Second to None: The Fighting 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (review)

Second to None is an important addition to the growing body of literature documenting Canada's participation in the First World War. Relying primarily on the unit war diary and personal letters, Kevin Shackleton provides a vivid and detailed account of the 58th Battalion's involvement in virtually every primary engagement fought by the cef. The 58th was created in May 1915 and, after an extended period of training at Niagara -on-the-Lake, was deployed in the Ypres salient in Flanders in February 1916. Thereafter, the battalion fought at the Somme in September 1916, at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, at Lens in August 1917, and at Passchendaele in October 1917, before participating in the Allied offensive in the summer of 1918. Shackleton also provides thorough accounts of the battalion's minor engagements, such as the trench raid at Commotion Sap in January 1918 and the unit's rigorous training regimen while out of the line.

Shackleton closes his narrative by documenting the battalion's demobilization and the civilian experiences of a large number of the unit's men in the postwar era. Throughout, he emphasizes the terrible futility of the Allied efforts to break the stalemate along the Western Front. The one Victoria Cross and five Military Crosses earned by the 58th came at a shocking cost of nearly 3000 casualties - more than twice the full-strength complement of the battalion. In a three-day period at Passchendaele alone, for example, the 58th lost more than three hundred men out of the five hundred battalion members who participated in the Third Battle of Ypres.

Second to None is an extremely well-researched and well-written account that will appeal to a wide audience of readers interested in Canadian military history. Shackleton has succeeded in documenting the experiences of individual soldiers of the 58th while maintaining a clear focus on the actions of the unit as a whole; this balanced approach avoids the purely anecdotal style of presentation that afflicts many unit histories. The book is also richly illustrated. The faults of Second to None are few in number. Shackleton does not succeed in his stated desire to place the 58th 'into the context of the war in which it had served,' and readers hoping to find detailed information concerning wider Allied strategy along the Western Front or even the place of the battalion within its divisional or brigade structure will be forced to look elsewhere. In a number of instances, the book is marred by the inclusion of lengthy quotations that detract from the flow of the narrative. There is also no bibliography. These shortcomings, however, do not detract from the quality and utility of this book. Second to None is a significant contribution to the historiography of Canada's Great War experience.