Cannon in Canada, Province by Province, Volume 8: Manitoba

By Harold A. Skaarup

The eighth volume of Cannon in Canada is an informative and detailed synopsis of the carefully preserved and restored guns and artillery on display in the province of Manitoba. The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery is represented by a long and distinguished line of gunners with historical ties back to the days before Canada's Confederati

• Language: English
• Publisher: EA Media and Publishing
• Release date: Oct 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781957384092

Harold A. Skaarup

Major Hal Skaarup has served with the Canadian Forces for more than 40 years, starting with the 56th Field Squadron, RCE and completing his service as the G2 (Intelligence Officer) at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick in August 2011. He was a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, served three tours with the Skyhawks Parachute Demonstration Team, and worked in the Airborne Trials and Evaluation section. He served as an Intelligence Officer overseas in Germany and Colorado, and has been on operational deployments to Cyprus, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. He has been an instructor at the Tactics School at the Combat Training Centre in Gagetown and at the Intelligence Training Schools in Borden and Kingston. He earned a Master's degree in War Studies through the Royal Military College, and has authored a number of books on military history.

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Cannon in Canada, Province by Province,

Volume 8: Manitoba

Cannon in Canada, Province by Province,

Volume 8: Manitoba

Harold A. Skaarup

Ubique

EA MEDIA & PUBLISHING

Copyright © 2022 by Harold A. Skaarup

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Many significant elements of the use of artillery in Canadian military history have not yet been told. The information that is found within this collection of technical data, historical reports and military photos may not be complete or fully accurate. The story will continue to unfold as additional research turns up the missing data.

ISBN: 978-1-957384-10-8 (Paperback Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-957384-11-5 (Hardcover Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-957384-09-2 (E-book Edition)

Book Ordering Information

Phone Number: 929-334-4203 ext. 1000 or 347-349-4971

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Dedications

By each gun a loaded brand, in a bold determined hand¹

For my two grandfathers, Unteroffizier Frederick Christensen Skaarup and Sergeant Walter Ray Estabrooks, two gunners who fought on opposite sides of the line during the First World War, and for all those members of the Canadian Armed Forces whose primary task at home and abroad has been and is to keep us safe.

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Figure 1. Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery and Royal Canadian Horse Artillery badges.²

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Figure 2. The formation patches worn by RCA personnel attached to I Canadian Corps, II Canadian Corps, and the First Canadian Army.

A Tale of Two Gunners

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Figure 3. Sgt Walter Ray Estabrooks, 32nd Battery, 8th Army Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery and Unterofficier Frederick Christensen Skaarup, Westfälische Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22 and Reserve Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 45 in the First World War.

As a soldier in the Canadian Army with service at home and overseas in Germany, Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colorado, and Afghanistan, I came to appreciate that no matter which side you are on, the weather and terrain tend to be the same, only the enemy is different. Political decisions, attitudes and current events had similar effects on the soldiers who came before us in much the same way as they do now, and often in many strange ways.

There are always two sides to a story, but because my grandfather Frederick Christensen Skaarup died before I knew him, I did not hear the stories from the other side He was living in the German occupied area of southern Denmark when the First World War came, and he was called up for active duty. Having been conscripted into the German Army in 1910, he served two years compulsory service as a gunner and bandsman (trumpeter), and then went into the reserve mobilization force.

He was recalled on mobilization, and therefore fought in the First World War in France and Belgium from day one in 1914 through to its conclusion on 11 November 1918. He was wounded several times and on three occasions was reported as killed in action. On 11 January 1918, he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class for his service in France on 6 September 1917. In 1926, he immigrated to Canada with his family and settled in the farming community of New Denmark in the Northwest section of New Brunswick, near to the Saint John River.

My grandfather Walter Ray Estabrooks, from Carleton County, New Brunswick, was a Canadian gunner who also served in the First World War. Unlike many of his comrades, he survived and came home to establish his family near Hartland on the Saint John River.

I had lots of opportunities to hear about his experiences during the Great War, when I was a boy chopping wood and haying with a team of horses on his farm. We usually came home during the summers to visit, while living away at the RCAF Stations where my father served. My Skaarup grandparents died before I got to know them, so I asked a lot of questions and was rewarded with many interesting stories.

