First World War lasted from 1914 to 1918. Over 650,000 Canadians
and Newfoundlanders served in uniform with more than 66,000 losing
their lives and over 172,000 being wounded. Their significant
contributions and sacrifices resulted in Canada earning a separate
signature on the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war. As a result of its wartime efforts, Canada gained greater international
respect and recognition as an independent country.
Time has surely not diminished their
legacy. That is evident in the hundreds
of memorials and the cemeteries located in Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia where
more than 65,000 brave Canadians find their final resting place in the lands
they helped to free. In Canada 1807 cemeteries contain the graves
of individuals who fought in the First World War. Their graves, on home soil and abroad, are
tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (founded in 1917).
The profound impact of the Canadian soldier is ever-present. The following narrative illustrates the adversities, struggles, and courage of those who served in the Great War. Contemporary
WWI newspaper headlines largely focused on tactical gains and official
military reports, often using nationalistic language to maintain morale,
while the grim reality of the battle's conditions led to veterans and
later histories defining the conflict by its extreme mud and horrific casualties. In faithfulness to those veterans, to relate their story today, requires graphic language. Read the author’s sentiments.
This is but a brief look at the story of Canada's land forces at the Western Front and their enduring sacrifice.
Canada Mobilizes to Join the Fight
Burst of Patriotic Volunteerism
Forecast for Canadians
Canadian Involvement on and off the Battlefield
Newfoundlanders Prepare for War
Civilian Soldiers Undergo Advanced Training
The Western Front
Trenches Define the Great War
Trench Deadlock
Shell-Blasted Wasteland
Dusk to Dawn - a Workday in the Trenches
Animals Provide Essential Services
Mud was a Deadly Adversary
Life-Threatening Gas Sweeps Through
Newfoundland Regiment in Combat
Canadian Corps in Combat
Canada's Key Roles and Battles
Memorials to Canadians on the Front Line
Images on this page: Courtesy of Canada's War Museum, Veteran Affairs Canada and Imperial War Museum
In 1914 Europe was teetering on the brink of war, consumed by profound,
long-standing rivalries and structural instability. Though some
statesmen clung to the hope of maintaining peace, an air of fatalism
prevailed among many in the military and diplomatic spheres who saw a
major conflict as inevitable. The assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, therefore, was not the root cause of the war, but merely the
igniting incident that set the continent's rigid alliance systems in
motion, transforming a regional dispute into a global conflict.
The
Canadian Parliament didn't choose to go to war in 1914. Canada was a
self-governing dominion of the British Empire, but it did not control its own
foreign affairs. So when Britain's ultimatum to Germany to withdraw
its army from Belgium expired on 4 August 1914, the British Empire declared
war. Automatically, this meant that the colonies and dominions of the
British Empire - Great Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, Ireland, India,
Australia, New Zealand, Union of South Africa - were allied
with Serbia, Russia, and France (the Entente or Allies) in a full scale war against the German, Austro-Hungary and Ottoman
Empires (the Central Powers).
At the time, Canada had a population of 7.88 million. However, its
military force was far from robust – no air force, a very small navy, a
professional army consisting of a measly 3,100 soldiers, zero reserve, and a
scattering of partially trained, self-financed part-time militia units that
practiced close-order drill and musketry. There was no compulsory
military training; six of the nine provinces incorporated cadet training
into their school curricula, but the financial trust dictated that the 50% of
the exercises be dedicated to physical education and only 15% be allotted to
rifle shooting. Besides cadets were explicitly prohibited from active
service. In terms of armed encounters, not many Canadians had
military experience. About 8,000 Canadians volunteered to serve in the
British army during the South African War between 1899-1902. Afterward,
most men returned to their respective communities to resume non-military
responsibilities.
Comparing Canada's military to the neutral country of Switzerland which had a
population of 3.8 million and a serving military of 250,000 men with an
additional 200,000 in supporting roles, one can surmise that Canada was
ill-prepared and ill-equipped for war.
Canada passed the War Measures Act in August 1914. Motivated by loyalty to Britain and a sense of adventure, there was a burst of patriotic volunteerism. Thousands of Canadians rushed to recruiting offices across the country. An initial force of over 32,000 volunteer recruits gathered at a hastily prepared camp in Valcartier, Quebec, within weeks of the war's start. The
first contingent of the CEF sailed for England in October 1914, where
they received further training before deploying to the front lines in
early 1915.
While the Ministry of Militia and Defence directed their primary efforts on training the Canadian Expeditionary Force it also led recruitment efforts. The government created the Imperial Munitions Board in 1915. Shortly after the War Measures Act
was passed Canada's initiated internment camps to house individuals designated as "enemy aliens," primarily immigrants from the
Austro-Hungarian and German Empires. Meanwhile, factories were converted to war production and the infrastructure of the railway was altered to support the war effort. When their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers left the women stepped in to fill the vital roles both at home and abroad to support the war effort.
The
Great War, lasting 1,568 days, saw Canada involved from August 1914.
While Britain's declaration automatically brought Canada into the war, the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) needed time to recruit, organize,
and train before deploying to the front. In less than 60 days, the first troop ship sailed to Europe By wars end, nearly 10% of the entire
Canadian population enlisted, with 625,000 ordinary young people leaving
their homes, schools, farms, and families behind to face the unknown.
Canadians
were deployed to the trenches and endured the extremities of intense
training and harsh living conditions. They fought for 43 months and 20
days, starting their first major engagement at the Second Battle of
Ypres from April 22 to May 25, 1915, where they resisted the first
large-scale poison gas attack. They continued fighting for 1,299 days,
right up to the final minutes of the war on the morning of November 11,
1918.
Soldiers
endured physical hardship, exhaustion, fear, loss, and immense mental
anguish. Many witnessed terrifying clashes in which more than 67,000
fellow Canadians died. The four years in the trenches were a dark time,
where death and carnage were incomprehensible.
Returning
home for leave was generally not feasible due to the vast distances.
The only exception was for Dominion troops who were severely wounded or
sick enough to be sent back to their home countries for extended
recovery. This process could take months, and those who recuperated
often returned to the front. Troops on the Western Front were regularly
rotated out of the front-line trenches for short rest periods in rear areas. They were eligible for longer, fourteen-day leaves every
twelve to fifteen months, but due to distance, these were usually spent
in a nearby European city, not back home. These leaves were infrequent,
subject to availability of transportation, and often cancelled if
offensives were planned.
