Canada had sent overseas
418,980 soldiers. In addition to this about 15,000 men had joined the
British Royal Air Service, several hundred physicians and veterinarians,
as well as 200 nurses, had been supplied to the British army, while many
hundreds of university men had received commissions in the imperial army
and navy.

In September, October and November, 1916, the Canadian corps of four
divisions, which had been welded by General Byng and General Currie into
an exceedingly efficient fighting machine, took its part in the battle
of the Somme--a battle in which the British army assumed the heaviest
share of the fighting and casualties, and shifted the greatest burden of
the struggle from the shoulders of the French to their own. The British
army had grown vastly in power and efficiency and in growing had taken
over more and more of the line from the French.

The battle of the Somme was long and involved. The Franco-British forces
were everywhere victorious and by hard and continuous fighting forced
the Hun back to the famous Hindenburg line. It was in this battle that
the tanks, evolved by the British, were used for the first time, and
played a most important part in breaking down wire entanglements and
rounding up the machine gun nests. The part played in this battle by the
Canadian corps was conspicuous, and it especially distinguished itself
by the capture of Courcelette. Although the battles which the Canadian
corps took part in subsequently were almost invariably both successful
and important, they can be merely mentioned here. The Canadian corps now
known everywhere to consist of shock troops second to none on the
western front, was frequently used as the spearhead with which to pierce
particularly tough parts of the enemy defenses.

On April 9th to 13th, 1917, the Canadian corps, with some British
support, captured Vimy Ridge, a point which had hitherto proved
invulnerable. When a year later, the Germans, north and south, swept the
British line to one side in gigantic thrusts they were unable to disturb
this key point, Vimy Ridge, which served as an anchor to the sagging
line. The Canadian corps was engaged at Arleux and Fresnoy in April and
May and was effective in the operations around Lens in June. Again on
August 15th, it was engaged at Hill 70 and fought with conspicuous
success in that toughest, most difficult, and most heart-breaking of all
battles--Passchendaele.

In 1918, the Canadian Cavalry Brig