Introduction to the ORBAT for Mount Sorrel

“The Order of Battle is defined as a listing of all units involved directly, or indirectly in a specific supporting role, in the conduct of a specific battle during a specific period of time”.

Using this definition I have looked at three different sources to try to determine which units should be listed in an Order of Battle (Orbat) for Mount Sorrel. This Orbat is by no means complete. I started with Nicholson and have used the online War Diaries as my primary source, but they are not complete and at times not clear regarding the use of names of units or whether certain units were indeed involved. For some units there is either no War Diary of I haven’t been able to find it. I have still to check them in further detail. The third source is the CEF Study Group Forum, as the transcribed W/D entries for numerous units suddenly exploded into cyberspace when I started on this Orbat. These transcriptions have naturally been linked directly where the unit in question is listed.

This exercise once more (see Orbat for Hill 70) clearly shows the specific problems I encountered when trying to construct a factual Orbat verses a ‘static’ one: shortly before and during the Battle for Mount Sorrel, the composition of the 3 Divisions and the British units involved, kept on changing as units or parts of units were brought under different commands, preparations for and the development of the battle dictated these changes. In that sense this Orbat is rather arbitrarily structured. To make it more reliable I would need months at least to do an in depth study of all the relevant War Diary entries.

I have checked a tremendous amount of entries for each unit mentioned in this Orbat and can more or less guarantee they were directly or indirectly involved in the Battle for Mount Sorrel. More or less as at times it’s very unclear from the entries I have seen whether a unit was actually involved or not. In that case the unit is listed, but I’ve not added any links to this unit.

For those who are interested, I have added a link for all these units directly to the relevant date range, which includes the W/D entries of June 1916, either directly in the unit’s name or separately underneath the name of the unit. Where I thought this adds relevant information to our project, I have added the specific dates for the W/D entries and at times ditto for appendices. I started with the 3rd Canadian Division for obvious reasons.....

An ulterior motive for being so detailed, is clearly to aid anyone who feels the urge to start to transcribe these entries for whatever unit...

Michael Thierens, August 2005. Email

WAR DIARIES CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE 1914 - 1920

Access code: 90 : Open. Records are available for consultation without restriction. The Library and Archives Canada are the source of the information listed below but this information is not an official version of the material reproduced by nor has it been made in affiliation with, or with the endorsement of, Library and Archives Canada. The way the material has been partly rearranged and presented here is the sole responsibility of Michael Thierens, who guarantees that the actual content of the information has not been altered.

Search Engine War Diaries of the Library and Archives Canada