I was curious to know whether my two grandparents had fought in the same area or been in the position where they might have been firing on each other during the war. Because of our family tradition in the field of music, Walter Estabrooks was able to tell me this incredible story about how he knew they had been in the same place at the same time on a battlefield in France.

I met your grandfather Skaarup about 1937 or 1938. The next winter Mrs. (Anne) Skaarup came down and I exchanged words with them quite often while threshing. There were no combines then. We often listened to Frederick playing the trumpet on the veranda in the evenings. We discussed the war many times. While serving on the guns in France on 5 February 1918, I had charge of a team getting some lumber salvaged from an old blown-up school. We heard a German band playing the boys rotating out of the line to go on leave in Lens just across no-man’s land from Liévin where we were. We checked the dates and your grandfather said that he may have been playing in that band

I have seen troops coming out of the line tired and dirty after a big push and make their first halt for a little rest. Sometimes a band would be waiting for them. Marching when not weary and with a good band will give some folks a tremendous thrill. But can you imagine a depleted unit coming out of the line from a hard position, tired, dirty, muddy, and lousy, stumbling along just after dark, a few minutes’ halt just out of maximum gun range. Orders are given, Fall in…Quick March Imagine that a band has been waiting for them and what it would feel like as it begins playing The British Grenadiers The men would hunch their equipment up higher on their backs and their shoulders would straighten up. They would all have fallen in line four abreast without an order. No need for left-right. The muddy boots would seem to lighten up, and darned if the feet don’t seem to get the beat of the music. They are old hands and would soon be disappearing into the night

About those Whiz-bangs, he said, a Whiz-Bang was an artillery shell fired by the Germans. It traveled with great speed and was fired by a fast action gun. There was not much time to duck as one just heard Whiz. Bang! A Woolly Bear was another type of shell that was used for demolition, and when it burst on impact, it made a big hole and left a tremendous cloud of black smoke. They were slower than a Whiz-Bang and could be ducked by a man with a sixth sense.³

I know my brothers Dale and Chris and I listened raptly as he told his stories, and I have the privilege to retell some of them here. This guidebook is intended to honour our military heritage, because it needs to be remembered and preserved for all of those who have served and continue to serve in the Canadian Forces on our behalf.

Figure 4. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3397896) German First World War 7.7-cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.) captured by Canadians near Amiens, France, Aug 1918. This gun was known as the Whiz Bang.

Photos and Illustrations

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Figure 5.(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3517339) Canadian 8-inch Mk. VIII Howitzer, being loaded for action in preparation for support to Canadian operations, April 1917.

The Cover Photo is of a BL 8-inch Howitzer Mk. IV on display at the RCA Museum, CFB Shilo.

The photos, diagrams and illustrations in this book were primarily taken by the author, along with many by Clive Prothero-Brooks, Maxwell Toms, Terry Honour and others taken by associates who assisted in the compilation of this record and credited as noted.

The record begins with the incredible collection of Canadian artillery, some of which the author first view while on his Reserve Officer University Training Course at CFB Shilo in the summer of 1973. The primary but not exclusive focus on the guns presented here are those preserved in Manitoba. The record follows the introduction of various early cannon in what was initially New France, then British North America, and after Confederation in 1867, Canada.

The earliest guns presented in the initial chapters begin with the smoothbore era, covering bronze and cast-iron guns. These evolve into the collection of Rifled Breech-loading (RBL) guns and a few Muzzleloading Rifles (MLR) from the late 19th century which were in turn were replaced by Breech Loading (BL) guns, Quick Firing (QF) guns, and large howitzers, many of which are on display in the RCA Museum.

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Figure 6. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3394425) Bronze 6-pounder 6-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading cannon, weight, W. North Company in 1843, and Serial Nos. unknown, Queen Victoria cypher, mounted on wood wheeled gun carriages, York Factory, Hayes River, Manitoba, 1925.