Broken
in mind and body, 416,000 soldiers eventually returned to Canada;
172,000 of them were wounded, and thousands more were profoundly
traumatized by the wartime experiences that haunted them for the rest of
their lives. we should also remember the many more who were casualties of this war, but who survived the slaughter.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was a military force of roughly 630,000 soldiers, most of whom were volunteers.
It expanded from a single infantry division in 1914 to four by 1916 and
included various units like infantry, mounted regiments, railway
troops, and artillery. Around 424,000 of these soldiers served overseas
as part of the CEF.
The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) formed at the very beginning of the war primarily from
ex-British Army regular soldiers living in Canada. They were the first
Canadian contingent to arrive in France and served with the British 27th
Division before joining the Canadian Corps later in the war.
The Canadian Cavalry Brigade was a mounted formation of the Canadian Expeditionary Force formed in December 1914 and attached to British Army cavalry
division and the 2nd Indian Cavalry Division on the Western Front. Due to the trench deadlock, the calvary units served as dismounted infantry from 1914 to 1916.
The Newfoundland Regiment
was raised as a battalion for the British Royal Army, where it was deployed as an
infantry unit on the Western Front and in the Gallipoli campaign. The Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, was a separate force that served in the British Royal Navy.
Canada's
military participation in the First World War extended beyond the infantry battalions, encompassing a wide range of roles and global locations. It became clear by 1915 that several support and administrative units needed to be included on the Western
Front. Specialized Corps were a crucial part
of the Canadian Expeditionary Force but served outside the main Canadian Corps command structure.
While most Canadians served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF),
some individuals volunteered directly for the British Army, Navy, or Air Force as well as other allied units.
Canadians served at sea, with thousands joining the Royal Navy while the
Canadian Navy patrolled home waters. Because Canada did not have its own air force until late in the war, 22,812
Canadians joined Britain's Royal Air Force. Nearly a quarter of all British flyers were
Canadian.
Let us not forget that when men went to war, women stepped up to run farms, work in banks, factories, canneries, lumber yards, gas stations and repair shops. They built ships, aircraft and munitions, ran street-cars, filled civil service jobs, and cared for their families. They were busy fundraising, rolling bandages, wrapping food parcels, and knitting socks for the troops.
Initial training for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) at Valcartier Camp focused on basic soldiering skills
from the Boer War era, including traditional drills, physical fitness including long marches and tug-of-war,
discipline, rifle drill, target practice, and bayonet skills. Training instructors had no experience with trench warfare so there was minimal emphasis on the tactics
of such. Troops were also issued essential equipment and
organized into units before deploying overseas.
The initial group of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) embarked for England on October 3, 1914. This
first wave consisted of more than 30,000 volunteers, including the 1st
to 17th Battalions and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Their departure involved a vast convoy of over 30 ocean liners leaving
from Québec City and Halifax. The operation was conducted under secrecy
to avoid German naval aggression. The convoy successfully reached
Plymouth, England, on October 14, 1914.
Courtesy of the Rooms Provincial Archives Division (VA 37-15.2), St. John's, NL
A regiment from the Dominion of Newfoundland set sail with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
At that time, the Dominion of Newfoundland (including the Island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland) was not part of Canada; it stood separately as a self-governing colony of the British Empire. Newfoundland's Royal Naval Reserve trained sailors for service in the Royal Navy, but apart from that, the nearest thing to a militia was an organization of marksmen called the Legion of Frontiersmen (an empire-wide civilian organization with no military training).
From within Newfoundland's population of 240,000, the first recruitment to form a regiment was so enthusiastic the Newfoundland government expanded the regiment to a full battalion. The first group of 438 departed for training in the United Kingdom
on 4 October 1914. In total, 8,707 men enlisted in the dominion's three services - the Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and
the Newfoundland Forestry Corps. Another 3,296 joined the Canadian
Expeditionary Force (CEF). (Read More). Many others volunteered to serve in various capacities during World War I, logging, nursing, and merchant marine service, while others provided crucial support on the home front or
transported vital goods.
The Newfoundland Regiment had no wartime experience and after training in England and Scotland, soldiers were sent to the trenches on the Western Front and to join the patriots of Australia and New Zealand in the trenches on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the Eastern Mediterranean war zone.
Acknowledged: In this narrative, the term "Canadian" is used as an umbrella term to collectively refer to both Canadians and Newfoundlanders.
Soldiers from both Canada and Newfoundland underwent four months of training with professional British instructors. They had to adapt to British military standards. The training was more intensive and the facilities were better than back home. Unfortunately, the equipment they had carried with them overseas failed and had to be replaced by British gear. The training was both fundamental and rigorous preparations for the front lines.
The time in England served as a crucial transitional phase where the
Canadian volunteers were molded into a cohesive and effective fighting
force.
Canada
deployed 424,000 "civilian soldiers" (as part of the Canadian
Expeditionary Force) to the Western Front during the war. No military training could prepare them for the grim realities of the actual battlefields they would encounter on the front lines in Belgium and France.
There existed an illusion among military strategists that a localized conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia would be a quick war. However, instead of a decisive victory, the conflict quickly escalate into a continent-wide war, and just as quickly it devolved into a protracted worldwide war branded by death and destruction.
The first significant headway of World War I was the rapid initial
German invasion of Belgium and France in August and early September
1914. This offensive began with the
Battle of Liège and saw German forces advance within 40 miles of Paris,
achieving considerable territorial gains in the opening weeks of the
conflict. However, this momentum was abruptly and decisively halted by
the Allied forces at the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, a
crucial turning point that led to the failure of a quick German victory.
Both sides faced the unprecedented firepower of modern machine guns and rapid-firing
artillery, making traditional open-field battles incredibly deadly. Armies from both sides constructed a network of protective trenches to shelter soldiers from the killing power of modern weaponry. With no open space to maneouver neither side could apply grinding pressure to achieve a breakthrough. Neither side could outflank the other to force a forward advance. Each time one side tried to move
around the other, the opposing force would extend its line northward to
counter the move. The front lines of battle eventually stretched from the Swiss border to the northern coastline of Belgium and France.
In an effort to outflank each other, the trenches of the Germans basically ran parallel to the trenches of the Entente. The
distance between opposing trenches in World War I varied but the average was about 230 meters. The farthest might have been 500-700 meters. In active zones, the two trenches were so close that one dared not steal a peek above the parapet because hunkered down in their own trench a mere 10-25 meters away was the enemy. Using periscopes was safer.
