Canada's+Battles



Important Battles of the Great War

 The Great War came to be seen by the Allies as a moral crusade of good against evil. There was never much thought of peace negotiation, except by some small anti-war groups. As the bitter fight continued, the Canadian army developed a reputation as being tough and reliable. More and more, Britain came to rely on Canadian troops for major attacks or to try to win ground where other Allies had failed. Four battles stand out in Canada's history.

 Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915
 Most troops didn't know what it was. But the strange yellow-green fog was spreading fast, and headed toward their trench. Within seconds they were clutching their throats. Mouths wide open, they couldn't breathe. Eyes and throats burned, but breath would not come. Some fell to the ground where the air was cleaner, and survived. Others never had a chance. The German army had violated the conventions of warfare by using poisonous chlorine gas in an effort to break the Allied line at Ypres (pronounced "ee-pre"), Belgium.

 Did You Know?  After Ypres, both sides used either chlorine gas or mustard gas as weapons. Later in the war, a German corporal named Adolf Hitler would be hospitalized for weeks after an Allied poison gas attack.

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 Ypres was Canada's first major battle of the war. While thousands of other Allied troops in the battle either died or ran, Canadians distinguished themselves by their bravery. Although 2000 Canadians were killed at Ypres, the survivors stood their ground, gasping through handkerchiefs soaked with their own urine (the ammonia helped lessen the effects of the gas). Canada's section of the battle line never broke as the German troops charged. However, 4000 Canadian soldiers were badly injured, and many of the survivors suffered permanently damaged lungs. Private Fraser got his first experience of war at Ypres. He arrived in September 1915, several months after the deadly gas attacks.

 The Somme, 1916
 July 1, Canada Day, is also Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador. On that day in France, in 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment fought a deadly battle at Beaumont Hamel. The Regiment was almost wiped out.

 Beaumont Hamel

 Beaumont Hamel was the opening of the Somme campaign. Allied commanders had ordered a major offensive in the Somme River district of northern France. British commanders ordered the regiment to charge forward into German machine-gun fire in broad daylight. The men paid heavily for their loyalty, with the regiment destroyed in just 30 minutes. Of the almost 800 Newfoundland soldiers and officers in that charge, only 68 answered roll call the next morning. Over 300 died, and more than 350 were injured or missing.

 Day after day, British General Douglas Haig ordered more hopeless charges to break the enemy line so that his cavalry (troops on horses) could rush through. He did not stop until six months later when only a few kilometres of land had been captured. The cost: over half a million Allied soldiers were dead or wounded.

1. How do you think Haig's actions demonstrate the feelings of the elite who started the war towards the soldiers, who largely came from the lower and middle classes, who fought the war?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The Battle Continues

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Canadian troops were not sent into the Somme until later that summer. Although they knew of the recent bloodshed, Private Fraser and the 6th Brigade Machine Gun Company marched to their duty. Any soldier who refused to go could be shot for desertion or "cowardice" after a quick military hearing. This happened to 265 Britons and 23 Canadians during the Great War.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> At the Somme, Fraser spotted a tank; it was the first time this new weapon was used in battle. He described it as "a gigantic toad" and "a weird, ungainly monster." But it helped lead the troops across no-man's land, in the worst fighting Fraser had faced. His diary confirms why there were 24 000 Canadian dead or wounded at the Somme.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> September 15, 1916 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The air was seething with shells. Immediately above, the atmosphere was cracking with a myriad of machine-gun bullets. ... Bullets from the enemy rifles were whistling and swishing around my ears in hundreds, [so] that to this day I cannot understand how anyone could have crossed that inferno alive... <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The Journal of Private Fraser, pp. 204-205

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Questions 1
<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. Why is the Second Battle of Ypres an important part of Canada's military history?

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> 3. Discuss how you, as Allied commander, might have planned advances after Beaumont Hamel.

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> 4. Soldiers were punished or even executed for cowardice, which means they refused, out of fear, to fight. Use examples from the information provided (use the note and the Article from www.firstworldwar.com) to suggest reasons for cowardice. Then develop reasons for and against executing a soldier for cowardice. Explain your own views on the topic.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Vimy Ridge, April 1917
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Vimy Ridge was a strategic location that neither the French nor the British troops could capture and hold in two years of fighting. That was before the Canadian troops were called in. Between April 9 and 12, 1917, they made the biggest Allied advance since the war began.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The German army had really dug in at Vimy. They held three parallel lines of trenches along the ridge, protected by machine guns and big artillery placements. The key to Canadian victory would be detailed planning. A few weeks before, all the soldiers were taken for practice at a mock battlefield. Private Fraser wrote, "This rehearsal gave us a very good idea of the distance we had to travel, and when the actual test came I had absolutely no difficulty in making for my objective."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> But it wasn't easy. Canada had more than 10 000 casualties at Vimy, and Fraser came within seconds of losing his life to poison gas.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Despite this victory, the allies failed to capitalize on it. No further offensive action was taken from Vimy Ridge by the allies and the Germans considered the battle a draw. Many Canadians view it as the battle that brought together as a nation, as it was the first time that all four military divisions from across the country fought together.

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">5. Outside of Canada, there is very little discussion of the battle of Vimy Ridge, why do you think that is?

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">6. In your opinion, can a battle that is fought thousands of kilometers away from a country bring a nation together?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> April 9, 1917 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> I was on the point of climbing out of the trench when a shell with a dull pop burst on the parapet almost in my face. My breathing stopped at once. With open mouth I could neither breathe in nor out. Breathing was paralysed. It was a peculiar sensation. In a flash I knew it was a gas, shell and it completely fouled the air. In a fraction of a second... I had my respirator on and was breathing freely... <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The Journal of Private Fraser, p. 263

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Canadian army mastered the "creeping barrage" technique and used it at Vimy Ridge. Artillery gunners would lob shells toward enemy lines in a "barrage" of gunfire. Then, Canadian troops would slowly "creep" forward behind this screen. Minutes later, the gunners would angle their shots a little higher so that the shells would fly a bit farther. This allowed the infantry to creep forward again.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Passchendaele, November 1917
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> For months British General Haig had tried unsuccessfully to take Passchendaele Ridge in Belgium. Then he passed the job over to Canadian General Arthur Currie and his reliable storm troops.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Heavy bombardment and rains had turned the landscape to mush. Currie warned Haig that these conditions would result in many casualties, but Haig was insistent. Many horses and soldiers actually drowned in flooded trenches and shell craters. Canadians took the low ridge and the nearby village in two weeks of hard fighting. However, they suffered almost 16 000 dead or wounded, including Private Fraser. He was alive, but his war was over.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Passchendaele marked the first battle in which Canadian troops were led by their own general instead of a British one. Afterwards, General Currie reported to Canadian Prime Minister Borden his disgust with the battle conditions. Both men felt that the victory was not worth the human cost. The next time he met British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Borden angrily shook him and threatened that any repeat of Passchendaele would mean that no more Canadian troops would be sent to Europe.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> This attitude was very different from Canada's eager support of Britain in 1914. The Canadian military had matured in the four major battles at Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Questions 2
<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">7. How did the <span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">creeping barrage <span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">technique help Canada at Vimy Ridge?

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> 8. What were the conditions that made Passchendaele such a disaster for Canadian troops?

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">9. Who do you feel was responsible for this disaster?

<span style="background-color: #c1e8e8; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">10. What do you think was the end result of the disastrous battle?