It's Remembrance Day. What do I remember and whom?
My Grandfather Alec went to War from Canada in the fall of 1914. Being one of the few professionals before the war he was among the first to go and was in France, except for a few leaves, from February 1915 to when he was wounded during the breakout on September 9, 1918.
Two years ago my Uncle Robert, his remaining son, and I went to France to follow in his footsteps. A few memories of that trip.
How small it is - The British, and hence Canadian sector, of the western front is tiny. Maybe less than the size of PEI. So millions of men lived and died in this small place. As you read this you may think what an odd observation? But this small size was a feature that we have never considered. What must it have been to live and die in such a small place for so many years. We spent much of our trip in Arras. Vimy Ridge is just out of town. The high ground where the Germans sat for the bulk of the war rings the north side of the town and you can see into Arras from the heights. German Guns had Arras in range the entire war and there was little or nothing left above ground. Below Arras are thousands of miles of tunnels and caverns. These were started maybe a thousand years ago and were the source of the limestone that is used for building in the area. So when Alec and all his comrades were back from the line they lived like cavemen. There was no movement. It must have been so claustrophobic. The living and the dead shared the same space for 4 years.
The British sector was in the Arras - Ypres area and Alec and the CEF shuttled back and forth between the two for most of the war. The battles of 1915 are in the outskirts of Arras. Vimy in April 1917, as I said, is just up the road. The breakout in 1918 across the canal is just down the road.
The Menin Gate - Ghost and loss - The Menin Gate in Ypres takes you out of town to the front. When you stand at dusk and hear the last post played by the Firemen of Ypres, you feel the ghosts walk by you on their way to death. You cannot comprehend the numbers involved. Every mile on every road is a cemetery. They were nearly all boys. As I walked down the rows and saw their ages, I thought of James my own dear son. What would have been like to lose him like this? Many were named but many were found in such a bad state that all is is said on the grave is "A soldier of the Great War - Known unto God". Many just disappeared churned into the mud. The extent of the loss can only be barely comprehended if you go there and see cemetery after cemetery and headstone after headstone. We became amazed at how many Canadians there were. Canada is everywhere on the front.
Vimy and Canada - We mostly have forgotten or never knew the full extent of the CEF's role. A casual visitor will only notice the prevalence of Canadian graves. What is hardly known any more is that the CEF were the guys that solved the problem of artillery and hence became the shock troops of the war from 1917 onwards. The CEF had all the tough jobs from Vimy onward. They closed out Passchendale. They led the breakout in 1918. But our pivotal role began in our culture. Who were these Canadians in 1914.? Many of them were in fact British who had emigrated to Canada tired of an industrial life and longing for more freedom. The PPCLI was mainly made up from these men. Most were dead by March of 1915 after the Canadians held the line during the first gas attack. Many were from farms. Canada was primarily an agricultural nation at the time. They were big boys, not afraid of work, who could fix anything, who took shit from no one, who were used to being out in all weathers. Who were their officers? Amateurs. Who became deeply suspicious of the British's casual view of losses. A group who under the greatest generals of the war, Arthur Currie, a former real-estate salesman from BC and Andy MacNaughton, a former physics prof form McGill, thought through the problems of how to take ground without slaughtering your own men - A tight group who mainly knew each other well and who had a high sense of mutual trust. Many had been only a generation away from the life of their men. Many had had a similar hardy life. The officers were close to their men in a way that no other army was then. This was not a feudal army but an army of brothers. I have a menu of a dinner of the few that survived from Feb 15. Pencilled in are the signatures of those that attended. As well as Currie and MacNaugton and other luminaries are the names of privates with their number as their badge of honour. What other army would think that this was normal?
The high point of our visit - The scale of the loss is overwhelming. After 4 days we ended up in a very small cemetery across the canal where the breakout had been made that ended the war. We were in the remains of the dressing station where Alec would have been taken too after being gassed that day in September. We had ended our tour and exhausted and overwhelmed by what we had witnessed and what we had imagined over 4 days of seeing the graves of millions, we started back to the hotel. As we were driving I recalled that Norm Christie's guide book had recommended that if you had time, we should find this tiny cemetery. It was on our way so we decided to do that. I regret that I cannot recall its name.
Well there it was was maybe 30 yards square alone in the middle of a field. Standing guard over it an Oak tree. It was a tiny Island of white crosses in a sea of green. We struggled through the boggy field and entered the latched gate.
There before us was the most gripping site of our trip. 23 crosses together and then a few other in a different part of the cemetery. Who were these men? There were several officers all highly decorated at least two MC's one with 3 bars. There were several senior NCOs all highly decorated. They had all died on the same day - I can't recall the exact day but it was in late October 1918 - days before the end. They were all in one regiment - I think the RCR. Then it hit me. These were the veterans. These were the front-line fighting men who had been there the entire war. They had survived everything and had then died all together at the very end. My Uncle Robert and I had walked by thousands of graves and had become numb. But here was an intimacy. Not faceless numbers but a band of brothers who must have shared so much - who must have sensed in mid October that the war was all but won. Who might have thought that they might make it. We were overwhelmed. The vast scale of the loss presented by touring the entire front was too big for us to comprehend. This tiny cemetery with its Oak tree we could understand. It had a story that we could hear.
I think that have forgotten. We have forgotten because we live such different lives that we cannot remember what we have never experienced our selves. We cannot reach them. Especially from a book, a story or a film. But when my uncle Robert and I walked among them, now and then, the physical memory of the ground, the graves and the weather whispered to us.
Please find the time to go yourself. Spend a few days with them on the roads and in the fields. It is a small thing to do for those who gave everything for us. You will find a new sense of our country and you will be changed.
If you would like to learn more about how wonderful the Canadians were in France and maybe to find out what they could teach us today then follow this link
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Lessons for UsSo what has the Corps, Byng and Currie got to do with us today?The story of the Corps is one where a “small organization” from “over there” learned how to replace a doctrine built by a much larger culture, based on abstractions, process, control and lack of trust with a new doctrine based on practicality, results, order and the harnessing of the human spirit.
The story of the Corps is how this small unit rewrote the book and showed the world how to harness and apply an entirely new set of technology. This a story of changing others by showing the example of a better way.
The story of Byng is how a man imbued by the old system, could have the courage and insight to see what had to be done and to select the agents of change like Currie and MacNaughton to make the changes.
The story of Currie is how an outsider could develop the leadership required to break free from conventional wisdom. The story of Currie is how a man in the heat of the war of machines could see that it would be the human spirit that would be the decisive factor.
The story of MacNaughton is how a deep thinker could be given the role of thinking through the meaning of the new and of how he was allowed to create a safe container for thinkers and ideas at a time when action seemed more important.
The story of the CEF is how a group of men grew in self confidence and how their feelings of community and competence enabled them not only to endure the unendurable but to excel in performance while living the unendurable.
The story is about an organization that asked itself a number of fundamental questions. Such as what really is our role? Such as how does this new technology really work? Such as what truly is the environment that we are working in? Such as who are we really working with and what do they need to be successful?
These are questions that we often dare not ask ourselves. These are questions that a Learning Organization has to ask itself!