Basically, the war slowed down. Strategically, it was a stalemate and the war devolved into a state of trench warfare.
While infantry and supplies could be transported with relative ease to
the front lines, it was nearly impossible to move heavy equipment and
provisions across the cratered war zone that turned muddy after heavy rains. Consequently, advancing against well-defended enemy trenches
was extremely difficult and resulted in heavy casualties for either
side. This led to a trench deadlock, where both sides fought
a back-and-forth with neither the Allies or the Central Powers able to sustain an offensive or make meaningful progress.
The use of new technologies like scout planes (1914), poison gas (1915), tanks (1916), and specialized photographic and artillery spotting planes (1916) were introduced to break the deadlock, but
initially failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough on their own. Large
offensives, infiltration tactics, and raids often led to temporary gains that were quickly
reversed by counterattacks.
The trench network expanded. Soldiers were forced to live in the trenches. The trench deadlock remained with neither side made significant headway for more than three years.
Laid End-to-End - 40,000 Kilometers of Trench, Dug Mostly by Hand
By the time the Canadians arrived at the front to fight with the Allies, soldiers had dug many kilometers of protective trenches. Initially the trenches were narrow and not much deeper than roadside ditches, basically a temporary means of maintaining a defensive position. The closer to the ground one could get the safer one
would feel. Not long into the war, trenches became much deeper and necessary. There was always the threat of a military bombardment and in order to survive the snipers, rapid-fire artillery, howitzers, machine guns and high explosives, soldiers of both sides burrowed their way deeper into the ground.
Mechanical
excavators were largely absent from front-line trench construction. The
noise, visibility, and shell-churned ground in active combat zones made
their use impractical and a magnet for enemy fire. Construction of World War I trenches was had to be done by hand and it was difficult to balance speed with soldier safety.
Three methods were employed in creating the network of trenches: entrenching, sapping and tunneling.
Entrenching, involving large groups of soldiers digging directly down from the surface, was fast but dangerous. Work crews took this course of action further from the front line or dug trenches at night to avoid enemy fire.
Sapping was a slower, but safer engineering technique. Specialized soldiers dug narrow, covered, or
zig-zagging trenches to extend an existing trench toward enemy lines. This was a slower process. To dig remain below ground, typically only one or two men could dig to from the face of the trench. Sapping was used to create protected approaches to advance artillery or set up forward
listening posts.
Tunneling was the safest and most complex method, executed by engineers and experienced miners who were recruited for this dangerous work. The tunnels, out of sight of machine guns and artillery fire, advanced beneath no-man's-land and were used to attack the enemy by surprise from below ground. By placing mines beneath enemy positions, the army could destroy
key enemy fortifications and create a gap in
the front line for attacking troops to exploit. Tunnelling offered logistical advantages beyond direct combat, providing
shell-proof shelter for soldiers, headquarters, and aid stations. Soldiers dug an extensive networks of tunnels through which troops and supplied moved safely and essential communication lines were protected from shellfire damage.
All these types of trenches were dug by pick axes, shovels and bare hands, no excavating equipment. Standard equipment for a soldier was an entrenching tool that could also be used as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat. Trench walls were basically compacted clay, rock and stinking mud reinforced with limited construction materials, such as sandbags, wooden planks, woven sticks, and tangled barbed wire. Sometimes the soldiers were fortunate to obtain netting or a bit of wire mesh. To prevent the WW1 trenches from becoming waterlogged, a narrow drainage
channel known as a sump would be built at the bottom of the trench. This would then be covered with wooden trench boards known as duck
boards. Here and there soldiers constructed crude above ground fortification walls out of clay and sandbags filled with ordinary soil.
Behind the front fire trench were two more parallel trenches, a support trench and a reserve trench. Connecting the three main lines they built communication trenches through which they could move food, troops, mail, ammunition, military communications, supplies and the wounded without having to traverse open ground. The rear most trenches housed strategically located command posts, first-aid stations, field hospitals, storage, kitchens, latrines, and deep bunkers to shield troops during an enemy bombardment.
Over the course of the war an elaborate system of trenches snaked and zigzagged across the landscape. All Allied trenches were mapped out and named, even though Allied trenches were usually temporary in nature in that the British philosophy of attack rather than defence
ensured that little energy was wasted building expansive, lavish
positions that would shortly be left behind by the large-scale attacks.
German trenches were usually built to a much higher standard than those of the
Allies. Wattle work, corrugated iron, heavy wooden beams and
concrete were all widely used to build the German trenches securely and make
them resilient to the weather and the mud.
The main trench line of the Allies where Canadians fought stretched about 764 kilometers from the from the Belgian coast to the Swiss Alps. However, the total length of all the Allied trenches, including
support and communication lines, was much longer, estimated at over 2,400 kilometers. When all trenches, both Allied and Central Powers, were laid end-to-end, they totaled more than 40,000 kilometers, with the Central Powers excavating two-thirds of that length.
Between the two opposing trench lines was what remained of a battlefield, not land left to crumble over time, a landscape violently erased by firepower - scorched earth, the bleak and foreboding no man's land.
Huge field guns had been used to bombard enemy trenches with explosive shells. These howitzers were designed
to destroy the trenches, tear through barbed wire defences, and shatter
the morale of the enemy soldiers. In the aftermath of bombardments that could last for hours or even days, all the remained was a nearly impassable maze of shredded tree trunks, deep craters, broken military equipment and the remains of fallen soldiers. Hedges of barbed wire were placed in no man's land to slow down and entangle attacking
infantry, making them easy targets for machine-gun fire.
Contrary to its name, no man's land was a hub of activity under the cover of darkness. With nightfall, both
sides dispatched parties to conduct reconnaissance, spy on the enemy,
and maintain or lay barbed wire defenses. The darkness also offered the
only opportunity to retrieve the injured and the dead for burial. This
constant presence, however, made the area a frequent target for
artillery shelling, which rapidly pulverized it into the desolate, landscape of countless craters, buried barbed wire, destroyed vegetation, and decaying
corpses for which it is known.
No man's land was an ever-shifting landscape due to various factors like bad weather, heavy artillery fire,
and troop activity. Heavy precipitation and flooding turned the ground into a mud-soaked mess which meant new
dangers and impediments to complicate military strategies and increase the hazards for soldiers crossing the perilous land.
