31st Battalion Canadian

[Hambo]

I am researching a local man Private William Baldwin. who emigrated to Canada and joined up in February 1916 at Winnipeg.

I have his attestation papers where he was recruited by the 184th Battalion.

When he was killed he was with B Company 31st Battalion and he died on the 3rd of May 1917.

Was the 184th a training battalion?

Where were the 31st on the 3rd of May and what were they engaged in?

Are there other records held on line by Canada that may shed more light on him such as his emigration?

Sorry to ruin your Sunday

Mant thanks Hambo

[Papineau]

The 31st Battalion were in action at Fresnoy on 3rd May 1917. This was part of the Battle of Arras. There is a good description of the action in Donald Fraser's 'The Journal of Private Fraser' (reprinted by CEF Books).

The 31st Bn War Diary should also be on-line on the NAC site.

[Broznitsky]

The 184th sailed for England in October 1916. They were a recruiting battalion, absorbed by the 11th Reserve Battalion who would have further trained the men before dispersal to combat infantry battalions, like the 31st.

War Diary for the 31st available here: 31st

There are online Census and immigration databases that may be able to help with immigration.

[Borden Battery]

Here is some information to work on your research ... Borden Battery

Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War

- Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson, C.D., Army Historical Section

This is the classic reference text [the Bible] for any student of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. The original text is very difficult to obtain, however, the document is now available in .pdf format directly from the historical section of the Canadian Armed Forces website. [Note: The pagination in the online document is different than the original document - therefore citations with page number references cannot be used.]

http://www.forces.gc.ca/hr/dhh/downloads/O...ories/CEF_e.PDF

*Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group - Discussion Forum

The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) and all aspects of its involvement in the Great War is the focus of this discussion forum. The CEF Study Group was formed in October 2004 - Revised on 8 April 2005 and about 350 members as of January 2006 and some 6,000 postings.

http://www.cefresearch.com/phpBB2/index.php

*Canadian Expeditionary Force Tunic Patterns 1903 to 1919 [The Kaiser Bunker]

A interesting site with a good representation of military tunics and formation patches from the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

http://www.kaisersbunker.com/ceftp/ceftp.htm

Camp Hughes Under Threat - Archeological Protection Plan Feb 2006

Camp Hughes (formerly Camp Sewell, circa 1910) near Brandon, Manitoba (not to be confused with Camp Shilo) was utilized to train over 40,000 men for the CEF in the Great War. This 2004 document is a William Galbraith master's thesis [227 pages] from the University of Manitoba. It provides some excellent background, historic and modern photographs including aerial, maps and detailed discussions regarding the preservation of this unique historic Canadian military training base in western Manitoba.

[A Broznitsky Recommendation]

http://www.umanitoba.ca/institutes/natural...esis%202004.pdf

List of the Battalions of the Canadian Expenditionary Force

1916 Camp Hughes [formerly Camp Sewell]

This long-forgotten training camp had a lot of unique training features. For a time it was one of the largest "cities" in the Province of Manitoba.

Lord Strathcona Horse - Royal Canadians

34th Battalion - Fort Garry Horse

96th Battalion

100th Battalion

107th Battalion

108th Battalion

128th Battalion "Moose Jaws" Leave for Overseas on 10 August, 1916

144th Battalion L.B.D.s

152nd Battalion Presented Colours on 22 July, 1916

179th Battalion Cameron Highlanders

181st Battalion

183rd Battalion

184th Battalion Major-General J. Hughes takes Salute on 12 August, 1916

188th Battalion On Review on 12 August, 1916

195th Battalion "City of Regina" O.S.B (Over Seas Battalion)

196th Battalion "Western Universities"

197th Battalion

200th Battalion

203rd Battalion

209th Battalion

210th Battalion

214th Battalion "Saskatchewan Wild Cats

217th Battalion

221st Battalion "Bull Dogs"

222nd Battalion

223rd Battalion

226th Battalion

229th Battalion

232nd Battalion

No 10 Field Ambulance Depot - 16 doctors and 25 nurses

“Ready for Active Service" Camp Hughes Pictorial Album

Western News Agency, Limited, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1916

----------------------------------------------------------------

CAMP HUGHES, MANITOBA - provide the geography, situation and is of same.

The need for a central training camp in Military District 10 (Manitoba and NW Ontario) resulted in the establishment of Sewell Camp in 1910, on Crown and Hudson's Bay Company land near Carberry, Manitoba. The site was accessible by both the Canadian Northern and Canadian Pacific Railways and the ground was deemed suitable for the training of artillery, cavalry and infantry units.

The first summer training camp, in 1910, was attended by 1,469 soldiers. Militia soldiers continued to train in the summers up until the final pre-war camp in July 1914.