The guns of the early 20th century are represented by Maxim (pom-pom) heavy machine-guns, 13-pounder and 18-pounder Field Guns, 4.5-inch and 60-pounder howitzers, 6, 8 and 9.2-inch howitzers and a variety of trench mortars. Brief technical details, photos and history are included with the major weapon systems recorded.

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Figure 7. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3300651) 9-pounder 8-cwt Guns, 13th Battery, Winnipeg, July 1905.

The guns used by the RCA in the First and Second World Wars, Korea, the Cold War and in present-day service are also recorded in detail. Photos of the guns as they are presently found are included in chronological sequence. A detailed list with maker, serial numbers and location is included to provide useful information on where to find and view the cannon preserved in Manitoba. A list of artillery abbreviations is included in a separate annex.

FOREWORD

As a lifelong Gunner born and raised in Brandon, a one-time member of that city’s 26th Field Regiment RCA, a junior officer in 3rd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery stationed at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, a former Commander of the Base (Home Station of the RCA), and as a Past Colonel Commandant of The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, I am delighted and honoured to offer a foreword to Major (Retired) Harold Skaarup’s latest contribution to the recording of the history of artillery in Canada – a catalogue of cannon and other artillery equipments to be found in Manitoba.

Guns and Gunners have been present at many key junctures in the history of the Keystone province including the establishment and fight for the control of the fur trade, the Red River Expedition of 1870, the Fenian incursion of 1871, the Northwest Mounted Police’s March West from Fort Dufferin in 1873, the mounting of Major General Middleton’s expedition in 1885, the stationing of C Battery RCHA in Winnipeg in 1919, and the response of the people of the province to the World Wars, the Korean War and the Cold War. Today, The Royal Regiment is well-represented in Manitoba by the presence of 26th Field Regiment’s 13th and 71st Field Batteries in Portage la Prairie and Brandon and by 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Shilo with members of both regiments regularly serving on operations at home and abroad including during the Afghanistan War, and as part of NATO’s present day deterrence force in Latvia. Shilo remains The Regiment’s Home Station and its Royal Canadian Artillery Museum is the foremost artillery museum in the country.

It is not surprising, therefore, that a such a wide variety of artillery equipments both historic and modern, often in the form of memorials or war trophies, as well as museum artefacts, may be found across the province. That said, their presence is nonetheless little known or understood by the vast majority of Manitobans and other Canadians.

Major Skaarup is therefore to be commended for so comprehensively cataloguing these guns and related equipments and placing them in the context of our regimental, provincial, and national histories. As this work and its companion volumes clearly demonstrate, he is one of Canada’s leading experts in this field.

The guns of The Royal Regiment are its Colours. They serve the same central role in promoting identity and devotion as do the Guidons or Queen’s and Regimental Colours of armour and infantry regiments and are similarly venerated. Historical guns, even as aged as those to be found at Fort Prince of Wales near Churchill or at Lower Fort Garry are stamped with the Royal Cypher of the reigning sovereign and, accordingly, are treated respectfully. We modern day Gunners, therefore, thank Major Skaarup for his documentation and interpretation of these reminders of our proud history and the legacy of those Canadian Gunners who have gone before us including the 4881 who, since 1885, have given their lives in the service of their Captain General and their Country – UBIQUE, QUO FAS ET GLORIA DUCUNT.

Brigadier-General (Retired)

James Selbie OMM, CD

(Late RCHA and RCA)

Past Colonel Commandant

The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery

Acknowledgements

I would imagine that many of you who are reading this book are likely familiar with the standard routine of military training exercises and the rigours of being in the field in all seasons, not to mention the conditions found on deployment these days. Whether or not you have experienced it, I am sure you can well imagine what it is like to train and work in the heat, the dust and the mosquitoes in summer, the wind, the rain, and the mud in the spring and fall, the snow, and the cold in the winter and of course the routine day-to-day challenges of combat exercises in the training areas of the Canadian Forces.

