In regard to the provision of arms the most important step taken was the establish ment in 1904 of the Ross rifle factory at Quebec; this institution until the summer of 1916 manufactured the Ross rifle, a type of weapon differing in many respects from the Lee Enfield, the military rifle used elsewhere in the British empire, but of the same calibre and taking the same ammunition, The capacity of this factory before the war was 12,000 rifles a year, and in 1914 there were about 70,000 Ross rifles in the country, some of them of an earlier make which was un suitable for campaigning. In 1916 the Cana dian troops in France were rearmed with the Lee Enfield, and the Ross rifle factory, which had been much enlarged, was changed to the manufacture of that weapon. In 1917 this factory was taken over by the government. A small arsenal exists at Quebec, capable in 1914 of turning out several million rounds annually; it also made a limited quantity of 18-pounder shells. A second arsenal has been established at Lindsay, Ontario; it began to manufacture ammunition in 1917. The government by 1914 had provided about 100 guns, mostly 13- and 18-pounder horse and field quick-firing guns; it also had a few medium guns, 4.7-inch and 60-pounders. The supply of machine guns was scanty. Something was done toward providing mobilization stores, i.e., clothing and other necessary articles which would be required by the new men who would be brought into the regiments when they were increased to their war strength.
Participation in the Great War.— Canada unhesitatingly took part in the European War. Mention already has been made of the plans framed by the military authorities; these in cluded confidential plans for the dispatching abroad, in the event of a war in Europe, of an expeditionary force comprising a division (Le., 12 battalions of infantry, with the necessary complement of artillery and other troops, in all about 18,000 men) and a mounted brigade (about 2,000 mounted rifles). Detailed plans for the enlistment and mobilization of these had been matured; the troops were to be specially enlisted, the militia organization being em ployed to raise this force. On 1 Aug. 1914 the Canadian government telegraphed to Lon don offering a contingent, and on 6 August the British government replied accepting, and suggesting that the force sent consist of one division and a reinforcement)) of 10 per cent; in all, including subsidiary services, some 22,000 of all ranks. Recruiting was so ardent and districts so vied in providing corps, that instead of 12 battalions 17 were raised almost instantaneously; in addition another battalion, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was raised from former Brit ish soldiers residing in Canada. These 18 battalions, with other corps, numbering in all 33,000 all ranks, sailed from Quebec late in September and landed at Plymouth on 15 Oct. 1914. This was a force raised ad hoc, and in a sense was outside the active militia, although it was based upon that force. The liability of the militia to serve abroad has been noted earlier; no attempt was made to apply this liability, the course followed being to organize, under the Militia Act, a new force known as the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The term
of service is the duration of the war, with a minimum of one year. The active militia supplied nearly all of the officers and many of the men of the first division, and its whole machinery was employed in raising, organizing and outfitting this overseas army. Many, however, of the rank and file had not previously served in the militia, and this fact, coupled with the slight training afforded in any case, made it necessary to give the whole force several months of training before sending it to the Continent. Something was done, especially in the way of musketry, at the great mobilization camp at Valcartier, near Quebec. On landing in Eng land the division was placed under the com mand of a British general, and it spent the winter upon Salisbury Plain, training amid discouraging conditions of weather —condi tions which were shared by scores of divisions of new troops which had been raised in Great Britain. In February 1915 the First Division, as it now was, crossed the Channel, leaving the surplus five battalions in England to serve as feeders. This division was heavily •engaged in April at the second battle of Ypres, or Saint Julien as it sometimes is termed, sus taining some 6,000 casualties. Before the First Division was well clear of the Saint Lawrence a Second Division was offered; its organiza tion went on through the winter of 1914-15, the battalions crossing the Atlantic in single ships instead of in one great convoy as with the First Division. The same deliberate train ing was given to the new troops, and the Second Division was fairly organized by mid summer of 1915. When it was sent to France the two divisions were united in a Canadian Army Corps. New battalions kept working their way across the Atlantic and through the training camps in England, and by the end of the winter of 1915-16 a Third Division was complete and the Canadian Army Corps had three divisions and upward of 60,000 men. The army corps suffered upward of 10,000 casualties at Hooge in May 1916, the Third Division being the heaviest loser. A Fourth Division was then organized and in the summer of 1916 it joined the Canadian Army Corps in France. The Canadian corps was heavily en gaged in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and at Vimy, Lens and Passchendaale in 1917. Its casualties in 1917 were in excess of 84,000. At the beginning of the campaign of 1918 the Canadian Army Cos consisted of four di visions, numbering 78,000 all ranks, and about 11,000 principally artillery; altogether the Army Corps comprised some 90,000 troops, this being the standard large formation in the British Army. The general commanding the Army Corps, Sir Arthur Cur rie, was a Canadian militia officer, who had raised a battalion of the First Division. In addition there was a Canadian Cavalry Brigade serving elsewhere in the British Army, and there were large numbers of railway and forestry troops, as well as many line of com munication units; all told, the Canadian troops in France of the various categories mustered approximately 150,000.