After the formation of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (C.E.F.) in 1914, the camp was expanded to train large numbers of new recruits. 10,994 men of all ranks attended camp in 1915. Permanent buildings were constructed, a rifle range with 500 targets was set up, and the water supply improved.

In September, 1915 Camp Sewell was renamed Camp Hughes, in honour of Canada's Minister of Militia and Defence, Major General Sam Hughes.

In 1916, the camp trained 27,754 troops, making it the largest community in Manitoba outside Winnipeg. Construction reached its zenith, and the camp boasted six movie theatres, numerous retail stores, a hospital, a large heated in-ground swimming pool, Ordinance and Service Corps buildings, photo studios, a post office, a prison and many other structures. The troops were accommodated in neat groups of white bell tents located around the central camp.

The Camp Hughes trench system was developed in 1916 to teach trainee soldiers the lessons of trench warfare which had been learned through great sacrifice on the battlefields of France and Flanders. Veterans were brought back to Canada to instruct in the latest techniques. The trenches accurately replicated the scale and living arrangements for a battalion of 1000 men.

The battalion in training would enter the system, after first being issued their food, ammunition and extra equipment, through two long communication trenches. All along the route dugouts with thick earth overhead cover housed the troops and protected them from artillery fire.

Once established, the battalion would undergo training in daily routine, sentries, listening posts, trench clearing, and finally, a frontal assault on the "enemy" by going over the top and across no-man's land into the enemy line of trenches.

The shallow "enemy" trenches are built on higher ground as were most of the German positions on the Western Front in Europe.

An additional trench system served as a "grenade school". Here troops would practice working their way down an enemy occupied trench and finally throw live grenades from the trench into pits dug near the end.

Though much eroded after 80 years, the trench system is still essentially intact and is the only First World War training trench system extant in North America.

A decline in voluntary enlistments (culminating in the Conscription Act) caused the suspension of training in 1917 and 1918.

The camp re-opened after the war for summer training of the Militia. Throughout the 1920's the Militia continued to use the camp for annual training. In 1933 the camp was dismantled and much of the material, including some of the buildings, were moved to nearby Camp Shilo. The area lay untouched, occasionally used for training in the Second World War.

Camp Hughes - Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site

http://www.gatewest.com/~gcros/hughes/hughes.html

[Borden Battery]

Here is an excerpt from the Nicholson book ... Borden Battery

The Fighting at Fresnoy, 3-8 May

The Canadian attack of 3 May was in effect a continuation of the successful assault

on the Arleux Loop five days before. Principal target was the hamlet of Fresnoy, which lay,

its red-roofed houses little damaged by war, in a slight depression beside the Drocourt

road. The well-wired trenches of the Oppy-Méricourt line ran along the western outskirts of

Fresnoy, incorporating in the defences a number of strongpoints at the village edge and in

the woods to the north and south. These were manned by a battalion of the 25th Reserve

Regiment. Three battalions of the 1st Canadian Brigade took part in the operation. While

the 2nd Battalion attacked the village itself, the 1st and 3rd Battalions went respectively

against the woods on the left and the right. Farther north, in the 2nd Division's sector

opposite Acheville, the 6th Brigade was to provide left flank protection for the First Army's

attacks by forming a strong front facing north-east. The 27th Battalion was to seize the

junction of the northern end of the former Arleux Loop with the main Oppy-Méricourt line

(500 yards south of Acheville), while the 31st guarded its left flank. Plans called for generous fire support by the Canadian Corps Heavy Artillery and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd

Divisional Artilleries, the Reserve (formerly Lahore) Divisional Artillery, and a number of

British heavy groups.

The loss of Arleux had alerted the Germans to the probability of a further attack. In

the bright moonlight they detected the Canadians approaching across the open plain from

Arleux and began heavily shelling the assembly areas of both brigades. In spite of some

confusion and casualties the attack opened on schedule as the thickly emplaced batteries

in the general area of the Arras-Lenc railway released a powerful barrage which swept no

man's land and rolled in upon the front German trench. Almost immediately the enemy laid

down retaliatory fire which harassed the rear waves of the 1st Brigade, while the foremost

Canadians were caught in a crossfire from the enemy's machine-guns. Though the wire in

front of Fresnoy had been well cut, the gaps were hard to find in the darkness; fortunately

the lack of visibility made the enemy's small-arms fire relatively ineffective.

Once through the wire the units of the 1st Brigade made good progress. The 3rd

Battalion combed the wood south of Fresnoy like beaters in a pheasant shoot and pushed

on to the German support trench, 500 yards beyond. This position - the Fresnoy Switch -

fell just before sunrise, but not before one of the assaulting companies had been reduced

to 25 men. Meanwhile the 2nd Battalion's leading company stormed and seized the

German front trench and knocked out three machine-guns on the western edge of Fresnoy.