For most in the Canadian Army, this has included 2 Canadian Division Support Base (2 CDSB) Valcartier, 3 CDSB Edmonton, 4 CDSB Petawawa, 5 CDSB Gagetown, Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Bagotville, CFB Borden, CFB Cold Lake, CFB Comox, CFB Esquimalt, CFB Gander, CFB Goose Bay, CFB Greenwood, CFB Halifax, CFB Kingston, CFB Moose Jaw, CFB North Bay, CFB Shilo, CFB Suffield, CFB Trenton, CFB Winnipeg, Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert, CFS Leitrim and Canadian Forces Support Unit (CFSU) Colorado Springs, CFSU Europe and Canadian Forces Support Group (CFSG) Ottawa-Gatineau.

Shelldrake - Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments, (iUniverse.com, Bloomington, Indiana, 2012), was the initial reference work colleagues, friends and I assembled, to detail all the cannon preserved in Canada. Shortly after the book’s publication, it became apparent that there were new finds as we came to call them – cannon we had missed in the compilation of the list.

There are bound to be more that have been missed. In March 2021, a German 7.7-cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.), Field Gun that had been brought to Canada n 1919 as a war trophy, was discovered buried under the war memorial at Amherstberg, Ontario. It had been buried there when the wooden wheels had decayed and was rediscovered when the war memorial was being moved. We will continue to scour the countryside to find, document, photograph, identify and record all of them. The aim of these guidebooks is to assist the interested explorer and historian to find them and to help save our military heritage.

If you have discovered a cannon not recorded here, please contact me via e-mail at [e-mail] and I will add your information to my website at www.silverhawkauthor.com.

The data concerning all cannon preserved in Canada is divided into sub-sections by province, town, and memorial. I volunteer as a guide and researcher at the New Brunswick Military History Museum, 5 CDSB Gagetown in Oromocto, and serve on the Board of Directors for the Fredericton Region Museum in New Brunswick. This book is designed to be an aide-memoire, to aid in answering basic questions on where to find the numerous cannon preserved in Manitoba.

I have had a lot of help from interested colleagues in the hunt for cannon across Canada. For this collection focused on the cannon preserved in Manitoba, there are a great many I would like to acknowledge and thank.

Doug Knight has been a mentor and guide. His knowledge of Canada’s cannon, much of it presented in his book, Guns of the Regiment, (Service Publications, Ottawa, 2016), is my go-to reference. I am not a gunner, just an interested retired Army Officer and amateur historian. What I do have, is a collection of colleagues and friends with similar interests who provide invaluable help when it comes to identifying cannon and related artifacts, each of whom has a generous willingness to find answers to interesting questions.

Clive Prothero-Brooks has been my go to resource for photos and data held in the RCA Museum. He collects old cameras and knows his photography!

Terry Honour and Maxwell J. Toms in Ottawa have been stellar in their support, and gloriously super aggressive in chasing down new finds. We share what we discover and in so doing, help to preserve our military history.

The cross-referencing of data has resulted in a great many surprising and often wonderful new discoveries, and often led to new contacts with world-renowned subject-matter experts on cannon. Ruth Rhynas Brown provided the working title for this book. My mother, Beatrice Skaarup, now age 92, has been extremely enthusiastic in acting as a spotter for me on what she calls gun hunts. She loves to explore and has assisted in the search for our forgotten military history.

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Figure 8. (Author Photo) Crown over P cypher found on a cast iron 12-pounder SBML gun.

During one of our gun hunts, we visited St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in New Brunswick, where I photographed a 19th century cannon in the blockhouse preserved there. The gun had a peculiar Crown with the letter P stamped on the barrel. I added this photo to one of my web pages. Arnulfo Cadena Maldonado, who identified himself as the collaborator at Museo Regional El Obispado (Bishop’s Palace) in Monterrey, Mexico, saw this photo and noted that there was a cannon in their collection that had a similar marking. He asked if I knew what it meant. I did not know, but Doug Knight noted that the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa had one with a similar marking.

Ruth Rhynas Brown from Aberdeen, Scotland, now living in Leeds, England, saw the photos and Arnulfo’s request for information on my web site. She had formerly been the curator at the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London, England. Ruth informed us that the Crown over a P on top of these cannon is a mark used to show that they had been proofed (test fired) at Woolwich in England. She noted that "this mark is usually preserved for the guns for foreign governments, or for certain institutions such as The East India Company, or the Post Office. Ruth also recommended the title for these books, including this one, Cannon in Canada, Province by Province, Volume 9: Manitoba.

