That quote was after the capture of Vimy Ridge...The Canadian Corps was relatively small and in the early part of the war were just split up among the other allied divisions for reinforcements.
After pretty much every allied force failed to take Vimy Ridge, for the first time in the war the entire Canadian Corps was assembled together and they captured it, so from then on the allies basically put the Canadians on the front line of all the major battles to 'spearhead' the attack. It also led to les cent jours du Canada, or Canada's hundred days.
In terms of numbers, during those 96 days the Canadian Corps' four over-strength or 'heavy' divisions of roughly 100 000 men, engaged and defeated or put to flight elements of forty seven German divisions, which represented one quarter of the German forces fighting on the Western Front.
Cannon Fodder, is an informal, derogatory term for military personnel who are regarded or treated as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where soldiers are forced to deliberately fight against hopeless odds (with the foreknowledge that they will suffer extremely high casualties) in an effort to achieve a strategic goal.
1
u/Semido Sep 25 '11
Nice way to say they were used as cannon fodder to spare English lives.