THE COST OF WAR
Demobilization and the Long Journey Home
The fighting may have ended in November 1918, but it took nine months to bring back the 300 000 soldiers and dependents who were mobilized in Europe back to Canada. This was a result of many factors: deficient administrative organization by the Canadian army, worker’s strikes, and a general lack of available ships to make the trip. In fact, the ships that the military used during the war reverted to their original function of transporting commercial products before the troops were ready to return home!
During this time, soldiers were restless and impatient to go back to their civilian lives after having spent so much time away overseas. Many of the soldiers in charge of occupying Germany were those who had been in Europe the longest – since 1915. It was quite frustrating for them to be tasked with a new mission while there were fresher troops garrisoned in Great Britain. But things were not much better in Britain. There, the Canadians waited for their return home in holding camps.
The living conditions at the camps were pitiful: food was rationed and unappetizing and the poor living quarters provided little protection from the harsh temperatures outside. To top it all off, a violent flu epidemic, which started in February 1918, made the soldiers’ return even more difficult. As they returned home, the soldiers also unfortunately brought the flu back with them, which led to many additional civilian deaths. Even with strict medical check-ups, the Influenza epidemic (also referred as the Spanish flu) caused the death of 50 000 Canadians.
Frustrations came to a high point on March 4, 1919, in North Wales, when several Canadian soldiers rebelled against their officers at Kinmel Park – one of the largest holding camps in Britain which lodged over 15 000 soldiers. The riot lasted two days and resulted in the deaths of several Canadian soldiers. The riot at Kinmel Park was not an isolated incident. Several acts of mutiny also occurred in other locations while the troops waited to return to Canada. Eventually over 267 000 soldiers (at the rate of 50 000 soldiers per month) were repatriated by sea, culminating in the full demobilization of the Canadian army in August 1919.
“And at that time we had what they call the Rhyl riot. The war had ended and they were bringing people back from France and sending them back home and us fellows that had just gone over, we were held up there for quite a while for our papers to come through. They got quite disappointed by being held up there after these new fellows just came over and were going back first and they broke out a riot and somehow or other somebody got some live guns and that started a riot and I remember one fellow by the name of Hickman from Dorchester. He was over on the first contingent and just by accident he was killed in that riot.”
— Henry Scovil (source)
Think: Why were the soldiers angry? What were the causes? Do you think the soldiers were justified to be angry?
Coming Back Wounded
Approximately 40% of Canadian soldiers who served overseas came back from the front wearing the consequences of the war on their faces and bodies. Disfigurement, broken limbs and mental injuries led to serious problems when trying to reintegrate society: difficulty finding jobs, social isolation, loss of identity and pride, difficulty finding a life partner, alcoholism, and even suicide.
However, in an attempt to help veterans with social reintegration and to provide a better life to the wounded, the years following the First World War saw rapid progress in the development of modern plastic surgery and prosthetics.
Due to the nature of war and of medical services at the time, many soldiers returned with amputated limbs. As a result of increased demand, the quality of prosthetic limbs greatly improved following WWI. For example, prosthetic legs were made more efficient and lighter than earlier models. Manufacturers replaced traditional materials, such as wood and steel, in favour of aluminum. They also added padding to make the devices more comfortable.
Prosthetic arms were usually made to be functional and were composed of wood, leather, rawhide or metal. Most models had interchangeable parts and moveable joints that the user could modify depending on the usage requirements. For example, the user could change out a wooden hand that resembled a natural arm for a hook that would facilitate his tasks in a work environment. To serve the high number of war amputees, the production of prosthetics also shifted from being custom-made for an individual, to being industrially mass produced.
After loosing his left leg during the war, Sidney Lambert became heavily involved in veteran’s rights in Canada. In 1920, he helpded found the War Amps, a national association for the Canadian war amputees, and stayed involved until his death (Toronto Public Library).
Ethelbert ‘Curley’ Christian lost all his limbs after a shell exploded near him during the battle of Vimy Ridge. Despite his heavy handicap, Christian didn’t loose hope. After the war, his wife Cleopatra McPherson and him started protesting the government for funding for caregivings (Canadian War Museum).
Pearson Hall became a rehabilitation center for the blind after the war and became a place for many Canadians to learn how to deal with the loss of their sight. Pearson Hall was also the first home of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, founded by veterans Alexander Viets (second row from the front-left), Eddie Baker (first row from the front-left) and other comrades (Library and Archives Canada).
