In The Footsteps of the Canadian Corps:

Canada’s First World War 1914-1918

Authors: Angus Brown and Richard Gimblett

Published by Magic Light Publishing, Ottawa ON , Canada
Soft-cover edition: C$24.95
Hard-cover edition: C$35.00
160 pages

ISBN: 1-894673-24-7

Book Review by Major Robert Day

In The Footsteps of the Canadian Corps: Canada ’s First World War 1914 – 1918 is a fascinating book.  In many ways it resembles the work done by Ken Bell in his 1970’s book Not In Vain.  The basis of both books being the return to old battlefields and pictorially comparing the landscapes and locations of combat while the conflict was still fresh and there condition today.  Ken Bell tackled the WWII campaign in Northwest Europe while Angus Brown and Richard Gimblett ventured further back to the European battlefields of the Canadian Corps during World War I.

            Here the comparison ends.  While Ken Bell had the advantage of the assistance of a significant number of veterans when he was producing his book some thirty years ago, Angus Brown and Richard Gimblett could only call upon audio and literary archives to produce their work, an infinitely harder task.  Regardless of difficulty, both books have added to a growing rich tapestry of our national wartime experiences.

            What I found amazing with the book by Angus Brown and Richard Gimblett was the ability of the camera to capture the same features of the various locales of the battles that had been fought almost a century before.  While there has been significant changes made to buildings and some of the locations, it is still easy to discern the damage done by the “Great War.”  While we seem ready to accept the legacy of change or damage wrought by war upon the individual, it takes a work such as this to remind us of the equally horrible atrocities of modern war upon the terrain of war.  It sharply brought into focus memories of trench systems, pill boxes and obstacles that I encountered throughout Europe during my service with NATO.  Nature has not reclaimed all of the damage and it may take centuries before archeologists have to dig for even major traces of conflict.

            In this respect, this book not only serves to enrich our understanding of the Canadian contribution to the First World War in terms of the various cemeteries that are recorded but also to record the hellish conditions that many of the Canadian Corps faced on a day-to-day basis.  For this reason, as well as the skilled narratives and excellent photographs, this book is a must for all readers who profess an interest in Canadian military history and who seek to understand the roles that their grandfathers or great-grandfathers played in Canada ’s national development.     

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