Years ago, these Camp Valcartier postcards were probably all purchased from the same dealer. I did notice the Canadian Northern equipment right away (a map and track profile follow). I don't think I ever realized how two of the postcards were connected.
Above: I thought it was quite practical that the military would use a standard house plan to quickly build a headquarters building. In fact, this was once a farmhouse - from one of the many farms purchased and expropriated as part of Canada's mobilization plan. At the onset of the war in 1914, Minister of Militia and Defence Sam Hughes threw the carefully-designed professional mobilization plan out the window and improvised on a grander scale.
'Valcartier Camp' became much larger than previously planned. Originally 2000 hectares had been purchased in June 1913 to train 5000 soldiers. With the outbreak of the war Hughes added another 3480 hectares ... for a total of over 50 square kilometres.
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That Sam Hughes! ...
For most of his life, Hughes was an enthusiastic member of the militia. He was disappointed when he was not allowed to participate in putting down the North-West Rebellion in 1885. Hughes eventually found his true calling as ... the owner of a local newspaper (the Victoria Warder) ... an MP from Lindsay, Ontario ... and a government minister.
He didn't like: Catholics, French-Canadians, professional soldiers, and anyone who disagreed with him - he was always right. As minister, he tried to award himself the Victoria Cross for his activities during the Boer War. During the Boer War and the First World War Hughes was never under the command any officer in the chain of command, but he always wore his militia uniform.
For army officers who were accustomed to a chain of command and a proper professional way of doing things - at Valcartier, or in Europe - the constant interference of Sam Hughes was frustrating. As Hughes prowled around, he didn't hesitate to dress-down officers in front of those under their command.
He was a tough man who liked physical fighting and he loathed 'softness' in men. He had typical Victorian views on the superiority of the British way. His certainty that citizen soldiers were superior to full-time professional soldiers ... fit nicely into reality as the First World War ground on. The professional soldiers were quickly used up. 'Pals Regiments' (as invented by Kitchener) - made up of citizens with the same interests or in same profession - were used by Hughes to facilitate recruiting.
The fact that he enjoyed 'militia-style shooting' contributed to his error in promoting the Canadian-made Ross Rifle. It was an excellent rifle, well-suited to target shooting and hunting. However, as the standard for Canadian infantry troops the Ross jammed under rapid-fire conditions and when exposed to battlefield dirt - of which there would be plenty.
Getting back to Camp Valcartier ...
Looking at the newspapers of late 1914, there were many articles and railway advertisements regarding travel to Valcartier. The invitations was not limited to volunteers eager to join the army. The general public was encouraged to come, book a local hotel room, and observe the contribution the Dominion of Canada was making in its support of the British Empire.
You can see the Canadian Northern Railway coaches above. Cars without vestibules also appear in other photographs. Perhaps the latter were used in the final stages ... when railway shuttle trains were running between Valcartier and Quebec City as the men of the First Contingent, and their equipment, were being loaded onto ships.
While the Canadian Northern's Quebec and Lake St John Railway provided material support for the Valcartier effort - the Canadian Northern would soon become an early casualty of the war. When the shooting started, Europeans and Americans had more lucrative investment opportunities than wilderness railways. Perhaps the federal government could help?
Canada, itself, was having cashflow problems as it picked up the tab for its military contributions to the British Empire. This national financial burden actually aided Hughes in his insistence that the Canadian Expeditionary Force should fight as one unit under Canadian command ... and therefore under his influence as the minister in uniform.
Perhaps this was Hughes' one redeeming quality. And we'd probably agree with him that the British Empire's military hierarchy was often terribly condescending in its relations with its colonies ... er, I mean, dominions.
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The paragraphs below come from a 450-page American book about the first few years of the war. It included a 30-page supplementary chapter, tacked onto the end, about Canada's effort.
... Actually, on August 4th, ... the Government didn't yet own all of Valcartier.
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| from: Europe's Greatest World-War; Thomas H Russell/John A Cooper; '1914'; JL Nichols Co, Toronto. |
... a plan of Camp Valcartier on the internet shows a number of stub tracks, short pocket tracks and a balloon track for the quick turning of passenger train consists.
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On the government railway map from 1906 below, you will recognize some names of railways which became part of Mackenzie and Mann's eastern Canadian Northern Railway network. If you spot the red Quebec & Lake St John label ... the original settlement of Valcartier can be seen to the right of the red letter 'Q'.
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| from: Atlas of Canada; 1906; Government of Canada. natural-resources.canada.ca |
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Here is the profile of the Quebec & Lake St John railway and you can see that Valcartier is about 17 miles from Quebec City.
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| from: Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec |
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The two linked postcards ...
There was a large circus-size tent which housed a drop-in and support centre - signed as a 'chez nous' for soldiers at Camp Valcartier. These two postcards to Ontario - one for Port Dalhousie and one for St Catharines - were probably obtained there. Virtually all of the thousands of soldiers here were housed in those bell tents shown above. There were few permanent buildings at Valcartier and you can often see farm houses and barns in the distance.
The wartime departure dates of solitary fast troop transports, and convoys, were kept as secret as possible as the U-boat menace developed. This first large wartime convoy of World War One seems to have been less of a secret.
