Tim Cook - At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914-1916, Volume 1

Praise for Tim Cook

Tim Cook can really write. Weve had trouble putting down Cooks gripping yet scholarship-driven At the Sharp End. This is the one book of many war titles coming out this season most likely to fully satisfy readers hunger for our military history. Toronto Star

An authoritative and brightly written narrative.The Gazette (Montreal)

Cook has produced an impeccably researched and immensely readable account of the Great War. The mark of a good historian is finding new ways to tell a tale we thought we knew, and Cook has that quality in spades. The Globe and Mail

Exhaustively researched and written with great narrative momentum, At the Sharp End creates an unforgettable canvas of Canadas men at war. Hill Times (Ottawa)

Cooks First World War history arrives with a differenceit is the common foot soldier that drives the narrative[A] magnificent and accessible history of the Great War. Sun-Times (Owen Sound)

Provides an intimate look at the Canadian men who fought in World War OneAn engrossing, moving experience. London Free Press

At the Sharp End is a landmark work of military scholarship and gripping narrativeFeaturing never-before-published photographs, letters, diaries, and maps, the book recountsthe Great War through soldiers moving eyewitness accounts. Scene magazine (London, Ontario)

Despite a multitude of books on the First World War, in my opinion, this stands alone. Whether you are interested in the strategy and personalities of the top brass, the real experiences of the sharp end soldier, or both, this is definitely a must for the discerning reader. Esprit de Corps military magazine

Praise for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 19171918, Volume Two

Winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction

Shortlisted for the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize

Finalist for the Ottawa Book Award

Tremendous detail and almost unstoppable narrative momentumThrough these stories of horror and heroism, what shines through most brilliantly is the complex humanity of the characters. Jury, Charles Taylor Prize 2009

Cook has written what will surely be the definitive history of the Canadian Army in the First World War. Edmonton Journal

If you want to know more about the Canadian experience in the Great War, these books are a fine resourceexhaustively researched and yet vividly accessible. The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon)

Compelling narrative[Cooks] easy-going style, interesting personal stories and attention to detail engage the reader. Ottawa Sun

Tim Cook knows more about WWI than you ever will. National Post

Military scholar John Keegan described how military history ought to be writtenrigorously but vigorously, with emotional passion but intellectual dispassion[and] Shock Troops and its predecessor, At the Sharp End, reach this lofty standard. They will remain essential reading for historians and anyone interested in the Canadian Expeditionary Force for years to come. Guelph Mercury

The one titleweve most been looking forward to this fall comes from Ottawas Tim CookShock Troops is every bit as readable as its bestselling predecessor. Bravo. Toronto Star

Gripping history. The Gazette (Montreal)

SplendidWelcome representatives of the new military history. There is much on fighting and weapons and much on generals, but also much more on the ordinary soldierThese are superb books, brilliantly researched. The Beaver

TIM COOK is the curator of the South African and First World War galleries at the Canadian War Museum, as well as an adjunct research professor at Carleton University. He is the author of No Place to Run and Clios Warriors, as well as Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 19171918, Volume Two, which won the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize and was nominated for the J.W. Dafoe Prize. He lives in Ottawa with his family.

Also by Tim Cook

No Place to Run

Clios Warriors

Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 19171918, Volume Two

PENGUIN

an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited

Canada USA UK Ireland Australia New Zealand India South Africa China

First published in Viking hardcover by Penguin Canada, 2007

Published in this edition, 2016

Copyright 2007 by Tim Cook

Maps copyright 2007 by Crowle Art Group

Cover image: Canadian Official War Photograph

Cover Design: Paul Hodgson

The credits on constitute an extension of this copyright page.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Cook, Tim, 1971

At the sharp end : Canadians fighting the Great War, 1914-1916 / Tim Cook.

Continued by: Shock troops : Canadians fighting the Great War, 1917-1918.

Volume One.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-14-305592-1 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-7352-3311-9 (electronic)

1. Canada. Canadian ArmyHistoryWorld War, 1914-1918. 2. Canada. Canadian Army. Canadian CorpsHistory. 3. World War, 1914-1918CampaignsWestern Front. 4. World War, 1914-1918Canada. I. Title.

D547.C2C555 2009 940.41271 C2009-902754-2

Ebook ISBN9780735233119

v4.1

a

For Sarah, Chloe, and Emma

C ONTENTS

MAPS

I NTRODUCTION

AT THE SHARP END

Hurtling through the air, artillery shells crash down on the enemy lines in a series of explosions that sends sandbags, clods of earth, and body parts in a geyser of solid eruptions. In the Entente lines several hundred metres away, the ground quivers and buckles in a continuous series of ripples. A newly arrived Canadian infantryman, nervous and sweating, stands ready in the front lines, minutes away from going over the top for the first, and possibly last, time. With steel helmet perched awkwardly on his head, his breath coming in quick, shallow gasps, he grips the wooden stock of his Lee-Enfield, Mark III rifle like an anchor. The bayonet, seventeen inches of cold metal, rises up past his face, pointing to the sky above the muddy trench parapet wall of rotting sandbags, now frayed and oozing wet mud after too much rain.