Remarkable also was the development of officer ability. The Canadian army, after the first two years, was officered entirely by Canadians. The business man, with his experience in organization and executive, became a military administrator in a wonderfully short space of time. The corps commander had never been in any military school except the Canadian militia. Of the seven or eight men who served as divisional commanders, not more than three could qualify as professional soldiers before the war. Of the brigadiers and battalion commanders probably 90 per cent had never attended a military school for more than a month. Canada's army was a citizen army, commanded and administered by men without business training. Such professional soldiers as Canada had before the war became administrators rather than leaders in battle. The war developed so much that was new in tactics and technique that the militia officer had almost an equal chance with the so-called military expert. If the individual soldier ranked high in initiative and valor, he also must be credited with a loyalty to discipline and to his national traditions. He quickly acquired steadiness and obedience to his officers. He respected himself and his superiors. While never servile nor obsequious, he rendered such service as made the fighting units effective because of their cohesion and compactness. That was remarkably exhibited in the first great engagement in which Canadians took part, the Second Battle of Ypres. It was equally in evidence at Amiens, Arras, Cambrai, and Mons during the final period of the war. The Canadian never forgot he was a Canadian. He had such a sublime faith in himself and in his army as a whole, that his ambition was only fully realized when he was asked to do more than was usually asked of a soldier in this titanic struggle. He never despised the enemy, but he never lost the feeling that he was physically and mentally the enemy's superior. Excepting, perhaps, the Guards Division, the Fifty-first Division, and the Australians, the Canadian army yielded the palm to no portion of the British fighting forces.