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In an 1901 census of London Ontario Leopold Donohue was listed as
being one year old and born on November 1, 1899. On the papers filed with the
Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force Leo stated his birth day was November 1, 1897.
The new birth date made him 18 years old and 4 months. If the census was correct, and I think it is,
he was actually 16 years 4 months.
Canada's efforts in the First World War. The First World War marked the "coming of age" of Canada. Its results were terrible thousands dead, thousands more wounded and displaced. While the war did not take place in Canada’s ‘back yard’, its effects were certainly felt at home. Letters and diaries recorded what the soldiers went through hell and back is a phrase often repeated. Shortly after the beginning of the war, The RCR was sent to garrison on the island of Bermuda to permit a British regiment to be sent to the front. After 13 months in Bermuda and a short time in England, the RCR arrived at the Western Front in Nov 1915 as part of the newly formed 3rd Canadian Division. The Battle of the Somme, from July to November 1916, was typical of the bloody stalemate that prevailed in the mid-years of the war, with opposing armies relentlessly grinding each other. The purpose of the offensive was to relieve German pressure on the French at Verdun. Densely packed waves of infantrymen were sent from the trenches into devastating rifle and machine gun fire, resulting in 60,000 British lost on the first day of fighting alone and only 10kms gained in 5 months of fighting. In the end, the British had 400,000 casualties (killed or wounded), the Germans 500,000 and the French 200,000. The Canadians, as part of the British army, sustained more than 24,000 casualties. Easter Monday, 9 April 1917, Canadian troops began the impossible operation of the attack on Vimy Ridge a feat the French army had lost 150,000 men trying to achieve. At 0503hrs, all four Canadian divisions stormed forward simultaneously. Within hours the 3rd Division had reached the far side of the slope; by 12 April the entire 11km ridge had been secured. While the Canadians sustained 10,000 casualties, the effort established the nation’s soldiers as elite shock-troops specialists in the assault role and was a defining moment in the development of Canada’s national identity. Constant tension, danger and hardship ruled life in a trench. Any moment could bring death from sudden bombardment or the deadly fire of a sniper. Every day greeted soldiers with cold, wet, mud, vermin, disease, and illness. But the troops survived, supported by the intense camaraderie of the trenches and a host of minor comforts from home and other diversions that helped to get them through the war. The RCR ended the war by being the first allied unit to re-enter the City of Mons in Belgium on Nov 10 1918. Mons is where the first armed clash had occurred in 1914. (from the pages of http://www.rcrmuseum.ca). |
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