn Spruit. the Royal Horse Artillery working their guns.
from: h. W. Wilson, With the Flag to Pretoria, 1902

Harass, Worry, and Bait Your Enemy

Ian Hamilton's March, 1900, as presented in Frontiers and Wars, Winston S. Churchill, 1962

Thus disturbed, I thought it might be worth while to walk up to the outpost line and see what was passing there. When I reached the two guns which were posted on the near ridge, the officers were in consultation. Away across the Sand River, near two little kopjes, was a goodly Boer commando. There were about 150 horsemen, with five ox-wagons and two guns. The horses were grazing, but not outsaddled. The men were lying or sitting on the ground. Evidently they thought themselves out of range. The subaltern commanding the guns was very anxious to fire — 'really think I could reach the brutes'; but he was afraid he would get into trouble if he fired his guns at any range greater than artillery custom approves. His range finders said '6,000'. Making allowances for the clear atmosphere, I should have thought it was more. At last he decided to have a shot. 'Sight for 5,600, and let's see how much we fall short.' The gun cocked its nose high in the air and flung its shell accordingly. To our astonishment the projectile passed far over the Boer commando, and burst nearly 500 yards beyond them: to our astonishment and to theirs. The burghers lost no time in changing their position. The men ran to their horses, and, mounting, galloped away in a dispersing cloud. Their guns whipped up and made for the further hills. The ox-wagons sought the shelter of a neighbouring donga. Meanwhile, the artillery subaltern, delighted at the success of his venture, pursued all these objects with his fire, and using both his guns threw at least a dozen shells among them. Material result: one horse killed. This sort of artillery fire is what we call waste of ammunition when we do it to others, and a confounded nuisance when they do it to us. Even as it was an opportunity was lost. We ought to have sneaked up six guns, a dozen if there were a dozen handy, all along the ridge, and let fly with the whole lot, at ranges varying from 5,000 to 6,000 yards with time shrapnel. Then there would have been a material as well as a moral effect. 'Pooh,' says the scientific artillerist, 'you would have used fifty shells, tired your men, and disturbed your horses, to hit a dozen scallawags and stampede 150. That is not the function of artillery. Nevertheless, function or no function, it is war, and the way to win war. Harass, bait, and worry your enemy. Once he is more frightened of you than you are of him, all your enterprises will prosper.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

The Lewis Gun

Introduced during the First World War, the Lewis Gun proved its effectivemness as a light machine gun in the trenches of France and Flanders. Maintained in Commonwealth armies during the interwar period, Lewis Guns were deployed in home defence roles in Britain in the early years of the Second World War. The following images are taken from the National Defence Pocket Book, an aide memoire and notebook provided to soldiers on Home Defence duties.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

War Secretary Given Taste of Own Tear Gas

Toledo Blade, 23 Feb 1940

Aldershot, England, Feb. 23—(UP)—Canadian soldiers today accidentally fired a tear gas barrage at Oliver Stanley, war secretary, and their own staff officers, during an inspection of the Canadian troops.

A unit of the Canadian expeditionary force was being trained in the construction of trenches under a gas attack. The officer in charge, not noticing the arrival of the war secretary, fired off a tear gas bomb.

Stanley was not carrying a gas mask. The officers accompanying him did not have their at the ready. The war secretary and his escorts were caught in the gas.

They ran from the gas zone, their eyes streaming. None, however, was affected seriously.

After bathing their eyes, the official party resumed their inspection.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Canadian Politicians, Opinions of Soldiers, c.1930s

In Defence of Canada; From the Great War to the Great Depression, James Eayrs, 1964

The Great Depression sharpened the contrast between the situations of the permanent force officer and the unemployed citizen (or the citizen employed in one of the officers' relief camps at the rate of twenty cents a day). The General Staff was variously accused of being over-paid, over-manned, and preoccupied by trivia. "I was almost staggered," J.S. Woodsworth declared in February 1932, "when I compared the salaries received by people in the Department of National Defence … We have no fewer than one hundred and thirty-nine people receiving between $4,000 and $4,900; thirty people receiving between $5,000 and $5,900; fifteen people receiving between $6,000 and $6,900." [Canada, H.C. Debates, 1932, vol. I, p. 575] The salary of the Chief of the General Staff, which was $10,000 per annum, came under fire in the House of Commons on several occasions. It was not just that, in the eyes of the critics, these salaries were high; it was that their recipients did not earn them. "We have here," J. S. Woodsworth remarked, "an army of swivelchair generals." "I cannot think what these generals or colonels or whatever they are can be doing," Agnes Macphail stated a few days later. "It seems to me we have a general staff capable of handling an army of half a million men.'' [Ibid., p. 761] The initial exemption of Service officers from the Bennett Government's across-the-board 10 per cent reduction in the salaries of civil servants did not enhance their public reputation. "If there are people who do not earn their salaries," Martial Rhéaume, the Member for St. John-Iberville, stated in the House of Commons, "they are the army officers … I wonder what is their occupation. I suppose they are busy doing pretty much the same thing as those in my county: a little riding jolt of one or one hour and a half in the morning, and the day's work is over." [Ibid., p. 781] "I think perhaps the greatest close corporations we have in Ottawa," remarked F.G. Sanderson (South Perth), in March 1935, "is the staff down at the Woods Building … I go further. I say that the staff in the Woods Building is overmanned. You cannot get into the place; they are like an army of chocolate soldiers down there." [Ibid., 1935, vol. II, pp. 1546-9]

