The road to the Front

[Guest Juice]

Dear members,

Studying in details the file from a relative, Joseph Vachon 120547 - 22nd French-Canadian Battalion CEF, I run into some confusing dates:

Some papers state that he was transferred from Reserve in England to the 22nd Battalion August 27th, 1916 and T.O.S. by the 22nd Battalion on September 2nd. However, his Casualty form says "Join unit" on September 21st.

When did he actually joined the unit at the front? What was the standard procedure for a CEF soldier to go from Reserve in England to joining his unit at the front?

These dates are important, because the 22nd Battalion took an important role in the Flers-Courcelette action on September 15th. They took the village of Courcelette in the early evening (along with the Nova Scotia Rifles and North Shore New Brunswick), repulsing 13 counter-attacks in the following 48 hours, while under a constant bombardment, that destroyed the whole town. 76% casualty rate . Any man who was there, had a vision of how hell must look like... I want to know if Joseph Vachon was one of them. He received a first gun shot wound during the attack on Regina trench, 2 weeks later.

Any help is appreciated,

Regards,

Juice

[Broznitsky]

Juice, we can either accept the dates in service records as gospel, or allow that some errors were made from time to time by over-worked clerks or officers.

In my grandad's case, he was Transferred to the 29th on May 8th, TOS May 9th, and Arrived May 18th. As the last date agrees with other information I have, I accept he did arrive on the 18th with the rest of his mates.

I think the transferred date and the Taken on Strength date are "army bookkeeping;" necessary for the accountants and bean-counters, but not reflected in reality.

My opinion would be that your relative arrived on Sept. 21st, but that is based only on my grandad's records from another unit.

An example of another date quandry is a man's records showing him on leave during a big battle, but his oral history says "the leave was delayed," meaning he might have actually been at the battle.

I guess the bottom line is that we will never really know for sure about a lot of our research . . .

Peter in Vancouver

[jhill]

Some papers state that he was transferred from Reserve in England to the 22nd Battalion August 27th, 1916 and T.O.S. by the 22nd Battalion on September 2nd. However, his Casualty form says "Join unit" on September 21st.

When did he actually joined the unit at the front? What was the standard procedure for a CEF soldier to go from Reserve in England to joining his unit at the front?

These dates are important, because the 22nd Battalion took an important role in the Flers-Courcelette action on September 15th. They took the village of Courcelette in the early evening (along with the Nova Scotia Rifles and North Shore New Brunswick), repulsing 13 counter-attacks in the following 48 hours, while under a constant bombardment, that destroyed the whole town. 76% casualty rate . Any man who was there, had a vision of how hell must look like... I want to know if Joseph Vachon was one of them. He received a first gun shot wound during the attack on Regina trench, 2 weeks later.

Juice,

I went through much the same exercise trying to determine the whereabouts of a man in the 31st Battalion, which took part in the same operations you are interested in. My task was easier, because the 31st kept a very detailed War Diary.

At that time reinforcements were sent from England to the Canadian General Base Depot at Harve. This camp housed several thousand men at a time, and its purpose was to send reinforcements to the front at a moment's notice. The men there were, I believe, already on the books of their destination battalions, since they would have been struck off the strengths of their reserve units on leaving England. Thus, it is quite likely that your man was on the books of the 22nd before he joined them in the field.

In your case I speculate that your man actually joined the 22nd on September 21 at RUBEMPRE (sp?) behind Albert where the battalion was regrouping after Courcelette. The reasons are basically:

1. The battalion war diary reports some 500 reinforcements joining at that time.

2. The 22nd had not been in heavy action for some time before the move south, so they were likely nearly at full strength. It would not have been necessary for them to have rushed new men into the line for the battle.

3. During the first part of September the battalion was on the move from the Ypres sector to the Somme, and there was no convenient interval for them to integrate new men. It was the custom at that time for the battalions themselves to train (or retrain!) reinforcements before committing them to battle.

I presume you have consulted the battalion war diaries at the usual place, here:

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/02015202_f.html

While there, you can also look at the diary of the Canadian General Base Depot, although the detail is dissappointing. All they give are daily totals of men dispatched. It does give one a flavour of how the system must have worked.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. It could have happened differently. Good luck!

[Guest Juice]

Peter and James,

Thank you for your excellent replies. I must admit, I looked very, very hard to find evidences that my relative was at Courcelette, but could not find any unquestionable facts. I even compared the list of all reinforcements of September 2nd in the Part II orders with the list of casualties at Courcelette (they almost ran out of ink! ) and did not find any names that corresponded.

I suppose my hope resided simply in the fact that since he was an excellent soldier, they may have taken him on strength right away. He had been with a militia cavalry regiment for 3 years, was tough, highly self-relient and was also a noted marksman and scout with his original unit - 69th CEF (he was brought up by his older sister and mohawk husband who showed him how to hunt from the age of 6).

James, your analysis of the whereabouts of the 2nd Division CEF versus possible reinforcements makes a lot of sense. The men from the 31st also saw heavy action on the 15th (over 50% casualties)! I read before, some first hand accounts from Pte Donald Fraser, which gives more colour to historical accounts.

Thank you fellas.

Juice.

[jhill]

juice,

One more thing. I have noticed that the Canadian Entrenching Battalions were in place by the fall of 1916. These were to take men from the base depot before they were needed by their infantry battalions, and employ them as construction labour at the front until their battalions needed reinforcements.

The 2nd Canadian Entrenching Battalion reinforced the 2nd Division. Their War Dairy (at the usual place) lists numbers of men coming and going by battalion. There were a hundred or so in the period you are looking at. Presumably most of the reinforcements after Courcelette came directly from Havre.