Photos courtesy of Canada's War Museum and Veteran Affairs Canada
Traditional accounts of the war, rich in details of troop movements, battle statistics and casualty lists, offer a comprehensive view of events but fall short
of explaining the human experience or the landscape in which the soldier lived, fought and often died.
The soldiers lived in a landscape not simply understood in terms of a bird's eye-view of the zigzagged trench lines of the front. Soldiers carved out an existence below ground. In those claustrophobic confines of the trenches they lived for weeks at a time. Soldiers would spend around a week in the front line
trench then would spend a week in the rear trenches, a kind of rest camp.
The front line trenches were generally about 8 feet deep and between 4
and 6 feet wide. The soldier's existence in that space was a stark contrast of severe danger and routine tasks.
The soldiers' routine in the trenches was dreary. They sculpted out cavities in the trench wall dug for sleeping, hiding and sometimes eating. Outside that hiding hole, with only a patch of overcast sky above, their maneuoverable space was a few feet left or right. In that space they ate, tended their swollen infected feet, deloused their clothing, bathed in a box or a hole of water, tended to the sick, reread letters from loved ones, wrote in their diaries, read books, played cards and created trench art from the grisly detritus of war. It was imperative for every soldier to conduct a daily inspection of his kit, rifle and feet. They had to be particularly attentive to preventing trench foot. Despite limited access to water, shaving and personal cleanliness was encouraged. During the day, soldiers could be assigned to sentry duty, filling sandbags, cleaning latrines, collecting litter, laying duckboards or pumping water out of flooded trenches. Always, beside them stood their weapons with bayonet ready when ordered to attack.
Otherwise, soldiers tried to sleep during the day. To be above ground in daylight meant almost certain death, so from dusk to dawn, under the cover of darkness was when the serious military activity took place. Soldiers were assigned to working parties, patrols and raids.
To maintain the defensive line, soldiers worked to move rations and troops up the line. Working parties dug new trenches or repaired existing ones (trench repair was a constant daily job as the sides would cave in due to enemy shells or the weather); they built artillery positions reinforced with sandbags and timber revetments and they tunneled dug deep under no-man's land to place massive mines beneath enemy lines. All these jobs were backbreaking as well as perilous.
Their incursions into no-man's land were the most dangerous. Reconnaissance patrols had to be stealthy. Their missions were aimed at gathering intelligence about
enemy positions, the condition of the ground, enemy habits, and the
layout of minefields and barbed wire. Fighting patrols went on small-scaled pinprick raids to actively
seek out and engage enemy patrols, lay ambushes, harass enemy working parties, or capture prisoners for interrogation. Fighting patrols were also necessary to protect reconnaissance and working parties. They escorted stretcher parties transporting the wounded and standing patrols to a forward position. Standing patrols moved as quietly as possible and tried to remain concealed. Often called a listening post, the main goal of a standing patrol was to watch and listen for enemy movements and monitor the dead ground (saps/blind spots) that was out of sight of the watch sentry in the trench. The enemy could use the blind spot to approach unobserved.
Images courtesy of Canada's War Museum, Veteran Affairs Canada and Imperial War Museum
Soldiers were at the mercy of the elements. More often than not the trenches were wet.
“Behind us lay rainy weeks—grey sky, grey fluid earth, grey dying. If we go out, the rain at once soaks through our overcoat and clothing;—and we remain wet all the time we are in the line. We never get dry. ~ All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque,- 1929
The Allies used duckboards (raised wooden walkways) to keep soldiers above the water and deep mud that accumulated on the trench floors. It was impossible to avoid the water entirely. Socks and boots got wet; soldiers suffered with permanently damp feet. Soldiers who spent prolonged periods of time standing in waterlogged
trenches were liable to suffer from frostbite and/or trench foot. When they could soldiers were encouraged to change their socks two or three times a
day. They routinely applied a coating of whale oil or other greases to
their feet and into their boots to help repel water and prevent it
from soaking into the skin.
Soldiers paired up to inspect their partner's feet daily to ensure proper
care was being taken to avoid an infection like trench foot.
Soldiers were constantly harassed by rats and bugs. The damp dingy trench floor was a breeding ground for thriving rats that carried and spread deadly disease. Placing and maintaining rat traps was
impractical. Felines were highly effective at controlling the large rat population. The unofficial feline soldiers were present on both sides of the conflict.
Soldiers were in such close proximity to the earth the stench of stagnant water and mud, lingering gas, poor sanitation, overflowing latrines, decomposing bodies and invading vermin that the sickening sensory assault was described as one of the worst aspects of the conflict.
During bombardments the soldiers faced extreme danger. Trenches offered protection, but were still subjected to lethal weaponry. Steel helmets did not became standard issue until 1916. Under directed artillery fire, soldiers
easily became trapped or killed. It was not unusual for a trench to collapse under heavy bombardment and become a long grave. There are stories of wounded soldiers carrying other men to safety and both being injured again or killed by machine-gun fire. The noise from a barrage of guns was
deafening. Even in "quiet" sectors of the trench line, there was imminent threat of random sniper fire, artillery shelling, and poison gas. In the trenches, a soldier understood his life in terms of experience. This constant peril, the noise and the onslaught of the landscape, against which soldiers often felt powerless, created a perpetual state of anxiety and hyper-vigilance.
Life in the trenches was so bad, only going over the top could be worse.
At dawn in the morning about, we were told, 800 guns opened up and
we went over the top. It was all quite nice; we didn’t have anybody
firing at us, not for the first quarter of an hour or so, anyway. We
were getting along – strung out in what we called open formation, that’s
a couple of yards between each man – and we came under long-distance
machine-gun fire. As we were going along, the man on the left of me was
hit in the arm and the man on the right of me was hit in the heart, he
died – he probably died, we weren’t allowed to stop, anyway but he did,
we knew he died afterwards. It missed me altogether, that was just the
luck of the war. ~ Clifford Lane (Hertfordshire Regiment)
While
conditions were abysmal and dangerous, trenches were highly effective defensive fortifications. Typically, massive casualties occurred during offensives when
soldiers were forced to leave the relative safety of the trenches and
cross "no man's land" into the enemy's fields of fire.
During
World War I, various animals were indispensable to Canadian military operations on the Western Front and other theatres. Animals served in capacities where early technology fell short. Horses and mules were the backbone of the army, providing the primary
means of transport for heavy artillery, ammunition, food, and wounded
soldiers across the muddy and shell-cratered landscape. Canada
supplied approximately 130,000 horses to the war effort, highlighting
their military importance to the cavalry as well their logistical importance in pulling ammunition trains, supply wagons, and ambulances when mechanized
vehicles struggled to operate.
