Canadas first First Soldier

Vincent J. Curtis

3 July 24

General Sir William Otter (December 3, 1843 – May 6, 1929) was the first Canadian born Chief of the General Staff, making him Canada’s first “First Soldier.”  His career is a monument to the Administration principle of war, and of showing up for work every day.

Otter was born in near Clinton, which lies in Southwestern Ontario, then Canada West.  Many young men his age in Canada West signed up for the Union Army during the depression of 1863, but Otter instead joined the colonial Non-Permanent Active Militia, a force under British command, in Toronto in 1864

Enrolling as a private in the Victoria Rifle Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles, Otter was appointed Staff-Sergeant on October 21, 1864, then Lieutenant in the 2^nd Administrative Battalion at Niagara 1864-65. On his return he was appointed Lieutenant in No. 1 Coy QOR May 19, 1865; Adjutant, August 19, 1865; Captain, March 8, 1866; and Major, June 4, 1869.  Otter was CO of the QOR from 1875 to 1883.

Otter’s first action was at the Battle of Ridgway, a Fenian Raid near Niagara Falls, which saw the inexperienced Canadian troops routed in confusion.  He received a service bar on his Canadian General Service Medal for that and 1870, the year of the first Riel Rebellion, but also a year of another Fenian raid.

In 1883, Canada created its own army, styled the Permanent Active Militia, or Permanent Force, and Otter secured an appointment as the Commanding Officer of Canada’s Infantry School in Toronto.  Sent west under the command of General Frederick Middleton to deal with the second Riel Rebellion, Otter commanded the Battleford Column (April – July 1885); and, at the Battle of Cut Knife (May 2, 1885), Canada’s first professional was worsted by a couple of Indian amateurs, Poundmaker and Fine-Day. Poundmaker, invoking a mercy rule, spared Otter’s whupped and retreating column further casualties, their having suffered 8 KIA and 14WIA.  After Batoche and the end of the rebellion, Otter was unable to nab an elusive rascal named Big Bear, who (all’s well that end’s well), eventually surrendered.

Withal, Otter was appointed Commander of No 2 Military District effective July 1, 1886; and in 1893, was appointed the first Commanding Officer of an outfit called the “Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry” (or some such).  Otter was known to be something of an austere professional, or martinet, and that proclivity for extreme attention to military detail and discipline seems to have passed on, generation after generation, in 1RCR.  This sort of attitude can arise in men who have seen action, experienced failure, and they employ it against those who haven’t.  Otter was appointed Inspector of Infantry on May 16, 1896.

When the Secord Boer War rolled around (1899-1902), Canada sent a large contingent of troops to aid the British effort. For this service, Canada created a Special Service force, and Lieutenant Colonel Otter commanded the 2^nd (Special Service) Battalion of the RCRI, which was dispatched to South Africa, and saw action at the Battle of Paardeberg.  In South Africa, he could have encountered Sam Hughes and Charles Ross. Otter was gazetted Colonel on July 19, 1900.

Returning to Canada, Otter was appointed OC Military District No 2, and in 1908 he was promoted BGen and appointed CGS (1908-1910), becoming the first Canadian born head of the Canadian Militia, which, until then, had ben commanded by a British officer. (The RCN didn’t come into existence until 1910.).  He retired, aged 67, in 1910 in the rank of MGen, and was knighted in 1913.  During World War I, he came out of retirement to command detention operations of enemy nationals in Canada.  In 1922, he, along with Sir Arthur Currie, was promoted to full General.

In 1914, Otter published The Guide: A Manual for the Canadian Militia (Infantry) perhaps a Canadian first attempt at a comprehensive training manual. He also headed the Otter Commission which established the perpetuation of Canadian Expeditionary Force units in Canadian militia units.

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TRACTABLE Plus 80

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Apr 24

TOTALIZE, despite Simonds’ best efforts, ended in failure; and he launched Op TRACTABLE on August 14.  It opened with eight hundred Lancasters bombing targets along the road from Hill 195 to Falaise.  Then, the 3^rd Infantry and 4^th Canadian Armoured Divisions struck southwards cross-country two miles east of the road.  They crossed the Laison River, and bore down on Points 184, 115, and 159 north-east of Falaise.  Simonds added a heavy smoke screen to impair the effectiveness of long range German anti-tank and machine gun fire.

TRACTABLE was another heavy slog; the Germans had been tipped off by captured documents; and it wasn’t until the 18^th that Falaise was cleared.  But taking Falaise was not enough to close the gap.

