This book has been written to give the Canadian people a clearer, fuller, conception of the wonderful work of the Canadian Corps during the Hundred Days. To that consideration every other has been subordinated.
By identifying so far as possible the actual battle position of individual battalions it is hoped to stimulate local pride and interest in their respective territorial or recruiting areas. Difficulties were here encountered, both through absence of detailed official narratives and limitations of space, but if full justice has not been done each fighting unit, it is not from lack of application and goodwill.
With this prime consideration always in mind, it has been sought to make the book intelligible to the general reader as well as to the military student and pains therefore have been taken to explain at length for the former military technicalities and terminology that come within the common knowledge of the latter.
Whenever practicable the original and official sources drawn upon for description of operations have been quoted. Such may at times be a little tedious but is preferable to loose paraphrasing which, while denying the reader an inspection of the documentary evidence, makes heavy drafts upon his credulity. Thus the Official Report of the Corps Commander covering these operations has been reproduced practically in full, paralleling in its proper place the general narrative. This might be expected to make for confusion and overlapping, but in practice it has not altogether worked out that way, for whereas the Official Report deals mainly with technical aspects, the book itself seeks to clothe these with the pulsating life and color of the battlefield. The alternatives must have been either to have buried the Official Report in a lengthy Appendix, or to have omitted it altogether.