Other smaller animals lived in the trenches. Often at great personal risk, many were officially used to provide critical communication and safety services. Dogs could maneouver through the treacherous terrain where vehicles and soldiers could not. Dogs were trained to serve as messengers to carry critical information and to acted as sentries, using their keen senses for detection. They were also trained to locate and carry medical supplies to wounded soldiers in no man's land. Rat-hunting dogs and cats were used to control the persistent problem of rats. An estimated 500,000 cats served in the trench systems of the Western Front. Carrier pigeons were a highly reliable communication channel
for delivering urgent messages when telephone lines were cut by
shellfire. In the trenches, canaries served as early warning systems
for poison gas attacks and in underground mining operations to detect toxic gases like carbon monoxide, thereby
safeguarding the lives of the tunnellers and soldiers above.
Unofficially, animals were kept in the trenches as pets or mascots. In the harsh trench environment, animals provided companionship and comfort. Enemy pets were sometimes adopted after a battle, renamed, and became part of the soldiers’ community.
The welfare of these animals was often a concern for soldiers, and
veterinary hospitals were established behind the lines to treat the sick
and injured, highlighting the value placed on their contributions and
companionship.
For soldiers on the Western Front surviving the onslaught of the landscape, especially the mud, was as challenging as surviving the weaponry of the enemy.
World War I propaganda focused on duty and honor, making heroism desirable. In Victorian and Edwardian Britain (and to a great extent English Canada), cleanliness was deeply intertwined
with morality, class, and self-respect. The widely held adage
"cleanliness is next to godliness" reflected a belief that a clean body
and home indicated a virtuous, disciplined, and respectable character.
Dirt was often associated with moral degeneracy, sloth, and the lower
classes. By amplifying these ideals, the hype created an image of the
ideal, morally pure soldier. Military service and self-sacrifice became man's moral mission.
Wrapped in this cloak of heroism, Canadians marched to the trenches where the brutal realities were anything but desirable and clean. Apart from the shortage of available drinking water and the presence of vermin, constant flooding and water in the trenches posed major problems for the soldiers. Moreover the stench and mud were pervasive and inescapable. Basic hygiene was impossible to maintain.
Many
soldiers' diaries and letters allude to how the conditions, including the invasive, all-consuming mud, made many soldiers feel dehumanized and animal-like. Soldiers in the trenches were forced into a brutal confrontation with filth, decay and the limits of human control. The degrading reality of mud - alongside the other horrors
of the First World War - had a physical and psychological effect on many soldiers. If forced many to re-evaluate and redefine traditional notions of virtue, morality, and purity.
Rather than a single dramatic event, mud was an everyday background element of the war. Overwhelmed by other horrors and obscured by more dramatic narratives, the role of mud in the Great War is often
overlooked, taken for granted and not fully understood.
Many
trench lines, like those on the Western Front, were dug in low-lying boggy areas with high water tables. Digging down brought soldiers to groundwater level. The clay or sandy soil could not drain
properly. Artillery bombardment destroyed vegetation and existing drainage systems, which drastically hindered ware absorption. Flooding was worse in heavy rainfall.
Not just wet earth, not merely simple soil mixed with water, not just ordinary mud like that in the Canadian school yard or a prairie field. Trampled into the bottom of the trenches was the accumulating debris of men at war. In the dry men still bled and vomited, defecated and urinated; waste water and food were still spilt in the trenches.
Gruesome mud, a pervasive mixture of all the horrific physical realities of
the war: shrapnel, spent cartridges, shattered helmets, blood-soaked bandages, shredded uniforms, bone fragments and the remains of thousands of rotting corpses. All this trampled debris and gruesomeness was churned up by flood waters and oozed across the landscape and into the trenches. Enormous rats were drawn to the slime and stench.
Not just just waterlogged trenches. Not just mere depressions of water on the battlefield. Mud holes deep enough to swallow a man, The conflict zones where prolonged fighting and heavy shelling took place were turned into a charnel pit of a landscape, a never-ending quagmire of human and material wreckage.
"Almost every painting, photograph, poem, diary or book about the First World War involves mud. It is as much a part of the war as artillery or trenches, barbed wire or machine guns, hopelessness or heroism." ~ Dr Matthew Leonard, Muddy Hell
The war was fought in the mud, because of the mud, and against the mud. Mud was anything but a backdrop. The mud was all consuming and inescapable, a constant impediment and deadly force in the war. Mud hampered movement of men, supplies and equipment; it impacted the reliability of weapons; it caused immense hardship and shattered morale; and influenced the outcome of battles.
Mud on an organic rich prairie landscape is a sticky clay rich gumbo - nuisance mud. On the Western Front the mud wasn’t liquid, it wasn’t porridge, it was a curious sucking kind of mud, "a real monster that sucked at you”. Mud was a deadly adversary. Knee deep mud, waste-deep mud, capable of pulling
off men's boots or trapping them entirely. Mudholes deep enough to swallow a man. Soldiers tied sand bags around the top of their boots so that the mud did not pour in so fast. They would be However, the mud was so devouring, wounded soldiers could and
did drown in shell holes filled with water and mud, healthy men
sometimes got stuck and could not be rescued, even horses drowned in mud. Men came to fear being sucked off their feet by the mud and suffocating, drowning in mud already filled with decaying flesh. The mud was an enemy thought it wore no uniform; it was a greater dread than being hit by a rogue shell.
Soldiers lived in such direct and unavoidable contact with the mud all their senses were exposed to it. The slime saturated their uniforms, filled their boots, infected their feet, coated their skin. The putrid odor hung in the air, the metallic taste sensation lingered on the lips and throat, the rhythm of the sucking squelching, and slurping broke the silence; the image of the wide-eyed wounded and survivors, slowly sinking never to be seen again burned itself into the mind; the physical exhaustion of surviving it; the recurring sight of blasted trees, feet and twisted hands sticking up out of the earth,
bloody shirts, ammunition clips, and knowing the mud stripped away all human dignity.
Unless one was there on the battlefield, it is not possible to see the mud as it was lived in and fought in and
died in. Trenches, shell-holes and the mudscape were open graves. Thousands of men fell into the mud never to be seen again.