The places of real tactical significance were two small villages seven miles south east of Falaise: Trun and Chambois.  These were to be taken by 4^th Div and the 1^st Polish Armoured.  These two armoured divisions thrust south on August 16^th. The Poles swung east and outflanked German defenses; they then split into three battle groups, sending one in rear of Trun, one to Hill 262 (Mount Ormel), and one to Chambois, all in the German rear; meanwhile, 4^th Div captured Trun on the 18^th.

The final drama was to occur at St. Lambert-sur-Dives and Hill 262, where the Canadians and the Poles would choke the gap closed.

The gap was spanned by the Dives River, which formed an impassable barrier to vehicular traffic except at two points, Moissy and St. Lambert-sur-Dives. Moissy had a ford, reached by a single lane dirt track; and next to it was a narrow foot bridge.

St. Lambert had a two-lane bridge that was strong enough to support a Panther tank.  The terrain was flat, wide-open, and easily observed from the heights around Trun, ideal killing ground for artillery and Typhoons.

4^th Div sent forward a battle group, comprised of B and C Coys of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (about 50 men each) and C squadron of the South Alberta Regiment, to seize St. Lambert.  In overall command was Major David Currie of the SAR.  The task of Currie Force was to stop the passage of 100,000 Germans.

Backstopping the Dives position were two Polish battlegroups on Hill 262.  They had with them Capt Pierre Sevigny, an artillery FOO for the 58^th Bty, 4^th Medium Regiment.  After crossing the Dives, escaping Germans had to pass around Hill 262..  Over the 36 hours from the 20^th to 21^st August, Capt Sevigny was to win Poland’s highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.  His work inflicted thousands of casualties on the Germans, and enabled the Poles to hold out against German attacks.  Four depleted SS Panzer divisions east of the Dives repeatedly attacked the Poles, who fought them until they ran out of ammunition - and then fought them hand-to-hand. 

Currie Force approached St. Lambert at dusk on the 19^th, and was repulsed with the loss of two of its fifteen Shermans.  Pulling back 1,000 yards, Currie used the night to personally recce the defenses.  Attacking again at dawn, Currie Force gained half the village by noon, forming another gauntlet escaping Germans had to pass.  Currie Force repulsed repeated counterattacks, and near dusk surged ahead to capture the rest of the village.

Columns of death sprouted from the choke points. The corpses of men, of horses, wrecked vehicles, artillery pieces, trucks and tanks piled up along the roads. Prisoners were being taken first by the dozen, then fifty and then a hundred at a time.  The famous picture of David Currie winning his VC shows a German officer surrendering to Argyll George Mitchell, CSM of C Coy, with Pte John Evans to the right.

Over 50,000 were trapped, and the German 7^th Army surrendered.

For several feats of personal military prowess, his skillful and determined attacks and defense, and for demonstrating an epic coolness under fire for 36 hours, Major David Vivian Currie was awarded the Victoria Cross.

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Lesson Learned?

Vincent J. Curtis

12 Oct 24

RE: Councillors resign from Red Hill board amid rising tensions. News Itme The Hamilton Spectator 11 Oct 24.

I suppose it had to be created and entertained for a while, in the interests of “reconciliation” and all, but this Red Hill valley “board” was a farce from the beginning, and now it should be obvious, even to Council.

The City of Hamilton did not sign a treaty with any band of Indians, and is not responsible for upholding or enforcing the terms of any such treaty.  The so-called representative of the so-called Haudensosaunee call themselves the “hereditary chiefs’, meaning they are not democratically elected, and represent no one but themselves and whoever chooses to support them. Their word is not binding on anyone. (And we have no proof of their alleged hereditary status as “chiefs” by tradition.)

No doubt they rely for their land claim on the fraudulent 1702 “Nanfan Treaty”, in which the Mohawks surrendered title to land they did not possess to the Acting Governor of the Province of New York in exchange for the British to muscle the Mississaugas out of present-day Niagara Peninsula and south-western Ontario. (This was after the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Treaty with the Mississaguas of 1701!). Red Hill Valley and the environs of Hamilton – the Land Between the Lakes - was purchased from the Mississaugas in 1792.  The Mississaugas have no land claim over the Red Hill Valley, so why should the Mohawks?

This committee is merely an effort by a few Mohawks to mess with the white man, and are playing upon his conscience to gain the necessary leverage. Why else would studies and input from experts be vetoed except to mess with something? Why is Aaron Deltor pretending like he has veto power over the white man’s actions except to mess with him?

Wake up and smell the coffee, white man. The Mohawks have been playing duplicitous games like this for over three hundred years.

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Could owe trillions?

