The Corps’ reputation as shock troops was solidified for all time at Amiens, the Scarpe, the dQ Line, Canal du Nord, Cambrai and the final push to Mons. The Canadian contribution was decisive at this stage of the war. They took on one quarter of the entire German army on the Western Front. They smashed the hinge of the German defence system and made it possible for the overall Allied advance that ended the war. These last three months accounted for 20% of all Canadian casualties in the Great War — almost 46,000 killed, wounded or missing. Four years of war transformed a citizen army of volunteers into a highly effective fighting force — they were the finest army Canada ever put into the field. The list of Canadian achievements was outstanding, the cost was staggering. More than 600,000 Canadians enlisted and just over 400,000 went overseas to fight for “King and Empire” in the Great War. of those 345,000 served on the Western Front; more than 68,000 were killed and another 176,000 wounded — more than 245,000 Canadian casualties in four years of war. We live in a fast-paced world, where younger eyes seem fixed on the present and the future rather than on the past, and 100 years is a long time. Yet the passage of time does not make the contributions and sacrifices of those Canadians who served any less significant. Charles Laking, Canada’s last living witness to combat in the Great War, died more than a decade ago. Now that they are all gone, it is left to the rest of us to remember. “To you from failing hands we throw the torch….”
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