The Story of the Great War, Volume 8 / Victory with the Allies; Armistice; Peace Congress; Canada's War Organizations and vast War Industries; Canadian Battles Overseas

by Unknown

Of the special corps, outside the regular classifications into which all armies are subdivided—infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc., special emphasis and more detailed description should be accorded the Canadian Forestry and the Canadian Railway Corps. The extraordinary dimensions which these arms of the service acquired must be considered when the number of Canadian troops on the actual field of battle is compared with those who did not reach the front. No general history of the war can ever be written without devoting considerable space to these two corps as factors which assumed much importance in the defeat of Germany.

In the production of lumber, and in the building of railways, to keep up with the rapid westward progress of the Canadian population, Canada stands forth preeminent. It was only natural that the special skill and knowledge acquired in these industries should be in strong demand by the Allied forces in general, and it was Canada which could supply it in the greatest measure. Hence the unusual number of Canadian recruits who were diverted to these particular branches of military service.

The formation of the Forestry Corps came about through the growing shortage of shipping. In February, 1916, the British Government issued a proclamation restricting certain imports, for the sake of economy in shipping. One of the chief commodities affected was timber, of which six million tons was being brought into the country annually.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies called on the Governor General of Canada for assistance in the production of timber for military purposes from the home forests in England and Scotland. A special force of Canadian lumbermen was asked for.

The result was the formation of the 224th Canadian Forestry Battalion, which was sent over to England in the early part of the year. The first unit to arrive in England carried with it all the machinery necessary and immediately established a lumber camp and saw mill in Surrey. Within three months after the first call for this special assistance the battalion had been organized, transported across the waters, and had sawn and delivered its first lot of sawn English lumber. The battalion eventually reached a working force of over 1,500, detachments from which were distributed over various parts of England and Scotland.

So big a success was the work of the 224th Lumber Battalion that further and continuous demands were made on the Canadians for lumbermen to cut the trees of Britain into lumber for the allied armies on the western front. From this battalion gradually developed the Canadian Forestry Corps, which later came to supply cut lumber to the military forces of all the nations participating in the operations against the Germans in France and Belgium.

Not long after the first contingent of Canadian lumbermen had arrived in England, another cablegram was sent by the British authorities to the Governor General of Canada, asking for more lumbermen. "His Majesty's Government again turns to Canada for assistance," the cablegram concluded.

This was the occasion for the formation of the 238th Canadian Forestry Battalion, which arrived in England a few months later, in September, 1916. But even before it had arrived the French Government's grant of extensive forests to the British forces had brought about the necessity of putting the timber-cutting activities of the British Government on a much broader basis, and some of the Canadian lumber detachments were sent across to France.

In October, 1916, authority was granted for the formation of the Canadian Forestry Corps, under the command of Major General Alexander McDougal, who was then a Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the 224th Battalion. By the British Government he was appointed director of the timber operations for France and Great Britain. The two battalions already in France and England thus became the nucleus of the corps.

Meanwhile enough machinery and other equipment was being prepared and shipped from Canada to afford employment to 10,000 men. For by this time it had been decided that timber imports would have to bear 60 per cent of the total reductions decided upon, as three and a half million tons of shipping could thereby be saved.