Between the tunic, or military jacket, the stout shoes or boots, the spats and woollen trousers, the typical Canadian soldier in the Great War would have worn a simple greyback shirt. Their uniform was topped off with what they called a ‘tin hat’ or helmet, that provided scant protection against the sharpshooter snipers constantly searching for human prey from across the line.
Perhaps the most resonant depiction of those snipers that you could ever find has been portrayed in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road (still available as an eBook). We picked up our own hard copy at Bearly Used Books in Parry Sound, Ontario, quite a few years ago now.
Just as the story of the involvement of First Nations men in the first World War had been opaque until Boyden’s novel was published, so, I think, has the history of the Van-Doos, the Vingt-Deuxième Battalion of French Canadian soldiers, been marginalised in the mists of time away from popular consciousness. I’d be delighted if readers could contribute any additional source material about this Battalion. The Encyclopedia Canada does present a significant article on this band of soldiers, which repays scrutiny.
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