Around 200 Canadian soldiers completely lost their sight during the war, including from from shrapnel to toxic gas. Many others had damage to their vision. Blindness, at the time, was considered as a form of amputation and treatment vastly varied depending on its cause. In Britain, many soldiers would go to St. Dunstan’s Hostel to learn to live with their new handicap. Unfortunately, such facilities were not as widely available in Canada and many other soldiers had to learn from their own associations, or learn by themselves.
Known as “gueules cassées”, or broken gargoyles, a tragic number of soldiers suffered from facial disfigurement, usually resulting from shrapnel or burns. During the war, Sir Harold Gilles, an officer of the Red Cross from New Zealand, became the driving force of innovation in reconstructive surgery in the Commonwealth. He treated patients and experimented with new methods at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sicup, near London, England, a hospital that specialized in facial wounds.
Canadian Frederich Coates worked with Gilles in facial reconstruction units in England. A sculptor by trade, Coates created plaster facial models based on images of soldiers’ pre-injury faces. His work then served as architectural models that the surgeons could follow as they attempted to reconstruct soldiers’ faces.
Frederick Coates was a sculptor when he enlisted with the No. 2 Canadian Army Medical Corps. Closely working with Harold Gillies, Coates would sculpt plaster models of a patient’s face to prepare the surgery (University of Toronto Archives).
In some cases, doctors provided prosthetics to men with facial injuries. The prosthetics attached to the injured soldier’s face by straps or as part of eyeglasses and would fully cover their facial wounds. Often using the soldier’s pre-war portrait as a guide, manufacturers built the masks from copper or tin. They then painted the prosthetic to match the patient’s skin colour.
In Britain, most of the face prosthetics were made on the initiative of Captain Francis Derwent Wood who helmed what was nicknamed the Tin Noses Shops. Wood was an avid sculptor and he singlehandedly helped hundreds of soldiers by providing masks for them (Imperial War Museums).
Hearing losses were not recorded during the war and many people thought that hearing losses were only temporary at best. Unfortunately, the vast majority of soldiers suffered from permanent damages to their ears during the war which gravely affected their civilian life (Library and Archives Canada).
The constant firing of rifles and machine guns, coupled with the explosions of artillery, grenades, and mortars made the trenches a particularly loud environment. During an artillery bombardment, the noise on the battlefield could easily reach 140 decibels for extended periods of time. Doctors recorded various degrees of hearing damage within the ranks of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, but the artillerymen suffered the most, as a result of firing large guns repeatedly for hours each and every day.
Men returning to civilian life were also prone to illness due to their long exposure to the harsh and unsanitary conditions of the trenches. Many suffered from chronic pain, tuberculosis, pulmonary problems and, in some cases, had contracted a venereal disease.
The use of toxic gas was extremely damaging to soldier’s health. Even after their initial exposure, if they were to survive, many soldiers would develop long term diseases due to these toxins (Royal 22e Régiment Museum).
On November 26, 1915, sergent Walter Waddell had a shell explode near him. This traumatic experiences caused him to suffer from chest pain, bad dreams, quick fatigue and shakes. On April 10, 1916, Waddell was discharged for four weeks from the military for his mental condition — what was referred as “neurasthenia” at the time. He was wounded again on September 9 of the same year from a gunshot to the knee, implicating he returned to the front at some point (Library and Archives Canada).
While it is easy to find out how many soldiers were physically hurt by the war, it is much harder to see the psychological impact the war had on soldiers. During the war, doctors diagnosed around 9 000 Canadian soldiers with “shell-shock” (now referred to as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder).
The Cost of Victory
Canadian troops quickly earned a reputation for being strong, brave and effective. Soon, the Allies began using Canadians as “shock troops”, sending them to places where the fighting had stagnated as reinforcements and hoping to see them break through the enemy lines. The strategy was worthwhile, as the war turned in favour of the Allies in part due to the effort of the Canadians.
However, these efforts were not without consequences. The Canadian Corps sustained a high number of casualties throughout their deployment in Europe. Of the 619 636 Canadians who enlisted from 1914 to 1918, 424 000 of them served abroad. From those, 59 544 died during the war and another 172 000 were wounded. That means 57% of those who went overseas were killed or wounded.
Think: Observe the injuries the soldiers suffered during the war. How do you think they felt when they came back? How do you think it changed their lives?
