The Canadian Expeditionary Force Novels

Sharpening the Blade - Preface

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Home Front

The year didn’t start well for Prime Minister Borden. He and his wife would spend most of January 1916 laying in sick beds. Lady Borden had fallen sick during their Christmas vacation in the United States while Sir Robert was suffering from severe back pain.

In early February, he barely escapes the fire that destroyed Parliament Hill’s Centre Block. 

Then Lieutenant-General Alderson’s critical report on the Ross Rifle is leaked to the press creating a political firestorm. The bad news continued when the Liberal opposition accused Sir Sam Hughes, his minister of Militia and Defence, and Hughes’s cronies of profiteering from shell and fuse contracts.

The burdens on Borden continued to mount until he seriously considered resigning as prime minister. It only increased when the casualty lists started arriving from the St. Eloi, Mount Sorrel and the Somme battles. Especially, when he knew some of the men who had been wounded or killed.

In October, Borden finally gets fed up with his mercurial Militia and Defence minister and demands Sam Hughes’s resignation.

For Borden, the rest of the year was less stressful although he still carried the burdens of a country at war. He was thankful that he somewhat managed to see another year when so many of his countrymen had not.

Western Front

On the Western Front, the Canadian Corps settles into its winter routine of training, trench duty, and trench raids in the Ypres Salient.

In late March, the British launched, an attack to straighten their trench lines and to recapture St. Eloi. The Canadian 2nd Division is tasked to replace the exhausted British 3rd Division. In a disorienting landscape of mine craters and mud, from days of heavy rain, Major-General Turner’s 2nd Division suffers heavy casualties when the Germans regain the ground the 3rd Division had won. In the aftermath of the loss, Lieutenant-General Alderson attempts to relieve Major-General Turner,On the Western Front, the Canadian Corps settles into its winter routine of training, trench duty, and trench raids in the Ypres Salient.

In late March, the British launched, an attack to straighten their trench lines and to recapture St. Eloi. The Canadian 2nd Division is tasked to replace the exhausted British 3rd Division. In a disorienting landscape of mine craters and mud, from days of heavy rain, Major-General Turner’s 2nd Division suffers heavy casualties when the Germans regain the ground that the 3rd Division had initially won. In the aftermath of the loss, Lieutenant-General Alderson attempts to relieve Major-General Turner, the GOC of the 2nd Division, and Brigadier-General Ketchen, the GOC of the 6th Brigade, of their commands.

At the end of May, Lieutenant-General Alderson is relieved of his command and is replaced by Lieutenant-General Julian Byng who had never met a Canadian before. Days after Byng takes command the Germans attack the Canadian 3rd Division at Mount Sorrel. During the first day of fighting Major-General Mercer, the GOC of the 3rd Division, is killed and Brigadier-General Williams, the GOC of the 8th Brigade. is captured. Byng orders Mount Sorrel be retaken; however, the first attempts fail. Major-General Currie’s 1st Division retakes Mount Sorrel in mid-June after a carefully planned assault. 

On July 1, 1916 the 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment is decimated during the first day of fighting in the Somme when they attempt to capture Beaumont-Hamel.

In August, Field-Marshal Haig orders the Ross Rifle be removed from service. The Lee-Enfield becomes the standard service rifle for the Canadians. 

In September, the Canadian Corps is transferred from the Ypres Salient to the Pozières in the Somme. They replace the 1 ANZAC Corps who were exhausted after two months of fierce fighting. It was during this month the latest secret weapon ‘Tanks’ were first used to support the Major-General Turner’s 2nd Division assault at Flers–Courcelette. 

In October, the Canadians attempt to capture the Regina Trench during the Battle of Ancre Heights.

For the rest of the year the Canadians settles into their winter routine at the Somme. As they rest up, they prepare and plan for the spring operations in the new year at Vimy Ridge.