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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