FIRST - Recruits enrolled in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps - Ottawa, Ontario
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N 45° 25.503 W 075° 41.662
18T E 445679 N 5030404
The Canadian Machine Gun Corps had its beginning - here, on August 24th, 1914, when Major Raymond Brutinel enrolled the first recruits for the corps. (From a plaque inside the Chateau Laurier)
Waymark Code: WM11PPN
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 11/27/2019
Views: 7
"The First World War began for Canada on 4 August 1914, when the British Empire declared war on Germany. Just a week later, on 11 August, Sam Hughes, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, gave his approval for the formation in Ottawa of "one of the most revolutionary fighting units put into the field by any country."
This was the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade No.l, later renamed the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade which is believed to be the first motorized armoured unit formed by any country during the war. The British, by way of contrast, did not begin using purpose-built armoured fighting vehicles until October.
The brain behind this innovative unit was Raymond Marc Pierre Brutinel (1882-1964), a Frenchman from the Department de l'Aude in the south of France, who immigrated to Canada in 1905.
Combining his fascination with the machine gun with an interest in the potential of the motor vehicle stemming from his days in the Canadian west, Brutinel developed with Sifton a proposal "to organize a mobile motorized machine gun unit.. ..The guns being mounted in pairs on lightly armoured trucks." After receiving ministerial approval, recruiting for the new unit began on 24 August in the lobby of the Chateau Laurier hotel, where a plaque still commemorates the event.
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