Mud was debilitating. It resulted in lasting
physical and psychological trauma for soldiers. Physical ailments
included permanent disabilities from conditions like untreated trench
foot requiring amputation and chronic musculoskeletal problems due to
the extreme physical toll of the mud. Psychologically, the constant
stress and horrific sights led to severe trauma causing long-lasting anxiety and an inability to reintegrate into normal post-war life.
Mud was a constant, life-threatening adversary.
The 1st Canadian Division arrived in France in February 1915. They moved to Belgium to the Ypres Salient in the first week of April 1915. With French Colonial troops they were defending strategically important terrain outside Ypres which was a vital road and rail hub. Defending this position was militarily dangerous because the salient pushed into the German line and was vulnerable to enemy fire from three sides.
The Second Battle of Ypres began in the afternoon 22 April 1915. Following a barrage of explosive weaponry a thick greenish-yellow cloud drifted on the wind across no man's land toward the Allied trenches. German forces had released 160 tons of chlorine gas. The
initial chlorine gas cloud hit French colonial troops to the
Canadians' left. The gas was swift, leaving soldiers dead or incapacitated. French defences crumbled, creating a 7.3 kilometer gap in the line. German infantry followed well behind the cloud, breathing through cotton pads soaked with sodium thiosulfate solution. The Canadians shifted their position to fill the gap and then fought desperately to hold the tactically valuable high ground.
This marked the first large-scale, lethal poison gas attack of the war. A second, direct gas attack
targeted the Canadian line, just two days later. The Allied troops had no gas masks and were ill prepared for such an attack.
The battle finally ended 5 May. Despite having no protection against the gas as well as being outnumbered and outflanked, the Canadians held their ground, preventing the Germans from exploiting the
breach. They did so at tremendous cost. This battle resulted in a staggering 6,000 casualties for the
Canadians - about a third of their force. Within the first 48 hours of the battle 2,000 Canadians were killed with an additional 4,000 wounded or captured.
This was the beginning of chemical warfare, leading
to the development and deployment of more lethal agents like phosgene
and mustard gas. These gases caused severe respiratory damage, skin
blisters, and often led to agonizing deaths, leaving a lasting
psychological impact on soldiers.
The battle earned the Canadian Corps a reputation for courage and
resilience.
When the German's released chlorine gas, it quickly inflicted damage to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Inhaled, it reacted with water in the lungs to form
hydrochloric acid, destroying tissue and causing a painful death by
asphyxiation. It quickly became a feared and psychologically
devastating weapon. Even in low concentrations or prolonged exposure, victims
suffered from burning in their eyes, nose, and throat, violent
coughing, chest pain, and the accumulation of fluid in the lungs
(pulmonary edema) and often suffered permanent health damage. Multiple exposures put the soldiers at significantly higher risk of developing severe, cumulative, and long-lasting health complications.
The Newfoundland Regiment, while part of the British forces during World War I, did
not have a major, well-documented encounter with a large-scale chlorine
gas attack that resulted in a high number of casualties unique to their
unit.
However, the regiment's principal medical officer, Dr. Cluny Macpherson, invented an early and effective gas mask. Macpherson's smoke helmet was a canvas hood, treated with chlorine-absorbing chemicals and fitted with transparent plastic eyepieces. The Allies quickly manufactured 2.6 million of them by June 2015. It
became the most important piece of anti-gas equipment for Allied
soldiers early in the war. The design was modified over time to save millions of lives.
After training in Scotland The Newfoundland Regiment participated in continuous front line service alternating between the front lines, reserve trenches, and rest camps. The Regiment engaged in numerous significant offensives. While it is difficult to give an exact number, The Newfoundland Regiment was awarded 16 official battle honours for major engagements during the Great War. As part of the British Expeditionary Force, The Newfoundland Regiment often fought alongside the Canadian Corps. The cost of war was heavy. Of the 6200 men who served over 1,300 men were killed in action and another 2,500 wounded or taken prisoner.
The following list summarizes the key engagements that highlight Newfoundland's sacrifice.
Gallipoli Campaign
(19 February 1915 to 9 January 1916)
The first major engagement for the regiment of 1076 men was in the Middle Eastern theatre of war, specifically Suvla Bay on the Dardanelles Strait where they joined troops from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France and India. The Allies were trying to secure the strategically important sea route to Russia. On 4 November, 1915 the regiment captured a significant ridge from the Ottomans to earned their first battle honours. After five months of fighting and not being able to forge a military breakthrough, the Allied forces evacuated the peninsula. The Newfoundland Regiment played a crucial role
in the rearguard, covering the withdrawal of other troops. By the end of the campaign, the regiment suffered 43 fatalities. Hundreds more were recovering from enemy fire or disease in military hospitals. bringing the
Newfoundland Regiment down to a strength of only 470 men and 17
officers. Read More
Battle of the Somme (1916):
The regiment's first day was at Beaumont-Hamel
(1 July, 1916), where the regiment suffered catastrophic losses from machine gun fire, with
only 68 out of approximately 800 men answering roll call the next day.
They also saw action in later phases such as Gueudecourt and Le Transloy.
Battle of Arras (1917)
At Arras, C and D companies of the regiment achieved a significant objective only to be severely surrounded and outnumbered in a German counterattack - losses 460 including 153 taken prisoner. Another small contingent of Newfoundlanders were deployed to guard a key trench. After sustaining more casualties, all that stood between the village of Monchy le Preux and more than 200 advancing
Germans were nine Newfoundlanders and one man from the Essex Regiment. They successfully held off a German advance, saved the village from being retaken and were forever known as the "Monchy Ten".
Third Battle of Ypres (1917)
The regiment was involved in another major attack during the final,
grueling stages of the Ypres offensive, which took place during heavy rain. The men faced fierce German resistance while fighting in the quagmire and water logged shell holes. Engagements at the Ypres salient included actions around Steenbeek, the Battle of Langemarck in August (27 killed and 76 wounded) and the Battle of Poelcappelle in October (67 killed and 127 wounded).
Battle of Cambrai (1917)
Despite being outflanked, the regiment distinguished itself during a battle near Masnières-Marcoing, successfully seizing part of the St. Quentin Canal and holding their
ground against heavy opposition. In recognition of their actions at Ypres
and Cambrai, the regiment was granted the "Royal"
designation by King George V.
