Australians v. Canadians

[BeppoSapone]

On page 87 of his book "Mutiny" Lawrence James quotes:

"...Towards the end of 1916 Australian soldiers evacuated from the Dardanelles were put in camps close to Canadian battalions on the grounds that colonials of one kind were likely to get on with those of another. Headquarters were woefully mistaken.

'Somebody with a big mouth on the Australian side said they'd come up to finish the job the Canadians couldn't finish. So the next fellow turned around and said, 'Why didn't you finish where you were before you came?'... And that started a riot. Unfortunately, in those days, the sergeants always carried what they called sidearms, they carried there bayonets in their belts... There were some men killed.' "

Did this really happen? If so, can anyone "name the names"?

[Andrew P]

I've never actually heard of men being killed, but in one of the Australian battalion histories I recall that it mentioned that as the Australian troops were coming out of the line at Mouquet Farm in early September 1916 they passed some Canadian soldiers who gave them a crack at Canadians being brought down to finish a job that the Aussies couldn't.

Unfortunately the Canadians also found Mouquet Farm a tough nut to crack.

There were few times that these troops fought side by side, but when they did hopefully the rivalry was more good natured as they probably saw qualities to admire in each other.

Will Downing in his book 'To the Last Ridge' while a memoir of his service in the 57th Bn AIF, makes special mention of the good fighting qualities of the Canadian soldier.

Cheers

Andrew