Vincent J. Curtis

30 Sept 24

RE: We’re not asking to break Canada. News item The Hamilton Spectator 28 Sept 24

Those who, over the years, have followed closely the land disputes raised by members of the Six Nations, the attacks in bad faith on two different property developments in Caledonia, and have researched deeply the so-called Nanfan Treaty know that there is no merit whatsoever in the land claim now before the courts and reported on in the Spectator article.

But this is not the place to discuss why. At no cost to themselves, Six Nations can throw this lawsuit and then another at Canada, for this reason or that, and Canada cannot afford to lose even once. Any court judge, for reasons having nothing to do with the law, can decide that he, in his superior virtue, thinks that Canada ought to give the Indians even more money.

For all the spaghetti Six Nations is throwing at the wall, they might well be Italian.

Canada has to figure out a way of dealing with bad faith litigation by Indians who have nothing to lose and trillions to gain. A price needs to be paid by the Indians if they lose.

Canada’s national debt stands are $1.2 trillion; the decision as to whether the Indian litigants are owed multiple trillions surely cannot be left in the hands of any old Ontario judge.

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The Rise and Fall of Hurricane Helene

Vincent J. Curtis

27 Sept 24

RE: Florida braces for hurricane. AP story. The Hamilton Spectator 27 Sept 24

In view of the undoubted cries of “climate change”! it is worthwhile to review the progress of Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene began as a tropical storm on the south side of the Gulf of Mexico.  As it headed northward towards Florida, it intensified into a Category 4 hurricane, but dropped to a Category 3 when it landed.  It will lose intensity and finally peter out as it heads northward across the landmass of southern United States.

Helene intensified not because of the injection of carbon dioxide into the storm, but by the absorption of warm water as it crossed the Gulf.  It lost intensity not because its supply of carbon dioxide was cut off, but as its supply of warm Gulf water was cut off.  Carbon dioxide plays no role in the intensity of storms.

Likewise, hurricanes form over the Atlantic ocean not because of the massive supply of carbon dioxide over the ocean, but because warm water is able to be absorbed by wind patterns off the Sahara desert that together get organized into a self-perpetuating cyclonic pattern. Carbon dioxide plays no role in the organization of tropical storms.

The climate-change mafia forecasted 33 named storms this year over the Atlantic, but we’ll actually get less than half that many.  Helene demonstrates that CO2 plays no role in the formation or intensification of storms, and failure of the climate-change mafia’s forecast demonstrates that their theories are incorrect.

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It dares not

Vincent J. Curtis

24 Sept 24

RE: What will replace the carbon tax? Hamilton Spectator editorial 24 September 2024

The question the benighted Spectator dare not allow to be asked on its pages is: why bother?  The fact that the Spectator dare not allow to be stated on its pages is: that Canada accounts for only 1.5 percent of world CO2 emissions.

Asia, which includes India and China, are responsible for over 60 percent of global CO2 emissions, and India and China aren’t playing the CO2 reduction game. Canada’s contribution is insignificant; we’re not the problem and aren’t the solution.

America, China, India, Germany, and Australia are a few trading partners that have no carbon tax.  By having one, we disadvantage our producers and exporters.  Canada’s carbon tax represents nothing but a stage for moral posturing; it has no effect whatsoever on weather, climate, or the growth of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Canada’s carbon tax can, with the safety of world in mind, be scrapped without replacement.

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Beware the use of rhetoric

Vincent J. Curtis

19 Sept 24

RE: Beware the power of rhetoric. Op-ed by Ronald Evans. The Hamilton Spectator 19 Sept 24

Aristotle wrote the book on rhetoric; he called it, oddly enough, the Art of Rhetoric.  Nowadays, we would call rhetoric “persuasive speech”, or more bluntly, “selling.” Ronald Evans defines rhetoric as “an emotional tool that can inspire audiences to right wrongs and to strive for a better world.”

One would hope that a retired school teacher could do a better job with his definitions, and would be solicitous of philosophical accuracy if he was going to hang an article on one.

As a work of rhetoric, his article, cautioning us of the power of rhetoric, was a failure. It was unpersuasive, and not, in fact, about rhetoric at all.  After its prefatory remarks, it slid into another tiresome, and tedious, “I hate Trump” diatribe.

Speaking of the power of rhetoric, the extreme rhetoric used against Trump, that he’s a racist, sexist, fascist, lying threat to democracy; by the Left might be in part responsible for the two attempts on his life, and perhaps the Left ought to tone it down.

Trump’s going to be the next President of the United States, and the Left can feel it coming.

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