Canadian Conscripts KIA

[Terry]

Some 100,000 Canadians were drafted into the Canadian army late in WW1, of over 400,000 eligible. Of that number, nearly half (47,000) managed to get as far as the UK, and approximately 24,000 made it to France.

Do any of the Pals have information on the casualties suffered by the draftees? How many killed, wounded, captured,etc.?

[mordac]

Hi Terry:

I've never seen casualty numbers for men drafted under the Military Service Act, 1917. The figures may have been researched and published, but provisions in the Act and the Federal Government's desire to have draftees and non draftees treated equally would make this a long and involved project. By the end of the war 401,822 men registered under Class 1, 121,124 reported for service with the CEF, 47,509 draftees went overseas and 24,132 of that number made it to the front.

I think the only way to track who was drafted would be to go through all the attestation papers (from 1917-1918) and search out the "Particulars Of Recruit Drafted Under Military Service Act, 1917" forms. From there you'd have to determine who made it to France and what their fate was. No blocks of regimental numbers were assigned to draftees, however the majority received numbers in the 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 series. Initially, some Records Officers inserted the letter "D" in front of the regimental number on draftee's records. They were ordered to stop this practice by Militia HQ as all soldiers were to be treated equally.

If you're looking for a project to fill your spare time...

Garth

[Terry]

Garth,

I may be retired from teaching, but I don't think I would want to tackle that project!

It can probably be assumed that of the 24,000, a large percantage went to the infantry battalions, and given the casualties suffered by the CEF during the summer and autumn of 1918 (Amiens, Arras, Canal du Nord, St.Quentin Canal, Cambrai,Valenciennes,etc.), a considerable number of these fellows must have made the supreme sacrifice.

[mordac]

Hi Terry:

If you were to apply the CEF's mortality rate of 9.28% during the war to the 24,132 men who made it to the front, theoretically 2,240 of the draftees would be KIA. However, the mortality rate was higher during the last 100 days, so presumably the KIA rate would be higher for draftees as well. In the end, the figure would probably be closer to 3,000.

Garth

[jhill]

I cannot believe there are no published figures, seeing as how controversial an issue this has been for the past 85 years. However, if not, there are ways to get a reasonable estimate. For example:

1. Almost all fatalities (excepting accidents and disease) for late entries like the MSA men (Military Service Act; that is, conscripts) would be in the infantry. Restrict your efforts to the 48 infantry battalions.

2. Get hold of the nominal roles. They list all men along with their regimental numbers and an indication of whether or nor they were killed, etc.

3. Sort the file in descending order of regimental number. Checking numbers around 3,000,000 will give you an idea where the MSA men start to appear on the list (this is not exact!, so check quite a few).

4. The total fatalities above this point is a good estimate of the conscript fatalities. If you like, the total soldiers above this point will give the total conscripts who served, thus giving a rough fatality rate for conscripts.

Of course, this is easy for me to say! As a gesture, I have done this for the 85 (Nova Scotia Highlanders) Battalion. There is a good web site devoted to this Regiment located at : http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~e...ssage/85th.html

These folks have been diligent enough to transcribe the nominal role. I have (for this exercise) taken the liberty of downloading the role into an "Access" data base and have run a few queries.

There were about 400 MSA men who served with the battalion during the war. About 16 - 18 of them were killed.

Of course, I may have made some errors, but now you flks can check my work!

[mordac]

Hi James:

I agree that the method you propose would only give you an estimate, as there was no pre assigned range of regimental numbers given to conscripted men. For example, a man I have researched, Pte. Alexander Innes (2022021) of the 29th Battalion. He falls outside of the 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 number range.

What I find interesting with your calculations of conscript fatalities for the 85th Bn. is their mortality rate was 4.5%, which was half the rate for the CEF for the entire war.

Garth

[jhill]

mordac

Yes the fatality rate for conscripts will be low. If we think about it, it makes good sense.

1. The MSA men only arrived at the front in numbers from August 1918, so they did not have to endure the time in danger that the men of 1914,1915, and 1916 did.

2. Fatal casualties as a proportion of total casualties reduced dramatically in the last few months of the war (for a number of reasons).

Of course, there are all sorts of questions that might invalidate any conclusion we might draw about conscripts. One issue about which I am curious is to what extent did conscription derail voluntary enlistment? Perhaps men waited to be called up because the administrative machinery for processing voluntary enlistments had been curtailed. We note that few overseas battalions were raised after the end of 1916, and there was no proper system of Depot Battalions for some time.

Just a thought.

[mordac]

Yes the fatality rate for conscripts will be low.  If we think about it, it makes good sense.

1.  The MSA men only arrived at the front in numbers from August 1918, so they did not have to endure the time in danger that the men of 1914,1915, and 1916 did.

2.  Fatal casualties as a proportion of total casualties reduced dramatically in the last few months of the war (for a number of reasons).

Hi James:

Deaths due to enemy action (all ranks) from 1914 - 1920, in France and Belgium, was 51,310. This includes those dying of wounds post November 11, 1918.

Excluding April 1917, the last 100 days had the highest death rates of the war for the CEF. In August, 1918 4,563 men were killed and in September 4,548. For these two months alone, that's a 17.75% mortality rate.

A couple of years ago I did a spreadsheet listing deaths due to enemy action on a month by month basis from 1914 - 1918; I'll see if I can dig it up. What surprised me were the high totals from August through November 11, 1918.

Garth