Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 99/397

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BOOK REVIEWS

THE EMPIRE ON THE WESTERN FRONT: THE BRITISH 62ND AND CANADIAN 4TH DIVISONS IN BATTLE, by Geoffrey Jackson. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2019. ISBN: 9780774860147, pp. 334, $95.00 CAN. The past decade or so has seen a steady flow of new scholarly studies of British and Dominion divisions in the Great War. These studies have included published works by Alun Thomas (on the 8th Division), James Roberts (19th Division), K.W. Mitchinson (48th Division), Kenneth Radley (1st Canadian Division), and Robert Stevenson (1st Australian Division), as well as doctoral theses by Stuart Mitchell (32nd Division) and Christopher Forrest (52nd Division). In this latest work, Geoffrey Jackson adopts a fresh approach by analysing and comparing the experiences and development of two such units: the 4th Canadian Division and the 62nd (West Riding) Division, a British 2nd-line Territorial formation. Both were among the last British and Dominion divisions to be deployed on the Western Front. The 4th Canadian Division began to arrive there in August 1916, while the 62nd crossed the Channel in the following January. Consequently, Jackson’s primary focus is on the second half of the war and especially on the nature of the fighting in the Hundred Days in 1918. There is nothing particularly original in Jackson’s overall thesis or conclusions; he comes down powerfully in support of the now widely-accepted view that an identifiable, if irregular, learning process took place in the BEF from 1916 onwards—not least in the use of artillery and the development of small-unit infantry tactics and firepower. Jackson also follows the lead given by Canadian historians such as Bill Rawling and Tim Cook in seeking to set Canadian and other Dominion formations firmly within the context of the BEF as a whole. He thus avoids the narrower, more nationalistic interpretations of those historians, including Pierre Berton and Shane Schreiber, who tend to emphasise their belief in the innate superiority of Canadian troops when compared with their British counterparts. Jackson certainly does not overlook the various advantages that were enjoyed by the 4th Canadian Division, and other formations in the Canadian Corps, but were largely denied to British divisions like the 62nd. The semi-autonomous status of the Canadians as Dominion troops gave them greater political clout beyond GHQ, and guaranteed them at least some say as to how, when and where the Canadian Corps would be employed. Indeed, as Jackson notes, the Canadian Corps was granted several months’ rest from major operations between the Third Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Amiens, whereas during the same period the British 62nd Division fought at Cambrai in November 1917, at Bucquoy and Rossignol Wood during the German March offensive, and at the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918. Moreover, while most British divisions had their infantry component reduced from twelve battalions to nine early in 1918, Canadian divisions retained their twelve-battalion organisation. This, in turn, gave them a weightier punch and more staying-power as shock troops in the attack. Finally, the 4th Canadian Division remained, for most of its time on the Western