The Canadian Expeditionary Force Novels

Sheathing the Blade - Preface

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Home Front

Sir Robert Borden was sailing on the North Atlantic when he received a wireless message informing him an armistice had been signed earlier that morning and at 11 am hostilities had ended. Sir Robert, at the request of Primer Minister Lloyd George, had been heading back to England to discuss possible peace terms with Germany.

It had been a tough year for Sir Robert Borden. As he had promised during the bitterly fought December 1917 election campaign he quickly imposed conscription on the country to keep the CEF up to full combat strength. In Quebec resentment against conscription grows until, in April, riots break out in Québec City requiring the army to be called out to restore law and order.

Once in England he quickly learns that the five great powers; Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, and Japan were not planning to give the British dominions of Canada, Newfoundland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand a seat at the Paris peace conference.

Borden demands that Canada as well as the other dominions should be given a seat at the table. They had earned the right considering the wealth and blood they had spent to help achieve victory.

Western Front

The year started off quietly, but tensions were high with the recent signing of the German-Russian armistice in December of 1917.

Lieutenant-Colonel Llewellyn, the CO of the Richmond Fusiliers, and Captain Ryan of the 65th Artillery, were in the trenches keeping a wary eye on the Germans. They knew that it was only a matter of time before the German divisions on the Russian front headed their way. Matron Lonsdale was busy at the Canadian Convalescent Hospital in Kent taking care of the wounded.

Soon, they would be in the thick of battle. The German spring offensive struck a hammer blow at the British and at the French. Desperate for men to support his battered armies Field Marshal Haig strips one division after another from the Canadian Corps leaving Lieutenant-General Currie in command of an empty shell. A fuming Currie and Canadian government, demanded his divisions be given back to him arguing the Canadian Corps was more effective as a fighting force as a unit instead of the Canadian divisions being fed into the grinder piecemeal.

Until the divisions are returned Currie promotes Llewellyn to an acting brigadier-general. He gives Llewellyn command of an independent force made up of a hodgepodge of units with orders to mold them into an effective fighting force.

After Captain Ryan witnesses Brigadier- General Morrison’s demonstration how effective artillery was against enemy tanks he is assigned to Brigadier-General Llewellyn’s Independent Force.

In May German aeroplanes bombed the hospitals at Étapes where Samantha Lonsdale is severely wounded. After she recovers, she is back to administrating the sick and the wounded. She struggles as the CEF starts being ravaged by the Spanish Flu.

As summer comes to a close Llewellyn, Ryan, and Lonsdale are in the thick of battle at Amiens, Arras, Canal du Nord, and Cambria. They all race for Mons to capture as much ground as they can before the armistice comes into effect.

It’s a bitter sweet end of the year as they spend Christmas and New Years occupying Germany wondering when they would be demobilized and returned home.

Russia

While fighting ended at 11 o’clock on November 11th on the Western Front, the 67th Field Artillery was nearly wiped out in northern Russia by a large force of Bolsheviks intent on capturing the villages of Tulgas and Kurogmen on the Northern Dvina River.

In August, the British government had asked Sir Robert Borden if Canada could contribute men an equipment to two allied forces being sent to Russia. The objectives were to help stabilize the Russian government and to put pressure on them to renew hostilities with Germany. One force was being sent to Archangel in northern Russia. The other being sent to Siberia based at the port of Vladivostok.

When the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918 the allies struggled to find a purpose for the forces being sent to Russia.

The bulk of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force hadn’t yet sailed from Victoria B.C for Vladivostok. Members of Borden’s cabinet weren’t sold on the idea and there was considerable public discontent about intervening in Russia. The same feelings ran through the conscripts training on the mud splattered Willow Training Camp in Victoria. Just before Christmas of 1918 some of the soldiers mutinied and were forced to board the transport ships sailing for Siberia.

Sir Robert was set on sending the force to Siberia mainly for political reasons. Going back on his agreement to the British government would affect Canadian prestige and would hamper his quest to get a seat at the Paris Peace Conference.