The world war

by Logan Marshall

THE GREAT CAMP AT VALCARTIER

The problem of concentrating this huge body of men soon became a real one. A great mobilization camp was needed. A place not too far from the Atlantic, with ample railroad facilities, large and roomy enough for the maneuvering of large bodies of men as well as their housing in tents, must be found. A further qualification was that this great camp should be located in a position of strategic importance and one which could be defended should the necessity arise.

Such a place was found at Valcartier, a small village some sixteen miles from the City of Quebec on the line of the Canadian Northern Railway.

When the war was declared the government did not own Valcartier and few people had ever heard of it. Soon, however, the name began to grow more familiar with the newspapers and in a day or two the place became government property. For the purpose it proved ideal.

Great expanse of level country provided an ideal maneuvering ground. The site of the camp itself was high enough for good drainage and the Jacques Cartier River provided an abundance of good water.

But with the acquisition of the ground the work had just begun. It was necessary to erect tents for the housing of 30,000 men. A commissary for their subsistence must be provided. Stores and storehouses had to be rushed to the spot and there was a huge amount of work of a more or less permanent character in the shape of water works with many miles of piping, shower baths, drinking troughs, an electric light plant and the like. The engineers were called upon immediately to lay out the camp and its many auxiliary features. A rifle range, the largest in the world, was immediately planned and put in operation for the training of the soldiers, for few men unacquainted with military life are able to handle modern high-powered military rifles with any degree of success, although the average man, under capable instructors, rapidly becomes proficient. Artillery ranges in the Laurentian Hills were established for the training of the field artillery. Here the big sixty-pounders, which throw a shell for nearly five miles, first woke the echoes.

A great bridge-building record was made by the men of the Royal Canadian Engineers under the direction of Major W. Bethune Lindsay of Winnipeg. The Jacques Cartier River separates the main camp from the artillery practice grounds at the base of Mounts Ileene and Irene. Across this 350 feet of waterway the Royal Canadian Engineers built within four hours a barrel-pier pontoon bridge capable of carrying heavy batteries. The Major and his three hundred men worked with that well-ordered efficiency which characterizes the efforts of the British bred. The race for the record started with the Canadian Northern Railway. The materials barrels, planking, etc. were freighted on to the ground with remarkable dispatch. The casks were made watertight, the timber was made ready, the twenty-foot bank cut down to provide an easy grade for traffic, and the actual test was on.

There was never a hitch. One party of men lashed the barrels to the heavy planks, and, as soon as that operation was complete, another party lifted the pier and carried it down the bank. Another squad of men conveyed it on to the water, where it was taken in charge by still another party and floated out to the front line. The pier was drawn quickly into position, and as many men as could work with freedom soon had the flooring spiked down. The actual bridging commenced at eight o’clock; the span was complete at ten minutes after twelve. The extra ten minutes were accounted for by the fact that on one or two occasions passing bodies of other troops necessitated a temporary cessation of carrying operations.

Col. Burstall, Director of Artillery at the Camp, visited the work during the morning and expressed his astonishment at the progress effected. Ordinarily it is a good day’s work to throw a bridge of this class across a three-hundred foot stream. Col. G. F. Maunsell, Director General of Engineering Service in Canada, who is attached to headquarters at Ottawa, also paid close attention to the task and was vastly pleased with the result. Col. Morrison, Ottawa, of the Artillery Service, hurried a gun across the bridge when completed, establishing its efficiency at once. Without doubt the brother officers of Major Lindsay, in all branches of the service, were extremely gratified at the efficiency and despatch of the men making up the Royal Canadian Engineers at the big camp.

Of course, the railway problem of moving the thousand or more troop trains which were rushing from all parts of Canada to Valcartier was a huge one. In this they had to cope with the great quantity of supplies and equipment which was daily forwarded. At Valcartier it was necessary for the Canadian Northern to form a loop for the rapid handling of these trains so that a constant stream of trains was kept continually moving in both directions without interruption.

Great hardships and inconveniences resulted in many cases from the lack of proper equipment. It was colder down in Quebec than in many other parts of the Dominion and a great many men were without sufficient blankets to keep them warm. Uniforms were scarce and army shoes fit for the work of drills and maneuvers even scarcer. Gradually, however, these deficiencies were supplied, recruits began to show amazing progress in the art of soldiering and little by little the great camp lost its motley appearance and became an efficient military organization in which rigid discipline and high efficiency prevailed. In six weeks Valcartier’s 30,000 were ready, ready for England and the final polish which was to fit them for the test of battle. They could even have been sent to the front. It seemed that this was not yet necessary.