Canada at War: THE SERVICES: Whose Army?

Britain’s War Secretary Sir James Grigg rose in the House of Commons in London one day last week to charge that the Canadian Army in Germany was, in fact, not Canadian. Said he: “United Kingdom troops form two-thirds of the Canadian First Army.” He could not, he said, give details, for security reasons. But two facts did pass censorship: last week the Canadian First Army was about three-fourths British; the “Canadians” who last month broke through the formidable Reichswald were mainly the British XXX Corps, seasoned in North Africa and Sicily.

The London Daily Telegraph chimed in: “The ‘First Canadian Army’ has become a misleading title.” It suggested that “Anglo-Canadian Army” would be better.

Most Canadians at home had known or suspected all along that their Army in Western Europe was Canadian in name only. They did not get huffy now that the news was out. Said the Halifax Herald: the complaint is “entirely understandable.”

But the business of giving credit where credit is due should work both ways. Canadians wanted the world to know that some 20% of all the flyers in Britain’s Royal Air Force are Canadians, that the battle-experienced British Eighth Army in Italy includes the Canadian I Corps—which is one good reason why there is such a small proportion of Canadian troops on the Rhine.