Unwilling to Continue, Ordered to Advance: An Examination of the Contributing Factors Toward, and Manifestations of, 'War Weariness' in the Canadian Corps during the Hundred Days Campaign of the First World War

Abstract

This thesis examines the contributing factors and manifestations of ‘war weariness’ in the Canadian Corps during the final months of the Great War. The starting point is the acknowledgment that all armies on the Western Front were suffering from ‘war weariness’ by 1918. The historiography for the Canadian Corps, however, ignores or denigrates this issue in its analysis of the operational achievements of the Corps, primarily because of the Victory Campaign narrative and the Colony-to-Nation paradigm. The thesis identifies the preconditions for ‘war weariness,’ namely, the nature, pace and intensity of the Hundred Days, the resultant heavy casualties, and the fact that the majority of the Corps’ troops were long-serving veterans. The final section examines the manifestations of ‘war weariness’ in the Corps during the final months of the war and after the signing of the Armistice, focussing mostly upon instances of insubordination, indiscipline and the killing of German prisoners.