Spring Offensive/German Advance (1918)
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment spent the first three months of 1918 in
the trenches at Passchendaele and digging the Brandhoek Line. In April 1918 the regiment was urgently deployed by bus to near Bailleul in
Belgium to help defend against the German Spring Offensive. They engaged in fierce defensive
fighting between April 9th and 14th, successfully stopping a major
German assault on April 11th with heavy machine-gun fire from a railway
embankment—an action described as "Beaumont-Hamel in reverse." Despite
inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and holding their ground for
several days, the
sustained fighting proved costly for the regiment, with
casualties amounting to six officers and 170 men. By April 19, the
regiment was so depleted that it was removed from the front line to rebuild its strength.
Hundred Days Offensive (1918)
During the Hundred Days Offensive, the Newfoundland Regiment was attached to the 28th Brigade of the British 9th (Scottish) Division which engaged in a series of coordinated attacks that ultimately ended the First World War, including capture of German front lines in Ypres, fighting near Ledegem to push through German defences, and forcing the German retreat from around Courtrai. In that one month the regiment suffered 93 fatal losses and nearly 300 wounded, sick or missing.
After the Armistice was signed on November 11, the regiment was part of
the British Army of the Rhine, serving as an occupation force in Germany
into 1919.
The largest combat element of the Canadian Corps was concentrated on the Western Front as part of the British Expeditionary Force. From initial, costly frontal assaults, Canadian troops learned to became masters at planning a methodical, defensive-offensive operation while employing innovative military tactics. They became formidable and effective at trench warfare. Decisive victories earned the Canadian Corps a reputation as the most effective attacking force the Allies' had on the Western Front. By 1918, Canadians had evolved into the de facto elite of the British Empire, earning this reputation among both Allied and German forces.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in more than 55 battles on the Western Front in Europe.
The trench deadlock was broken by the combination of several late-war innovations and tactics - new methods developed over three years of costly learning - including the widespread use of tanks, the improved creeping barrage and infiltration tactics, and a final, successful combined-arms offensive known as the Hundred Days Offensive in which Canada played a key role in the Allies making the mobile gains to force the armistice.
Second Battle of Ypres
(April 1915)
As briefly outline in the previous section, the 1st Canadian Division was thrown into its first major action when Germans used poison gas for the first time.
Battle of the Somme
(01 July - 18 November 1916)
The Somme Offensive took place on both sides of the upper reaches of the Somme River in Northern France. It is deemed one of the bloodiest in human history. Over the course of the five month offensive, approximately 1.2 million men were killed or wounded at
the Somme.
On the first day of the offensive The Newfoundland Regiment, fighting as part of a British
division, were nearly wiped out. During the attack at
Beaumont-Hamel 801 men went "over the top," only 68 answered
roll call the next morning. The British suffered over 57,000 casualties during the day.
In late August due to heavy casualties among
other Allied forces, the main body of the Canadian Corps was transferred south from the Ypres Salient in Belgium to the Somme front near the
village of Courcelette. They faced horrific fighting conditions but successfully cpatured the village of Courcelette and the nearby Sugar Factory strongpoint. This attack saw the first-ever use of tanks in warfare and the effective
implementation of the "creeping barrage" artillery tactic. In subsequent weeks, Canadian troops were heavily engaged in securing
fortified German positions. The 4th Canadian Division eventually
captured the formidable Regina Trench on 11 November and the Desire
Trench a week later, just before the battle ceased for winter.
Though the overall Somme Offensive resulted in minimal territorial gains for the Allies, the Canadian Corps experienced some costly but significant tactical victories that helped refine its infantry and artillery tactics, that would prove valuable in future successes. In three months of fighting Canadian casualties numbered over 24,000.
Battle of Vimy Ridge
(9 - 12 April 1917)
The Canadian Corps' involvement at the Battle of Vimy Ridge (April 9-12, 1917) resulted
in a stunning tactical victory that is often considered a defining
moment in Canadian history and a significant step toward Canadian
nationhood.
The
Battle of Vimy Ridge (April 9-12, 1917) was a pivotal moment for Canada
in the First World War, marking the first time all four Canadian
divisions fought together as a single formation. The
Canadians meticulously planned the assault using innovative tactics,
including detailed training on battlefield models, a precise "creeping
barrage" artillery tactic, and extensive underground tunneling to secure
the strategically important, heavily fortified ridge. The operation was
a stunning success. Canadian soldiers proved themselves to be an elite fighting force, achieving in days what previous Allied attempts
over two years had failed to do. They captured the entire ridge which was a decisive victory,
though costly with over 10,602 Canadian casualties. Their success forged a strong sense of national
identity and pride among Canadians back home.
Battle of Passchendaele
(October–November 1917)
The Battle of Passchendaele, raged from July to November 1917, is also known as the Third Battle of Ypres. The fighting took place in
horrific conditions; heavy rain combined with a destroyed drainage
system turned the battlefield into a quagmire of deep, sticky mud,
making movement and combat incredibly difficult and leading to massive
casualties for minimal territorial gain.
The
Canadian Corps played a pivotal, though reluctant, role in the final,
climactic stages of the battle. The Canadians were ordered to Passchendaele Ridge in Belgium to relieve the exhausted ANZAC and British
forces in mid-October. Canadian command predicted the high cost of lives for a negligible strategic objective and vehemently protested the move. Overruled, the Canadians launched their multi-phased assault
on October 26, fighting through the mud and relentless German fire. They captured the ridge. Again Canadian Forces succeeded where previous efforts had stalled. By
November 6, Canadian and British troops captured the ruins of
Passchendaele village, with a final assault securing the remainder of
the ridge on November 10. The cost of victory was staggering - nearly 16,000 Canadian casualties, including over 4,000 killed. The
battle remains one of the most poignant symbols of the immense sacrifice of Canadian soldiers.
Hundred Days Offensive
(August–November 1918)
Canada’s many achievements on the battlefield during the First World War
were capped by a stretch of victories in the final three months of the
war – often referred to as “Canada’s Hundred Days,” which is integrated into the Allied Hundred Days Offensive. Between August and November 1918, the Canadian Corps spearheaded decisive Allied offensives that broke German lines and
contributed to their eventual surrender.