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Royal Artillery Park

The postcard image above will be recognizable to anyone familiar with Halifax. With a cancellation stamp dated 31 July, 1937, the image dates from shortly before the Second World War. The Lord Nelson Hotel, shown in the lower left, was constructed in 1927, setting an earliest date for the image.

In the centre, middle ground, of the image can be seen Royal Artillery (RA) Park, a long standing defence establishment abuting the glacis slope of the Citadel and still occupied today by the Department of National Defence.

RA park today; Google maps image.

From The Evolution of the Halifax Fortress, 1749-1928 (Harry Peters, 1947), we can find some remarks on the evolution of RA Park:

The row of two barracks in Artillery Park was extended in 1812 by the building of a 1 ½-storey quarters for two captain and two subalterns of the Artillery. The western end of the park was enlarged in 1812 by shifting the location of whet is now Queen's Street, so that the street became curved for a distance of 310' between Artillery Place and Sackville Street. The land was obtained from J.G. Pyke for £823 by a jury award of 20 April, 1812, and the alteration of the highway was authorized by an act of the Assembly. This gave room for the erection between 1811 and the early summer of 1816 of the 110'-long, 1 ½-storey [Royal Artillery] Officers' Quarters and Mess Room.

A closer look at RA Park as shown in the c.1930 postcard above.

Peters also notes the result of "Inspectional Reports" for 1 July 1814, 31 July 1815 and 1 January 1816 which described:

This completes an east-west row of four buildings:

(d)     Officers' Quarters and Mess Room (1814-16)

Cambridge Library, on Queen Street, RA Park, was begun on 3 November 1885, the estimate cost having been £1,350.Besides the Library, the Park also gained a fine building for Artillery and Engineer Officers Quarters, erected between 8 May, 1901, and 26 March, 1903 at a cost of £7,105, and to the east, on what had been the Royal Engineers' Square, arose the long Brick Block (C) of the South Barracks(quarters for both single and married soldiers), built between 15 July, 1904, and 30 April, 1905, at a cost of £6,928.

Accompanying footnotes added:

Until 1929, this building (Artillery and Engineer Officers Quarters) served as District Headquarters. To make room for its north end, about two-thirds of the eastern part of the old wooden Officers' Quarters between the Mess and the Soldiers' Barracks had been demolished.

[Brick Block (C)'s] construction necessitated the removal of the former R.E. Officers' Quarters and of the ancient, diagonally placed, small wooden structure south of there which had once been the quarters of the Commandants of the Artillery and of Engineer.

A footnote on the last page of the text of Peters' work gives us one more glimpse of RA park:

Artillery Park (RA Park). In the autumn of 1946 the old red frame buildings (presumably those noted by Mr. Piers as built during the period 1800-15), having become completely unserviceable, were demolished, to the vast improvement of the appearance of the Park.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 1 March 2015 2:29 PM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Stalking

Infantry Training, Volume I; Infantry Platoon Weapons, Pamphlet No. 2; Fieldcraft (All Arms), 1954

When you stalk an enemy, you need to use all the knowledge and skill that you have learnt in weapon training and fieldcraft lessons.

Planning a Stalk

The first thing to do is make a plan:—

(a)     Find the enemy by observation, and memorize his position.

(b)     Chose your objective — the position from which you will kill the enemy — and your route, taking into consideration:—

(i)     Cover from fire and view, and dead ground.

(ii)     Bounds.

(iii)     Obstacles.

(iv)     Other enemy positions, known or probable.

(v)     Possible alternative routes, in case of need.

(vi)     How to keep direction.

Stalking

Outwit the enemy by guile and cunning. Much depends on the circumstances, and how you react to an emergency, but you must always:…

(a)     Be alert; never relax.

(b)     Observe carefully at the end of each bound.

(c)     Think about possible fire positions, in case you are surprised.

(d)     Take advantage of noises, aircraft, gunfire, etc.

(e)     Try not to disturb animals or birds.

(f)     If you must take risks, take them early rather than late.

(g)     Remember that, if you finish up by missing with your shot, at the very best your time and effort will have been wasted.

Posted by regimentalrogue at 12:01 AM EST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink