Even fairly early in the war it was realised at the
highest levels of the British military that once involved on the continent
against a sizeable, prepared army the
A First Contingent from Canada- 30,000 strong- had
just set sail when “the Governor General telegraphed the Secretary of State for
the Colonies an offer by the Dominion Government ‘to place and maintain in the
field a second overseas contingent of twenty thousand men.”[1] This contingent would
first be raised from the overflow of men willing to go on overseas service. ”Ottawa immediately ordered the mobilisation
of a second contingent. Fifteen new
battalions were to be raised, and to ensure a steady stream of reinforcements,
it was decided to keep thirty thousand men continuously under arms in Canada.”[2] This, which seemed prudent
in October of 1914 was already agreed to be inadequate within a month. The sheer breadth the war was reaching
impressed the idea that Canada may not only be required to form battalions for
front line service, but to provide supporting lines of communication and
headquarters elements to build the structure for higher levels of organisation
not previously anticipated, or even with precedence in Canadian military
history. Outfitting another division did not particularly mean that the CEF’s
establishment overseas would change. The
2nd Contingent was raised, initially, with the idea it would provide
supplemental reinforcement for the 1st Division. Even after the 2nd Contingent was
properly structured into a three brigade division in its own right, there was
not an automatic evolution to combine the two divisions within the next highest
command structure-the corps.
As an organisational concept, the corps was a
relatively new practice for the British.
Field Marshal Sir John French had the presence of mind to split the
original BEF into two corps upon embarking for France in August. Owing to the size of the Force and the
expanse of land they were moving into, placing corps commands in between
himself and his brigades made for much easier command and control. The British, though, did not view corps as impermeable,
and were liable to have brigades or divisions shifted from one to another. The
Second Contingent, then could possibly be placed alongside British units in a separate
corps from the 1st Canadian Division, and quite possibly one or the
other would be moved about should the need arise. It didn’t take long for the notion of
permanent corps structures as a necessity took hold. Britain would be raising armies of several
corps each; the more ingrained a structure in subsequent formations would help
to make this growth a smooth process. So
it was that the 2nd Division allowed for the formation of the
Canadian Corps, to be commanded by Lt General Edwin Alderson, a British officer
of nearly forty years of service who had been the general officer commanding
the 1st Canadian Division even before it had left Valcartier.[3] Now, besides the rank and
file, the Canadians required a corps level general staff, of 25 personnel
administering what would be 37,000 men.
Many of the staff positions would be filled with British officers until
Canadian candidates could be pushed through a quick learning version of the
Staff College.
Within the structure of this 2nd Division
was a battalion, whose existence had been made possible through the request of
prominent citizens that a unit be created from Francophone men, mostly out of
Quebec. Numbered by the precedence of
their forming as the 22nd (Canadiennes-Francais) Battalion, they
would from this receive the nom-de-guerre which is perpetuated in Canada’s Army
today: “The regiment is nicknamed the ‘Van Doos’, a corruption of vingt-deux, French for ‘twenty-two.”[4] It certainly wasn’t only language which
separated them from their comrades. Large
numbers of men in the other battalions had been born in or were only one
generation removed from the UK. The 22nd
was uniquely Canadian, able to take centuries of heritage into its own
traditions. They chose as their symbol the beaver, and while adhering
to uniform and doctrine of Empire troops, selected a jaunty, Quebecois paddling
tune as their quick march. “Vive La
Canadienne” (“Long Live the Canadian Girl”) has a strong cadence- from calling
when to pull a stroke in a heavy canoe crewed by twelve men- and lyrics, from
earlier than 1840 speaking of a longing for the beauty of the girls at
home. It “is not an anthem in the traditional sense; it neither extols
the virtue of a nation, nor upbraids its citizens.”[5]
With the rest of 2nd Division, the
Van Doos would deploy to France in September 1915, after months spent training
in an area of south east England. “By
the time the foremost elements of the Second Contingent arrived in the United
Kingdom, the bulk of Canadian troops already in the country…had moved to the
Shorncliffe area in Eastern Command,” records the official history of the CEF
written by Colonel Nicholson, “the open fields beside Shorncliffe and the
rolling Kent countryside beyond provided ideal conditions for company and
battalion training.”[6] “Its first major attack
took place at Courcelette, France, in September 1916. The French-Canadian
soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas-Louis Tremblay, pushed back
repeated enemy assaults and held the village while surrounded on all sides for
three days and three nights. Of the 800 men who took part in the initial
assault, 118 were left three days later.”[7] In service on the Western
Front from September 1915 to November 1918, the 22nd would suffer
close to 4,000 casualties through this time, placing what would become defining
names of battles on their list of honours.
One of their number was a stocky twenty-five year old
machinist named Joseph Kaeble, from Sayabec, a tiny municipality on the south
shore of the St Lawrence Seaway. Sayabec
is still small, recording just over 1800 inhabitants in the 2011 census. When Kaeble volunteered in 1916, he was on
his way to joining what had become the largest concentration of his countrymen
outside of Toronto and Montreal. He made
corporal in April, 1918, almost a year since he had been wounded in the
shoulder in mopping up actions following Vimy Ridge. Assigned command of a Lewis gun section, Cpl
Kaeble was on the front line in June, 1918 amidst a period of intense German
offensives which had stretched the Allied front to the breaking point.[8] The 22nd Bn War
Diary records “During the day enemy artillery below normal. At 9.45 pm enemy attempted to raid our front
line.”[9]
Three raiding parties, numbering fifty men each had
used the cover of a short barrage to move in closely to the Canadian
trenches. They struck at separate
points, and a bloody contest was begun.
Throwing grenades as they came, men of the Rheinisches
Infantirie-Regiment Nr 65 were able to approach within a few feet of the trench
where Cpl Kaeble was one of the few men yet unwounded. “A few men of the attacking party managed to
reach our parapet but were immediately repulsed by the aid of Lewis Guns and
bombing.” [10]Without
a good field of fire from the trench, Cpl Kaeble exposed himself from the
parapet to put effective fire on the enemy, firing the Lewis gun from the
hip. Shattered by grenades and
artillery, he fell back into the trench, firing his weapon all along, and is
recorded as saying “Tenez bon, mes vieux, ne les laissez pas passer, il faut
les arreter!” (“Keep it up, boys, do not let them get through, we must stop
them!”) “At this post” the after action report notes, “fierce fighting with
bayonet took place.” Later it was
determined “A great number of enemy dead (were) lying in no man’s land….Numbers
of enemy wounded high, as shrieks and screams were heard in no man’s land and
whistling for streacher(sic) bearers.”[11]
Evacuated to a field ambulance, Cpl Kaeble was
assessed as having suffered compound fractures to both legs, and shell wounds
in his left hand, neck and both arms. It
would be too much for him to overcome.
According to his will, his widowed mother was his sole beneficiary. Cpl Kaeble was posthumously gazetted to the
Victoria Cross “for most conspicuous bravery and extraordinary devotion to duty”
on 16 September 1918.[12]
Postscript: Cpl
Kaeble, before his death had been awarded the Military Medal-“For bravery in
the field”, which is the usual citation.
The announcement was gazetted after his death, which means he never had
the opportunity to wear his MM.
[1] Nicholson, GWL, Col. “Official History of the Canadian
Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919” Queen’s
Printer, Ottawa, 1962 pg 109
[3] Cook, Tim “At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the
Great War 1914-1916” Penguin Canada, 2007 pg 305
[4] Vandoos.com
[8] Holmes, Richard, “The Western Front” BBC Books 1999 pg 217
[9] War Diary Entry, 22nd Battalion, 8 June
1918, courtesy Library and Archives Canada
[10] War Diary Appendix 22nd Bn, “Special Report
on Enemy Attempted Raid During the Night 8/9 Jun 1918” LAC Canada
[12] Supplement to the London Gazette (No. 11076) 16
September 1918
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