Review of Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War by Patrick Dennis

Borys, David

English

Scholars Commons

Canadian Military History
Volume 27 | Issue 2 Article 4
10-17-2018
"Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the
Great War (Book Reivew)" by Patrick Dennis
David Borys
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military
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Recommended Citation
Borys, David (2018) ""Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War (Book Reivew)" by Patrick Dennis," Canadian
Military History: Vol. 27 : Iss. 2 , Article 4.
Available at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol27/iss2/4
6 Book Reviews
Patrick Dennis. Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the 
Great War. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2017. 
Pp. ix + 311.
Patrick Dennis in Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the 
Great War delivers an important contribution to the historiography 
of the Canadian First World War experience through a well-
researched examination of the role that conscripted soldiers played 
in the Canadian Corps during the final year of the First World War. 
Dennis effectively challenges a false narrative that was created in the 
aftermath of that war—and one that sadly endured for too long—
that downplayed and minimised the role of conscripted soldiers 
during the Hundred Days Campaign while often incorrectly labelling 
those that fought as under-trained and of low quality. Simply put, 
Dennis clearly shows that conscripted soldiers were in fact a crucial 
and integral part of the Canadian Corps’ unprecedented success 
during its final offensive of the war, and without the steady supply of 
trained reinforcements the operational tempo that Sir Arthur Currie 
set for his corps would have been impossible.
Dennis begins his text with a discussion of the background to 
the conscription crisis and how the initial fervour for enlistment gave 
way to a steady decline in numbers as the Canadian Corps continued 
to engage the enemy on the Western Front. He briefly discusses 
the 1917 federal election and the ramifications of Prime Minister 
Borden’s implementation of conscription. Dennis then proceeds to 
a discussion of the training received by the conscripts, which by all 
accounts was equal to that of volunteers, and explores the reaction of 
the volunteers to the arrival of conscripts into their units. While this 
reaction may have been widely negative at first, Dennis clearly shows 
that, once shots were fired, these conscripts were not only prepared 
for combat, but any reticence towards them by those that volunteered 
faded quickly.
The real essence of Dennis’ study, however, comes with his 
examination of the Hundred Days Campaign, where he painstakingly 
illustrates the role played by conscript soldiers in the battles of 
that campaign. He effectively drives home two key ideas: first, that 
conscripts were an integral part of this offensive and secondly, the 
macabre reality of the constant drain on Canadian Corps manpower 
that plagued the formation during this period. There is no doubt, 
after reading Dennis’ study, that conscripted soldiers were not only 
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Borys: "Reluctant Warriors (Book Review)" by Patrick Dennis
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2018
  7C A N A D I A N  M I L I TA RY  H I S T O RY
crucial to the victories of the Canadian Corps but displayed as much 
bravery and skill as their volunteer brethren. Despite even Arthur 
Currie’s complicity in perpetuating the post-war myth that conscript 
soldiers had little to no role in the Hundred Days Campaign, Dennis 
has been able to effectively challenge both Currie’s position and the 
long-standing historiographical understanding.
One of the more fascinating themes to arise from Dennis’ study, 
however, pertains to the command capabilities of Arthur Currie during 
the Hundred Days Campaign. Though not the ultimate objective of 
his work, Dennis highlights some fairly serious command errors made 
by Canada’s legendary commander; errors that, Dennis intimates, 
were linked to the abundant availability of trained reinforcements 
because of conscription. On two key occasions in particular (the final 
day of the Second Battle of Arras in late August and the push to 
Cambrai in late September 1918), Dennis shows that Currie indeed 
drove his divisions too far, with the result being little added gain 
coupled with high casualties that in some cases removed the fighting 
power of certain battalions for the remainder of the war. As Dennis 
clearly states, “[u]nshackled from previous manpower constraints, 
Currie conducted a singular campaign of near continuous, large-scale, 
high-intensity operations, apparently without undue concern about 
shortfalls in trained replacements” (p. 230). This leads Dennis to 
further postulate that “the symbiotic relationship between the high 
costs of that success and an unprecedented flow of reinforcements 
is clearly one area of the Canadian campaign that demands further 
study” (p. 230). There is no question that Dennis has only just 
scratched the surface of this new historiographical direction. While 
Currie is rightly considered to be Canada’s finest military commander, 
this book offers a preliminary insight into his command flaws that 
have been little discussed in the literature and would benefit from a 
more in-depth study.
Thus, Patrick Dennis provides an important addition to 
Canadian military history through his examination of Canada’s 
reluctant warriors of the First World War. Dennis openly admits 
that this is not intended to be an exhaustive study of conscription 
nor even one about recruitment in the Canadian Expeditionary 
Force; it is nonetheless an important contribution to the growing 
canon of studies on this particular topic regarding the Canadian 
war experience. It nicely complements works by Jack Granatstein 
on the subject, even appearing to have induced Dr. Granatstein to 
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Canadian Military History, Vol. 27 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 4
https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol27/iss2/4
8 Book Reviews
re-examine his previous assumptions about Canadian conscripts in 
1918.1 It also acts as a nice thematic pairing with Daniel Byers’ book 
on conscription in the Second World War, Zombie Army.2 While 
this reviewer believes a more fluid narrative approach would have 
produced an even stronger piece of work, as opposed to the multiple 
short-section format Dennis employs, this book certainly achieves 
its purpose. It is highly recommended for any scholar of Canadian 
military history, though for a general reading audience it would be a 
fitting read only after a thorough digestion of other key works on the 
Hundred Days Campaign (notably Shane Schreiber’s Shock Army of 
the British Empire).3 Patrick Dennis has provided a well-researched 
study that should be an important part of any intellectual discussion 
on the Canadian First World War experience.
david borys, university of british columbia
1  J.L. Granatstein and J. Mackay Hitsman, Broken Promises: A History of 
Conscription in Canada (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977); and J.L. 
Granatstein, The Greatest Victory: Canada’s One Hundred Days, 1918 (Toronto: 
Oxford University Press, 2014).
2  Daniel Byers, Zombie Army: The Canadian Army and Conscription in the Second 
World War (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2016).
3  Shane Schreiber, Shock Army of the British Empire (St. Catherines: Vanwell, 
2005).
3
Borys: "Reluctant Warriors (Book Review)" by Patrick Dennis
Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2018


Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War (Book Reivew)  by Patrick Dennis

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Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War (Book Reivew) by Patrick Dennis

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