The large movement of soldiers and ships - escorted by British warships - probably overwhelmed the organizational readiness of both the German U-boat fleet and the Canadian officers and chaplains responsible for censoring mail.
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The addressee is rotated 180 degrees and reproduced below so you can read it more easily.
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| from: The World War, Vol 1; Holland Thompson; 1921; Grolier Society. |
This painting looks more impressive in full colour, but I wanted to include this century-old description.
Accounts state that this was the largest convoy of ships to ever across the Atlantic, up to this point.
Harold Wolhaupter would have been on one of these ships.
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| from: The World War, Vol 1; Holland Thompson; 1921; Grolier Society. |
And Harold Wolhaupter would have spent about 4 months camped out on this plain. It was one of the rainiest winters on record. Epidemics of diseases such as diptheria and meningitis made the rounds of the soldiers living in tents, pitched in the standing water on the poorly-drained fields.
Across the Channel, the early 'war of movement' was bogging down. After the Germans failed to take Paris, they made tactical retreats to nearby high ground and dug in. The stalemated trench war began.
Initially, those commanding the armies of the British Empire didn't know quite what to do with the troops from the dominions and colonies. Training in the rapidly-evolving tactics of trench warfare seemed to be a good investment ... at least until the necessary deployment decisions could be made.
... Differences of strategy between the British and their French allies often made things complicated.
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| from: The World War, Vol 1; Holland Thompson; 1921; Grolier Society. |
Notice how young they are.
Trenches were used, because they saved lives. With the potent weapons of modern industrialized warfare ... like the machine gun, quick-loading field guns, and howitzers, the soldiers had to be below ground level just to survive. However, trenches provided no protection from poison gases - such as the heavier-than-air chlorine gas which the Canadians experienced at the Second Battle of Ypres in early 1915.
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Meanwhile, recruiting efforts had already been underway for the Second Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force ...
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| from: Canadian War Posters; Marc H Choko; 2012; Worth Press. |
The war dragged on. Extensive barbed wire entanglements placed in front of the trenches funneled enemy attackers into paths through the wire which were well-targeted by machine gun emplacements. Artillery barrages directed at the other side's elaborate trench networks took a steady toll on those rotating forward to occupy the front-line trenches, those occupying the front-line and those rotating back to rest areas.
Fatigue parties were kept busy with activities like resupplying the front line with food and ammunition, reinforcing parapets, dugouts ('artillery bomb shelters') and trenches ... and working on the barbed wire entanglements by night.
Telegraph and telephone network wires were in constant need of repair by specialists as wires were broken by artillery fire. Runners (including one named Adolf Hitler on the other side) filled in gaps in the communication systems ... ensuring that the commanders at the rear could send orders all the way to those in the front trenches.
From time to time the enemy's trenches would be seized in an attack. A hasty engineering effort then had to be made to build a defensive parapet and firing step to protect against an immediate counter-attack. The enemy trenches and territory 'won' and held would contain water, mud, corpses, bodies torn apart by artillery, shallow improvised graveyards and the ever-present well-nourished battlefield rats.
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| from: Canadian War Posters; Marc H Choko; 2012; Worth Press. |
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Harold Wolhaupter in France in 1917
The map below shows the status of part of the Western Front, two-and-a-half years after Harold Wolhaupter left Valcartier.
The map shows the front lines in the days immediately after Canada's 'coming of age as a nation' at Vimy Ridge.
Harold Wolhaupter will be going into battle at Fresnoy.
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| from: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War; Col GWL Nicholson; 1962; Minister of National Defence. |
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A German soldier's memoir of World War One includes this typical description of the artillery barrages
in the days before the Canadian advance to take the little town of Fresnoy and the area around it.
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| from: Storm of Steel; Ernst Jünger; 1920,1961; Penguin. |
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The Canadian advance on Fresnoy.
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| from: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War; Col GWL Nicholson; 1962; Minister of National Defence. |
[The account discusses Lieutenant Combe. In this paragraph, it should read 'enemy' grenades (not 'energy' grenades). The scanning and proofing of a hard-copy book into electronic form would be a long and tedious process.]
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| from: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War; Col GWL Nicholson; 1962; Minister of National Defence. |
Above, is the account of the events on 3 May 1917.
Below, is the account of the Germans' recapturing of what was left of Fresnoy on 5 May 1917.
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| from: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War; Col GWL Nicholson; 1962; Minister of National Defence. |
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Sergeant Harold Phillip Wolhaupter (age 22) of the Canadian Infantry, Central Ontario Regiment
was killed during the first day of the battle at Fresnoy, 3 May 1917.
His name is recorded on the Vimy Memorial.
He was the only son of Mary Adelaide Wolhaupter, of 9 Salina St, St Catharines, Ontario,
and the late George B. Wolhaupter. (source veterans.gc.ca).
"Inscribed on the ramparts of the Vimy Memorial are the names of over 11,000 Canadian soldiers
who were posted as 'missing, presumed dead' in France."
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| from: Books of Remembrance, Peace Tower. veterans.gc.ca |