Library and Archives Canada
Published on Feb 9, 2015

This film is a heritage item from Library and Archives Canada and is only available in English.

British film of the Canadian Corps on the Western Front, 1917-1918. Engineers, British or more probably Canadians, constructing and operating a narrow gauge railway. Part 1. Horse-drawn scoops flatten out the path, then complete sections of rail are laid with sleepers already attached. Flatcars are loaded with 8-inch shells and sent forward on the railway from the dump, past Piccadilly and Crucifix junctions to an 8-inch Mark V Howitzer battery. Part 2. Canadian soldiers in France voting in the general election on December 17, 1917. A village being shelled, probably in the Vimy area, filmed from some distance away. Canadians, probably 3rd Division, holding a pay parade in a shell-damaged village. A brigade paraded to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1917 with a service, watched by Lieutenant-General Currie, the Canadian Corps commander, and General Horne, commander of First Army. Rubble and remains of the village of Vimy; a company of 42nd Battalion, Black Guards (Royal Highlanders of Canada) return from the village. 

Source: Library and Archives Canada. Lombard fonds, 1969-0030. IDC: 18425.