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Canadian Expeditionary
Force Study Group
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| Component: |
Reorganized, Absorbed or Disbanded Units |
| Location of War Diaries: |
- Library and Archives Canada
- CEFSG War Diary Transcription
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Background:
| Love reports (page 99) that in
March 1917, some 57 battalions were absorbed into 26 reserve
battalions, grouped into territorial regiments bearing
provincial designations. Reserve battalions were allowed
to have a strength of 2,000 as compared to approximately 1,100
for a normal strength battalion. Love provides a complete
list of the reserve battalions on page 92 of his text.
This page originally contained a list of
units that were reorganized or disbanded and thus do not show on
the list of "units serving in the field". To commence
this list, we identified the units that are missing in the
general numerical list in the Nicholson text.
Chris Wight reported in his Forum
Post on the issue of units that were dropped from the Order
of Battle due to shortages of men to bolster the battalions.
The 60th and 73rd, both
Quebec Battalions, were dropped from the order of battle
because Quebec simply could not recruit enough men to fill the
ranks of their existing Battalions. The 73rd suffered heavy
casualties during Vimy and were replaced by Nova Scotia's 85th
Battalion. The 60th was a different story though, there ranks
were full yet they were told they were to be replaced by
Ontario's 116th Battalion. If you read the 60th's War Diary,
you will see the Adjutant was quite indignant at the Battalion
being disbanded.
Dropping a battle tested unit was not popular so when several
other Provinces hit the wall when it came to recruiting
replacements, the Battalion was retained but its affiliated
Province was changed. These Battalions were Manitoba's 44th
which became affiliated with New Brunswick (August 1918) and
the following British Columbia Battalions: 47th became
affiliated with Western Ontario (February 1918); 54th and
102nd became affiliated with Central Ontario (August 1917).
As these lists developed, the level of
detail available required that we split this master list into a
series of sub-lists that you will find in the main header.
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Sub-Components:
The following designations are not based on the
work of others but on the review of the list of all battalions
by the CEFSG members. As time permits, this will
need to be integrated with the other lists, such as that
prepared by Love. For the moment, we direct the reader /
researcher to that original text. A summary table has now
been formed in a format similar to this example: (you can find
that here as a Matrix
Utility)
| Reserve Battalion |
Absorbed By |
Trained |
Reinforced |
| 9th Reserve Battalion |
21st Reserve Battalion |
56th, 63rd,66th, 82nd,
89th, 145th, 151st, 192nd, 194th, 202nd |
none |
 | Redesignated:
If a battalion was shown as being redesignated to
another main category (i.e. railway troops, forestry) then
the battalion is listed under that title. A few that
were shown as redesignated but do not have their own section
are in this general redesignated category.
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| Original 5th: Battalions that were in the original
5th Division formed in January 1917 and broken up in
February 1918 to increase the establishment of the existing
divisions in France. These units are also detailed in
the separate section on the 5th Division.
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| Pioneer
Battalions: These
"working units" were set up came about from the
reorganization of the divisional structure as a means to
free "fighting units" from labour related
tasks. As such the Pioneer Battalions were part of the
Divisional structure. In March of 1918 another
reorganization resulted in the end of the pioneer battalions
as they were absorbed into the Divisional Engineering
Brigade.
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| Canadian Independent
Force: The
CIF. was a special unit under the command of Brutinel during
the last 100 days. It formed and disbanded several times in
that period. Under Brutinel's command this special
unit took orders from no one and fought under their own imitative
to great success
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| To Supply
Reinforcements: The units are listed here if the
references showed that it was "broken up" or used to
supply reinforcements, rather that shown as having been
"absorbed" by other units (active or reserve).
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| Absorbed
by Reserve Battalion: These are units that are
listed clearly as having been absorbed by one of the 35
Reserve Battalions. These are those classified into
that category by either the text of Stewart or that of Love.
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| Absorbed by
Active Battalion: This category was used when the references indicated that the
unit was "absorbed" by another unit(s) rather than
just a statement that it was "broken up" to supply
reinforcements or if the unit was clearly absorbed by a
reserve battalion.
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| Moved to the Canadian Forestry
Corps: These
battalions were moved to the labour component of the
Canadian Forestry Corps.
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| Moved to Canadian Railway
Troops: These
battalions were moved to the labour component of the
Canadian Railway Troops. |
Note: The category that used to exist called
"Other Units" has now been erased as all battalions
have been accounted for in one of the above categories. |
Primary References:
| Love, D. W. 1999. "A Call to Arms"
The Organization and Administration of Canada's Military in World
War One. Bunker to Bunker Books, Winnipeg & Calgary,
Canada.
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| Stewart, C. H. 1970. "Overseas" The
Lineages and Insignia of the Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914
-1919. Little & Stewart, Mission Press, Toronto, Canada.
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| Meek, John F. 1971. "Over the Top! The Canadian Infantry in the First World War. Privately Published, Orangeville Ontario Canada. |
Secondary References:
| Neil Burn's Summary Spreadsheet, March 13, 2006 (now integrated in
the summary table) |
Internet References:
| This Page Last
Updated On: |
Sunday February 17, 2008 02:28:49 PM -0500
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