After four years of war, both sides of the war faced difficult challenges. The start of 1918 presented a bleak outlook for the Allied powers. Used its new infiltration tactics German launched a major offensive using a short, intense "hurricane" bombardment to push the front lines back to
within 70 kilometers of Paris. Germany achieved deep but ultimately unsustainable gains. When Germany
launched the offensive, it faced a serious predicament. Despite this initial success, the German
army was overextended and lacked the men and supplies to sustain their
advance. The Allies were able to exploit the the German army's exhaustion. Fortunately for the Allies, that spring the American troops were mobilizing to join the Allies at the front (the United States had entered the war June 1917 but American troops had not seen major front-line combat). The Allies getting American reinforcement that summer enabled the Allies to regroup, halt the German offensive, and launch the Hundred Days Offensive, which proved to be their final push to end the war.
By
virtue of their decisive victories at Vimy and Passchendaele, the
Canadian Corps established themselves as the Allies' premier attacking
force on the Western Front. Consequently, when the final offensives of the war were
being planned, Canadian soldiers were frequently deployed to lead the
charge.
The Canadian Corps was so formidable that, in the eyes of the enemy, the presence of Canadians anywhere on the front indicated an impending assault to the enemy. To maintain
the element of surprise during the final months of the war, the Canadian Corps'
movements were kept secret. For a major offensive in August, a portion of the
Canadian troops was deliberately and conspicuously moved north toward Ypres, Belgium to
deceive German intelligence into thinking the main attack would happen there. Acting on this intelligence, the Germans deployed their own reserve troops north to Ypres to reinforce their defences. The feint left Amiens, less defended. Meanwhile, working mostly under cover of darkness, the Allies successfully moved the Canadian Corps of four infantry divisions to Amiens without being detected by the Germans and managed to conceal 580 tanks.
Battle of Amiens (August 8–11)
Battle of the Scarpe (August 26–September 3)
Battle of the Drocourt-Quéant Line (September 2-3)
Battle of the Canal du Nord (September 27–October 1)
Battle of Cambrai (October 8–9)
Capture of Valenciennes (November 1-2)
Capture of Mons (November 11)
When the war ended the screeching noise of battle stopped. The battle zones looked deserted and neglected as if no human being
had been near it for years. The landscape was scorched, the colour was brown,
grey and dead. The soil and slime remained contaminated by heavy metals and chemical residues from gas attacks. Trench warfare and heavy bombardments profoundly and permanently altered the landscape.
Today, the pleasant country air and the colour of
life and crops and poppies have banished the stench and nightmarish detritus that defined the wartime experience. Today's mud is just regular wet earth. In areas left to nature, the terrain remains dramatically uneven with visible shell craters and remnants of trenches. Certain heavily bombarded area of WW1, particularly in France, are still restricted and considered highly dangerous due to the vast amounts of unexploded ordnance and chemical contamination.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) manages 23,000 military cemeteries spread across 150
countries, 3,000 of which are in France, where soldiers from Canada are laid to rest along with other nations that fought with Great
Britain and its empire. Established by royal charter in
1917, the Commission is funded by the United Kingdom, India, Canada,
South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – modern states that, at the
beginning of the 20th century, were parts of the British Empire.
Though, some of the former battlefields of the WW1 Western Front have been reclaimed as ordinary Belgian and French woods and farmland or rebuilt to their former towns and villages, World War One left a dangerous legacy just below the surface.
Memorial of Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest military cemetery of the Commonwealth in continental Europe. Almost 12,000 soldiers are buried here. Memorial Wall list the names of the 34,957 missing soldiers who fell after 15th, August 1917.
The
Vimy Ridge Memorial commemorates over 11,000 Canadian soldiers who died
in France during the First World War but have no known grave. Many of
these men likely drowned in the deep, waterlogged mud of the
battlefields, their bodies unrecoverable at the time.
Over
a century later, due to agricultural activities, construction projects, munitions clearing operations, and archaeological finds, the remains of First World War soldiers are still
being discovered regularly in the former battle zones of France and
Belgium.
The
Commonwealth War Graves Commission is notified of approximately 150 new
discoveries of human remains each year across all global sites.
Programs like Canada's Casualty Identification Program work to identify
these remains using historical records, DNA, and dental records. If
identified, the soldier is given a proper burial with full military
honours; otherwise, they are buried as an "unknown soldier." The total
number of bodies found since 2001 across all nations is estimated to be
in the thousands.
It is importance to remember the sacrifices made by Canadian veterans for freedom. They lived and died in the hellfire and mud of the trenches.
Four
years is a long time to spend in the trenches, a place where the veneer of
civilization was stripped away, where fear, terror and carnage were
incomprehensible. Those who survived the slaughter were traumatized by wartime
experiences. After the war shell-shocked soldiers rarely got treatment;
neither did those that suffered illnesses and disabilities from inhaling
chlorine gas released in battle. For most veterans, images of the war
haunted most of them for the rest of their lives.
Dispatches
of war do not deal with what happens to a person's soul in war and how veterans
deal with that afterward. There was a time when the veteran, nearly
always in still-fresh grief, had the burden to tell that story. A
veteran of war can experienced great difficulty in telling the truth about what
one he had been through. Even if he had the strength to speak of
his experiences, the soldier often struggled, in choked words, to adequately
express his anguish. The pain in his eyes wiped any smile from his
face saying, “I’ve never been the same." Civilians
may try, but never fully comprehend that kind of silent suffering, those
pristinely-held images of war that haunt them for the rest of their lives, and
the loss of his brothers in combat and his piercing grief.
Facts,
figures and scrutiny of war do not predict how a nation will react to the next
conflict or its ability to avoid war. Stretching across the decades
that followed, the veteran kept relaying his story and his intimate perspectives
from the battlefields, hoping that we would understand that he and his buddies
fought to protect the freedoms and values we cherish. He watched
his buddies die doing so. He wanted us to grasp the despicable consequences
of war. He wanted the next generation to understand the full
context of war and its despicable consequences.
As
a nation we have the burden of learning all that the veteran has to
impart. Today, it is our burden to find value in it and
teach those values to the next generation. We do not have to personally
know the veteran to understand that our ability to peacefully stand
looking out in the distance over our picturesque landscape is something we can
easily take for granted. We are not just tourists, we have to remember
and act in full understanding of the context of the wars that we have been
involved with. Without knowledge, the next generations are at risk of
accepting without question nationalistic rhetoric and political agendas that cause
divisiveness and may not be in their best interests
Explore the stories of those who have served and learn more about Canada's military history, which
spans international battlefields, peacekeeping missions, and domestic
operations like search and rescue and disaster response. Explore topics: Veteran Affairs Canada
