Then And Now: Bridging the Canal de l’Escaut, Lock # 1, Cambrai, 10 Oct 1918

On October 10, 1918, the 7th Engineer Battalion of the Canadian Corps, built a bridge across Lock 1 of the Canal D’Escaut in Cambrai, less than twelve hours after the city was captured from the German Army. This bridge could carry the latest 30-ton tanks in the British Army. A Canadian official War Photographer captured the moment of completing the left half of the crossing, standing on a wooden beam in front of the lock that guides canal boats into it. 116 years later, I recreated the moment. During the last 100 days of the First World War, the Canadian Corps erected over 100 bridges to provide mobility between Arras, France and Mons, Belgium. My thesis explores how the Canadian Corps enhanced its mobility by dramatically increasing the number of engineers, resulting in three times as many as a standard British Division. This extra capability gave the Canadian Division and the Canadian Corps the ability to greatly outpace equivalent British and Australian formations and enabled it to keep pace with the German retreat at the end of the war.