The battalion had been carefully rehearsed over traced trenches in its training ground on

the west side of Vimy Ridge-a preparation which paid good dividends. In the face of rifle

fire from outlying houses two more companies passed through and forced their way into

the village. Cleaning up small pockets of resistance in houses and dug-outs as they went,

both reached the final objective 250 yards east of Fresnoy at about six o'clock. As they set

to work with pick and shovel to consolidate their position, they were joined by the fourth

company, which had been held in the brigade assembly area with instructions to push

straight through to the final goal. German prisoners began carrying the wounded back over

Vimy Ridge. In the meantime the 1st Battalion, astride the Drocourt road, had reached

its goal without meeting heavy opposition. Well dug in, the battalions around Fresnoy hung

on to their gains under heavy German shelling that continued all day.

The attack of the 6th Brigade was less successful. The 31st Battalion encountered

new wire only 300 yards out, half way to the foremost manned defences. This and heavy enfilade fire from the trench junction split the attack, one group seeking to outflank the objective while the other went in frontally. Both failed. The best the battalion could do was to occupy a newly dug German trench immediately east of the wire, and set up a block where this trench joined the old Arleux Loop.

But the day went better on the brigade right. Despite the counter-barrage and the

uncut wire, the 27th Battalion's left forward company quickly reached and overran its first

objective - the German front trench. The mopping up party lost its way, however, so that

there were no following troops to deal with the many Germans who were emerging from

their dug-outs. With the enemy at his back and both flanks open - for neither the 31st

Battalion nor the 27th's assaulting company on the right had been able to keep pace - the

company commander reversed his platoons and attacked the front garrison from the rear,

driving the Germans towards the Canadian lines. Thirty German prisoners resulted, but

when the company dug in it was short of even its first objective.

Of the right forward company, halted 500 yards short of the front trench by the

enemy barrage, only a handful of men under one officer - Lieut. R. G. Combe - had

managed to reach the objective. Using enemy grenades as their own supply ran out, they

captured more than 250 yards of trench, sending back from eighty to a hundred prisoners

and linking up with the 1st Battalion's left. But just as reserves were arriving Combe was

killed. He was posthumously awarded the V.C. The reserve company went on to clear

150 more yards of trench and consolidate the position, setting up a Lewis gun in the

German support trench, which was found unoccupied. After dark, with help from a party of

the 29th Battalion, the 27th, whose casualties that day numbered 267, extended the hold

on the support trench. The 6th Brigade had failed to seize the assigned trench junction, but

it had captured 400 yards of the Oppy-Méricourt line adjacent to the 1st Brigade's gains.

The Germans made two determined attempts on 3 May to win back what they had

lost. About mid-morning a counter-attack by units of the 15th Reserve Division advancing

on Fresnoy from the north-east was smashed by our waiting artillery and by machine-gun

and rifle fire from the new Canadian front line. A stronger effort was made in the afternoon,

using additional units called in from the adjacent 4th Guard Division and the 185th Infantry

Division, which was on the point of being transferred from the Vimy sector. But once again

the waves of assaulting infantry could not survive our artillery and small-arms fire, while a

German bombing party, attempting to work southward from the disputed trench junction,

was stopped at the 27th Battalion's block by fire from the unit's Stokes mortars and Lewis

guns. By their own accounts the Germans' heaviest losses for the whole front on 3 May

were at Fresnoy. One of the 15th Reserve Division's regiments admitted 650 casualties;

the other, which had garrisoned Fresnoy village, must have had many more. The

Canadian Corps had captured close to 500 Germans: of its own casualties of 1259 all

ranks probably a full thousand were incurred by the 1st and 6th Brigades.

In the air there were indications that the enemy would not long continue to enjoy his

superiority. The day before the battle fighters of the Royal Flying Corps had destroyed or damaged eight observation balloons opposite the First Army's front. While the work of

contact patrols during the operation was hampered by the incessant bombardment and the

confusion of attack and counterattack, air observers operating with the 13th Corps were

able to report preparations for a counter-attack south of Oppy. Elsewhere bombers

engaged ammunition dumps and railway junctions and bridges well behind the enemy

lines. Meanwhile German artillery observation planes operated over the area of the

Canadian attack unmolested.

By the morning of 5 May the First Army had regrouped its forces and drawn new

boundaries. The British 5th Division, now under command of the 13th Corps, took over the

Fresnoy sector from the 1st Canadian Division, which went into corps reserve. The 2nd

Canadian Division remained in position north of the village. It was not to be expected

that the enemy would accept the loss of Fresnoy without a determined effort to regain it. Its

capture had, as one German regimental historian put it, knocked a stone "out of the

German defensive wall which had to be replaced without delay". The long spur which

ended at Fresnoy gave its possessors far too commanding a view over flanking sections

of the Oppy-Méricourt line and over much of the Wotan defences to the east.

