OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN FORCES IN THE GREAT WAR, 1914-1919. General Series, Volume One with Appendices and Maps. By Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid, D.S.O., B.Sc., R.C.A. Maps and sketches by Captain J. I. P. Neal, R.C.E. Ottawa; J. O. Patenaude, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. 1938. Text $2.00; Appendices & Maps $1.50.
Reviewed by Brigadier General George Richards, U. S. Marine Corps (Retired)
This first volume of a long foretold chronological series more than fulfills the expectations of those eagerly awaiting its appearance. Its material is excellently arranged, the narrative in one book from whose text there is easy reference to supporting data with further detail in the separately printed Appendix. The story showing evidence of study of the official German records is interspersed with sketch maps, tactical and otherwise, of front-line or other areas, illustrative of the narrative. The Appendix includes carefully prepared maps of wider area illuminating the strategic problems disclosed. Meticulous care with studied consideration of the convenience of the reader marks the preparation of this work. Its contribution to World War literature, gracefully written and pleasingly presented, will not fail to receive warm welcome by the layman or the expert, the reader or the student of the Great War annals.
Published in January, 1938, this volume summarizes events of interest to Canadians from the war’s outbreak, August, 1914, to the formation overseas, September, 1915, of the Canadian Corps. It includes the raising in this time of the first 140,000 of the Dominion’s volunteers; the dispatch of 85,000 overseas and the active service of the 21,600 thereof that composed the First Canadian Division with the Second Canadian Division in France at the end of this period but still in training.
This First Division of citizen-soldiery of Canada, with some officers of experience in the Boer War in South Africa, was organized and trained to be pitted against the most highly trained Army the world ever knew. It entered the first line in active operations within but nine months after the war’s outbreak. On Belgian soil, in the famed Ypres Salient, it received its baptism of fire, continuing in like activities in that locality, intermittently, until the middle of June. Thereafter it served in trench warfare until the close of the period. For the defense of Ypres and the Yser Canal in the determined and well-prepared attack of the Germans in April, where poison gas first appeared as a weapon of warfare, the Canadian First Division earned the highest of praise, their conduct being declared magnificent. Readers of the Naval Institute Proceedings have not forgotten the German high appraisal of the stamina of the Canadian contingents actively engaged in the Great War (Naval Institute Proceedings, November, 1928).
The self-effacing and patriotic attitude of the Honorable Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia and Defense, a veteran of South Africa, in the selection of a commander of that First Division and that Minister’s hurried trip overseas before its arrival in England commands attention. The British War Office then intended to disrupt that organization for training purposes as it later purposed to do for similar reasons to the overseas Expeditionary Army of the United States. It is interesting to the friends of the Dominion south of its border to read that the later Honorable Lieutenant General, the Honorable Sir Sam Hughes and our own General John J. Pershing were of the same mind, thanks to which the soldiers of the Dominion and those of the United States fought in France as Canadians and Americans, respectively. Colonel A. Fortescue Duguid and his able assistant have given us a story of great things accomplished in the early days of the Great War. The reader lays aside the volume with reluctance but with a correct picture of the magnitude of the task the liberal peoples of the World then faced. But he carries also the impression of the determination then of the Dominion of Canada to continue its all in the struggle. The appearance of the succeeding volumes of the series is anxiously awaited.
SHIPS AND SAILORS; THE STORY OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE. By William H. Clark. Boston: L. C. Page & Co. 1938. 322 pages. $3.50.
Reviewed by Captain F. L. Oliver, U. S. Navy (Retired)
To include in a book of popular length the complete history of American seafaring is an impossible task, but Mr. Clark has written an interesting abridgement which carefully covers most of the principal features and touches on many minor phases of the subject. Omission of some important details undoubtedly is due to the author’s desire to condense, as his work gives ample evidence of careful research.
The book is written in an easy manner, brings out many little-known events in our maritime history and is tastefully illustrated and well documented. The division into chapters each covering a definite period of either time or development makes pleasant reading although a certain amount of repetition is involved.
The interesting fact is brought out that for a century or more before the landing of the Pilgrims, Europeans of various nationalities had made a practice of fishing on the Banks off the New England and Newfoundland coasts and had used a number of Down East and New England harbors for drying and salting their catches before returning home.
The chapter covering maritime and political conditions under the Confederation during the five years following the Revolution is interesting and instructive. In a subsequent chapter, the description of the rise and collapse of the once profitable trade in natural ice which, until icemaking machinery came into use, employed American bottoms on far-flung routes extending as far as India, is an interesting commentary on the manner in which new inventions frequently sterilize old industries.
The author emphatically refutes the popular and frequently expressed opinion that the raids of the Confederate privateers and cruisers were responsible for the decline of our Merchant Marine. He proves that the War between the States hastened the decline, but that the change from wood to steel, sail to steam, and more especially the use of American capital in the less risky and more lucrative investments connected with the country’s great internal expansion following the War was the real reason for our flag being practically withdrawn from deep-sea commerce until the outbreak of the World War.
The history of the government’s 1848 venture in subsidizing the development of oceangoing steamers is far from complete. There are a number of lapses in the technical vernacular of the sea and the functions of the Hydrographic Office are inaccurately detailed. In the enumeration of merchant ships helpful to the Navy during the War with Spain, the Columbia and Minneapolis are listed. Both were regular men-of-war. The five Morgan Line ships renamed Dixie, Yankee, Buffalo, Prairie, and Yosemite are not mentioned although several of these ships were used by the Navy over a long period of years.
It is unfortunate that space could not have been found to follow the development of wire rigging and double topsails and in particular steel shipbuilding in the United States.
Anyone interested in the history of our Merchant Marine will find this book well worth reading. The chapters covering the period 1500 to 1785 are not only interesting but educational.
KNOTS, SPLICES AND FANCY WORK. By Charles L. Spencer.— Yachting Publishing Corporation, 205 East 42d St., New York, N. Y., writes us:
We were very much interested to note that your August issue of your magazine contains a splendid review of Knots, Splices and Fancy Work, by Charles L. Spencer. We were, however, a little disappointed in noting that the publishers were given as Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., of Glasgow. We control the American market for this book, the price of which is $2.50. This is the same book as published in Glasgow.
We wonder if it would be against your policy to add a note in your next issue, stating that the Yachting Publishing Corporation publishes Charles L. Spencer’s Knots, Splices and Fancy Work, price $2.50.
Thumb-Nail Reviews of New Books
China Fights for Her Life. By H. R. Ekins and Theon Wright. New York: Whittlesey House. 325 pages; $2.75.
Japan in China. By T. A. Bisson. New York: The Macmillan Company. 405 pages; $3.00.
The first books written about the war in China are now in print. Here are two obviously independent efforts, which utilize various sources, and therefore supplement each other nicely. Although they reach the same general conclusions, they make interesting reading.
Japan in China is the more thorough in its research and presentation as the author has spent ten years in the Orient as a representative of the Foreign Policy Association. China Fights For Her Life, a collaboration of two veteran UP correspondents with extensive Far Eastern experience, does not pretend to be more than a running account of what has happened, as unbiased newspapermen see it. Of the two, it is the more entertaining reading.
Both are unhesitatingly recommended.
J. W. R. Infantry Journal.