Although many of the photos in this book have been taken by me, you will find most have been provided by my colleagues, as well as a number sourced from the Library and Archives Canada files. Should you choose to use them, please credit them as annotated.

Any errors found here are mine, and any additions, updates, corrections, or amendments to this list of cannons preserved in Manitoba would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at [e-mail].

Thank you to all who gave their support, time, assistance and expertise on the artillery equipment listed here, your patience and assistance has been invaluable. The information presented here on the artillery preserved in Manitoba, is a small sample of the guns and cannon preserved in Canada – there is much more to follow.

During my service as an officer in the Canadian Forces, I was taught to use the combat arms radio call sign Sheldrake whenever the message traffic being relayed referred to artillery. This designation has been replaced with the call sign Golf. The tanks were called Ironsides, now Tango, hence the titles of the companion volumes to this series. For the interested reader, Acorn was my call sign as the Regimental and later Brigade Intelligence Officer.

E Tenebris Lux and Ubique!

Figure 8a.(Canadian Forces Photo, Corporal Stéphanie Labossière) Members of the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (1 RCHA) holding a M777 Howitzer shooting range practice during trials for the Canadian Army at CFB Shilo, Manitoba.

Chapter 1

Manitoba

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Figure 9. Manitoba Provincial flag.⁴

The province of Manitoba stands at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is Canada’s fifth-most populous province, with a population of 1,342,153 as of 2021, of widely varied landscape, from arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline in the north to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland in the central and southern regions.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years. In the early 17th century, British and French fur traders began arriving in the area and establishing settlements. The British secured control of the region in 1673 and created a territory named Rupert’s Land, which was placed under the administration of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Rupert’s Land, which included all of present-day Manitoba, grew and evolved from 1673 until 1869 with significant settlements of Indigenous and Métis people in the Red River Colony. In 1869, negotiations with the Government of Canada for the creation of the province of Manitoba commenced. During the negotiations, several factors led to an armed uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada, a conflict known as the Red River Rebellion. The resolution of the conflict and further negotiations led to Manitoba becoming the fifth province to join Canadian Confederation, when the Parliament of Canada passed the Manitoba Act on 15 July 1870.

Manitoba’s capital and largest city is Winnipeg, the seventh most populous municipality in Canada. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the Provincial Court. Four of the province’s five universities, all four of its professional sports teams, and most of its cultural activities are located in Winnipeg. The city has train and bus stations and an international airport; a Canadian Forces base, CFB Winnipeg, operates from the airport and is the regional headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The name Manitoba possibly derives from either Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwe manidoobaa, both meaning straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit. Alternatively, it may be from the Assiniboine minnetoba, meaning Lake of the Prairie (the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies). The name was chosen by Thomas Spence for the new republic he proposed for the area south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel preferred the name over the proposed alternative of Assiniboia. It was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870.

Modern-day Manitoba was inhabited by the First Nations people shortly after the last ice age glaciers retreated in the southwest about 10,000 years ago; the first exposed land was the Turtle Mountain area. The Ojibwe, Cree, Dene, Sioux, Mandan, and Assiniboine peoples founded settlements, and other tribes entered the area to trade. In Northern Manitoba, quartz was mined to make arrowheads. The first farming in Manitoba was along the Red River, where corn and other seed crops were planted before contact with Europeans.

In 1611, Henry Hudson was one of the first Europeans to sail into what is now known as Hudson Bay, where he was abandoned by his crew. Thomas Button travelled this area in 1612 in an unsuccessful attempt to find and rescue Hudson. When the British ship Nonsuch sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668–1669, she became the first trading vessel to reach the area; that voyage led to the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to which the British government gave absolute control of the entire Hudson Bay watershed. This watershed was named Rupert’s Land, after Prince Rupert, who helped to subsidize the Hudson’s Bay Company. York Factory was founded in 1684 after the original fort of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Nelson (built in 1682), was destroyed by rival French traders.

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, visited the Red River Valley in the 1730s