Orders to recapture Fresnoy reached the 5th Bavarian Division, at Douai, on 5 May.

Unusually extensive German artillery activity - well over 100,000 rounds between the

evening of 6 May and the morning of the 8th-warned of an impending counter-attack.

Further signs came shortly before 4:00 a.m. on the 8th, when advanced German troops

blundered into the 2nd Canadian Division's lines and interrupted a relief of the 6th Brigade

by the 4th Brigade; the incoming 19th Battalion and the outgoing 29th joined forces and

quickly ejected the intruders. The main attack, between the Drocourt road and Gavrelle,

was launched two hours later by the 5th Bavarian Division's three regiments (the 7th, 19th

and 21st Bavarian) and was supported by seventeen heavy and 27 field batteries, besides

the artillery of neighbouring divisions. British defensive fire was entirely inadequate to beat

off the attack, expected though it was. Some of the guns had been damaged by fire; the

crows of others were suffering from the effects of gas shell; and a dense mist prevented

the German infantry's rocket signals from being recognized. The battalion holding the

village was practically wiped out as it tried to retire. By nightfall the whole of the Fresnoy

salient, and with it the 2nd Canadian Division's right flank, had been pushed back almost in

line with Arleux.

PS Here is the URL address for more details of Lt. Combe, VC

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm...asualty=1566529

[Hambo]

Thanks everyone, the generosity in giving your time is overwhelming. I'll absorb this little lot then go from there

Many thanks again

Hambo

[Borden Battery]

Here is the specific Order of Battle of the Second CEF Division from which the 31st Battalion was attached. - Borden Battery

2nd Canadian Division

Artillery: 5th Brigade, C.F.A. 6th Brigade, C.F.A.

17th Field Battery 15th Field Battery

18th Field Battery 16th Field Battery

20th Field Battery 25th Field Battery

23rd Howitzer Battery 22nd Howitzer Battery

2nd Division Ammunition Column

Engineers: 2nd Brigade, C.E.

4th Battalion

5th Battalion

6th Battalion

2nd Division Signal Company

Infantry: 4th Infantry Brigade

18th (Western Ontario) Battalion

19th (Central Ontario) Battalion

20th (Central Ontario) Battalion

21st (Eastern Ontario) Battalion

4th Trench Mortar Battery

5th Infantry Brigade

22nd (French Canadian) Battalion

24th (Victoria Rifles of Canada) Battalion

25th (Nova Scotia Rifles) Battalion

26th (New Brunswick) Battalion

5th Trench Mortar Battery

6th Infantry Brigade

27th (City of Winnipeg Battalion)

28th (Northwest) Battalion

29th (Vancouver) Battalion

31st (Alberta) Battalion

6th Trench Mortar Battery

Machine Gun Corps:

2nd Battalion, C.M.G.C.

Army Service Corps:

2nd Divisional Train, C.A.S.C.

Army Medical Corps:

4th, 5th, 6th Field Ambulances, C.A.M.C.

2nd Canadian Sanitary Section

2nd Canadian Mobile Veterinary Section

Attached:

V/2nd Canadian Heavy Trench Mortar Battery, RA

X/2nd Canadian Trench Mortar Battery, RA

Y/2nd Canadian Trench Mortar Battery, RA

2nd Pontoon Bridging Transport Unit

[Borden Battery]

Here is another excellent site from the CEF Study Group's recommended list of Great War websites - Marc Leroux's website is a wealth of information one not to be overlooked. Borden Battery

*Canadian Great War Project

This site is intended to be used to research Canadians who participated in the Great War 1914-1919. The content is primarily database driven to facilitate searches for information. The extensive site is, and will continue to be, a work in progress, and is becoming a collaborative effort among those interested in researching Canada and the Great War. The site is also developing a database of recommended books and websites. The site is hosted by Marc Leroux.

http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com

In a sub-section you will find the following:

http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/Reg...stBattalion.asp

This is an alphabetical listing of the entire battalion as taken from H. C. Singer's 1938 Regimental History, "31st Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1919". The 31st Battalion was formed as part of the 2nd Canadian Division, 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade, in October 1914 under the command of General A. H. Bell. They proceeded overseas in May, 1915 and saw action in France and Belgium from September 1915, until the end of hostilities in 1918. They formed part of the Army of Occupation in Germany in December 1918, and finally returned home in May 1919. The 31st Battalion was disbanded on June 1, 1919 in Calgary, Alberta.