World War, 1914-1918 -- Canada; World War, 1914-1918 -- Nova Scotia
About the middle of August the entire draft was broken up, a portion of
the officers and men were absorbed into other Forestry Units, operating
in England, Scotland and the South of France. Officers that were not
disposed of in this manner transferred to the Flying Corps, Canadian
Railway Troops, Infantry and Labor Battalions, subsequently getting over
to France.
It is difficult to conceive the multitude of ways in which timber was
used for war purposes. At the Front, the Army very largely walked on
timber, lorries drove on timber, railways, light and heavy, required
huge numbers of sleepers or ties. Underground no less than above ground
was timber used for dugouts, and all the complicated contrivances
connected with trench warfare. From huts to ammunition boxes, from
duckboards to stakes for barbed wire entanglements, the uses of timber
ranged. The general specifications for a Company’s operation in this
Corps was the production of Sawn Lumber, Fuelwood, Pickets, Hurdles,
Fascines, Faggots, Continuous Rivetting and Parry Sticks.
In order to save time, and for other reasons, it was arranged that
Canadians should bring with them their own machinery and equipment of
the kind to which they were accustomed, with the necessary modifications
to adapt it to the conditions in Britain and France. The work of the
Forestry Corps was thus not only of the utmost assistance in meeting the
need of timber for the War, and in saving tonnage, but was of permanent
value in that it has knit more closely together the people of Great
Britain, with their compatriots scattered throughout Canada.
CHAPTER XXIII.
_NO. 6 DISTRICT DEPOT._
During the early part of 1918 when the Germans were making their last
great drive, few people realized that preparations were already made for
the demobilization of the Canadian Corps. These preparations were due to
the foresight of Headquarters Staff. Accordingly when the organization
of No. 6 District Depot was completed on the 18th of April, 1918, a
District Depot was established in each Military District of Canada, each
Depot being designated by the number of the Military District in which
the Depot was situated.
Lieut.-Col. B. W. Roscoe, D.S.O., was first appointed Officer
Commanding, and he had under him a small but efficient Staff, with Capt.
J. S. Davies, M.C., as Adjutant, headquarters being at Leith House,
Hollis Street, Halifax.
The functions of District Depots at first were many. Besides carrying
out ordinary discharges, all personnel in the different hospitals had to
be looked after, and in addition to this all casualties who became fit
for further service were allotted to the different Service Companies and
Battalions in the District and to their own Units Overseas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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