Canadian’s in Battle- WW1

1. Canadian’s in Battle- WW1 Plaque in Currie Hall, RMC

2. “We were in Witley Camp (in England) and right alongside us was a French battalion from Canada. We didn’t speak much French and they didn’t speak much English, but they were the finest sports you ever saw... I got an entirely different opinion of French Canadians because of being with these people. You met people from Nova Scotia, or from Prince Edward Island, clean through British Columbia. Very often you didn’t take any notice of the fact unless they happened to mention it” -Soldier from Ontario, adapted from ‘Canada and the Battle of Vimy Ridge’

3. Ypres (April- May, 1915) • Somme (July- Nov 1916) • Vimy Ridge (9-12 April, 1917) • Passchendaele (July- Nov, 1917)

4. The Second Battle of Ypres • Pg.77-78 • Attempt to regain control of strategic town in Western Belgium • First use of poison gas on a large scale • First time that a former colonial force (the 1st Canadian Division defeated a major European power (the German Empire) on European soil

6. “Sometimes I’m not even sure that I have a country. But I know they stood there at Ypres the first time the Germans used gas, that they were almost the only troops in that section of the front who did not break and run... And that’s ridiculous, and nothing on which to found a country. Still it makes me feel good, knowing that in some obscure, conclusive way they were connected with me and me with them” Canadian Poet Alden Nowlan

7. Ruins of Ypres Market Square • Capt. Scrimger, 2nd Canadian Field Ambulance • Credited in some sources for having passed the order to use urine to counteract the gas • Captain Scrimger received a Vitoria Cross for other actions on 25 April

8. Gas at Ypres “Dusk was falling when from the German trenches in front of the French line rose that strange green cloud of death. The light north-easterly breeze wafted it toward them, and in a moment death had them by the throat. One cannot blame them that they broke and fled. In the gathering dark of that awful night they fought with the terror, running blindly in the gas-cloud, and dropping with breasts heaving in agony and the slow poison of suffocation mantling their dark faces. Hundreds of them fell and died; others lay helpless, froth upon their agonized lips and their racked bodies powerfully sick, with tearing nausea at short intervals. They too would die later – a slow and lingering death of agony unspeakable. The whole air was tainted with the acrid smell of chlorine that caught at the back of men's throats and filled their mouths with its metallic taste.” —Captain Hugh Pollard, The Memoirs of a VC (1932)

9. Lt Col John McCrae wrote the poem after his friend and fellow soldier died at Ypres In Flanders fields the poppies blow      Between the crosses, row on row,   That mark our place; and in the sky   The larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,         In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throw   The torch; be yours to hold it high.   If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow         In Flanders fields.

10. The Somme • Pg.79 • 1 million + casualties. • 1st July 1916- British Army suffer the worst day in its history, with nearly 60,000 casualties • 712 / 780 soldiers from the Dominion of Newfoundland died in the first day of battle • First use of the tank • Commanded by British General Sir Douglas Haig • Entente advanced 6 miles (9.7 km) into German occupied territory • Worthwhile?

12. German soldiers attacking a stalled tank at the Somme “I passed the worst fighting here since the war started. We took all kinds of prisoners but God we lost heavy, all my comrades killed or wounded... Dear wife it is worse than hell, the ground is covered for miles with dead corpses all over and your Frank passed all through without a scratch. Pray for me dear wife, I need it very bad... As long as I live I’ll remember it” -Canadian Solider writing after the battle of the Somme -When Your Numbers Up (Toronto: Random House, 1993)

13. Casualties in the Somme • United Kingdom 350,000+ • Canada 24,029 • Australia 23,000  • New Zealand 7,408  • South Africa 3,000+ • Newfoundland 2,000+ • Total British Empire 419,654 • French 204,253 • Total Allied 623,907 • Germany 465,000 Taken from the original estimates of casualties on the Somme, made at the Chantilly conference after the war

14. Vimy Ridge • Pg.79-81 • Four divisions of the Canadian expeditionary Force vs. three divisions of the German Sixth Army • Objective- take the German-held high ground • History- the French had failed to take the ridge 3x, the British had been suffering heavy losses as they prepared • Canadians relieved British in October, 1916

15. General Arthur Currie was in Command of the C.E.F Currie was under the command of British General Byng

16. “Historians attribute the success of the Canadian Corps in capturing the ridge to a mixture of technical and tactical innovation, meticulous planning, powerful artillery support, and extensive training… The battle was the first occasion when all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in a battle together, and thus became a Canadian nationalistic symbol of achievement and sacrifice” department of foreign affairs website

19. “I thought then, and I think today, that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.” (Brigadier General Alex Ross after Vimy)

20. Passchendaele

21. July- Nov 1917

22. The Entente allies fought to gain control of Passchendaele village • Located near Ypres in Belgium • Led by GBR Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig • Haigs plan was to capture the ridge then move to the Belgian coast • Unusually wet weather, which turned parts of the battlefield into a sea of mud churned by shell-fire • Entente Army captured Passchendaele in 5 months

23. Passchendaele Casualties • In the British Official History, Brigadier-General J.E. Edmonds put Entente losses at 244,897 but claimed that German figures were not available. He estimated German losses at 400,000 • Cyril Falls in The Great War 1914-1918, estimated 240,000 British (& Canadian), 8,525 French and 260,000 German casualties • Adolf Hitler fought in the Battle of Passchendaele as a member of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division and was injured on the night of 13 October 1917, when he was caught in a British gas attack.

24. Was Passchendaele worthwhile? • German General Staff publication of 1927 Theodor Jochim, first head of the Reichsarchiv's documents section wrote: "Germany had been brought near to certain destruction (sicheren untergang) by the Flanders battle of 1917.“ • German General von Kuhl said after the battle, "The sacrifices that the British made for the Entente were fully justified." • 1938 Lloyd George wrote, "Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war.... No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign...." • In 2008 J. P. Harris condemned Haig and the offensive, "For the troops taking part, however, some phases of Third Ypres had a quality more nightmarish than anything previously experienced.“