Canadian Expeditionary Force - Storm Troopers

Storm Troopers

The Canadian Expeditionary Force were the first to use trench raiding tactics during the battle of the Ypes. The German's eventually attempted to use it in their own offensives.

"The officer to whom I previously referred said, "There seems to be a fear back here in Canada that the Germans are going to make a frontal attack upon the Canadians, but the Canadians at the Front are afraid they won't (laughter) and," he continued, "they will get the biggest reception they ever got and pay the biggest price"; and it is interesting to us to know that the only part of the line that the Canadians fought for so strenuously and won which is still in the hands of the Allies, is that which is being held by the Canadians themselves. (Applause.) They are called "The storm troops of the British Empire" by the Kaiser, and his own "storm troops" are the biggest men of his various divisions; and when he speaks of the Canadians as being the "storm troops," it means that in his estimation, they are the best troops of the British Empire. I think the Kaiser has come more nearly to the truth there than he has ever done in anything else."

Capt. J.B. Paulin in a speech given at the Empire Club of Canada, Toronto, Ontario, on May 23, 1918.

"The Canadians were marked out as Storm Troops; for the remainder of the war they were brought in to head the assault in one great battle after another. Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst."

British Prime Minister Lloyd George, after the capture of Vimy Ridge