Crucified+Canadians

Supported Paragraph Assignment
Background Information

On April 22, 1915, Germany launched a poison gas attack on Allied troops at Ypres. On May 6 the Globe and Mail carried a report about the battle stating that “the Canadians... are mad with rage because they say they have found one of their men crucified.” Many reports surfaced about this incident. Investigations in 1919 concluded that the story was made up. Since then new evidence has emerged.

 Read documents 1–10. Considering the point of view and reliability of the sources, write a supported paragraph to answer this question: Was the story of the crucified Canadian based on fact or was it wartime propaganda? Be sure to indicate where you found the evidence to support your thesis (Documents 1, 2, 3 etc. – cite as D1, D2, D3, etc.)

Your task is to write a supported opinion paragraph on the issue. In it you should have: 1. an introductory sentence that sets the context of the issue 2. a main idea, clearly stating your position (a generalization): 3. support for your main idea from the documents. You have to interpret the evidence to suit your main idea, to explain evidence in the context of your opinion. 4. A conclusion which reinforces your main idea

Document 1
Avenge Them! "The Canadians have seen their own men crucified. One hesitates to believe this, but no one who talks personally to the scores of living men who have witnessed the spectacle can doubt them when they assert that they came upon their comrades dead and dying, crucified after a German retreat!" -Report of William Allen White And not one-tenth has been told or will ever be known. You, and every clean-minded Canadian, grow hot with rage at each fresh report of the Kaiser's system of savagery. You must have the courage to look at the cold facts and fight-fight this thing through to the end of ends-with every ounce of energy in every way you can. Buy Victory Bonds with the money you've saved, then buy more on instalments with all you can possibly spare in the months to come, and thank God for the opportunity! There is immediate and urgent need for every dollar you can spare. You are only lending, not giving your money. Your Government guarantees the return of your money with interest at 5.5 per cent. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 2
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">C.J.C. Clayton...brings a message from Captain R.A.S. Allen... who died of wounds in a hospital... confirming the horrible story of the crucifixion of a Canadian sergeant by the Germans. Clayton says...'Allen went on to declare that...a Canadian sergeant was tied up by the arms and legs to a tree and pierced sixty times by German bayonets.” Clayton says the sergeant's name was given him by Allen, but in the confusion of wounding he cannot now find it...

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post says to-day: 'Wounded Canadians... heard it [the story of a crucified Canadian soldier] from officers in the Dublin Fusillers who actually came across the body nailed to a door with hands and feet pierced with bayonets. The body was riddled with bullets.'

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">“Canadian Was Crucified,” The Toronto Star, May 11, 1915

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 3
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">On April 25, 1915, after I was taken prisoner by the Germans...[I was] marched past a barn behind the German first line trench near Ypres, or about three miles from St. Julien. We were all shown three Canadians, one corporal and two privates, nailed to the barn door with bayonets. Their arms were stretched out and a bayonet driven through each hand. Their feet were crossed and there was one bayonet through the feet of each... Their heads were drooped, and blood was all over the barn door. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Augustus Nelson was taken prisoner near Ypres in 1915. After being repatriated [sent back to Canada] he signed this sworn statement in August 1917.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 4
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">On or about April 23rd, 1915...My platoon was proceeding along St. Jean road [the road between Ypres and St. Jean] when I noticed a soldier pinned to a barn door with bayonets...There was a bayonet through each wrist and his head hung forward on his breast as though he were dead. I could not see any bullet wound but did notice Maple Leaf badges on his collar. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Corporal William Metcalfe, Victoria Cross winner, made this sworn statement on <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">27 February 1919.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 5
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">As I have repeatedly stated and written, I have never come across any positive evidence that such a crucifixion ever took place. I know of a great many who used every endeavour to find out whether there was a justification for making this charge against the Germans, but nothing definite was ever ascertained. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Sir Arthur Currie [commander of the 2nd Brigade at Ypres], letter to Edward Kemp, the minister of overseas military forces, 26 March 1919

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 6
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Atrocity stories were common during the war, many of them made up. The following is an example:

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">“When the fall of Antwerp got known the church bells were rung”. [at Cologne and elsewhere in Germany] – Kolnische Zeitung (Cologne, Germany) <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">“According to the Kolnische Zeitung, the clergy of Antwerp were compelled to ring the church bells when Antwerp was taken.” Le Matin (Paris) <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">“According to what the Times has hears via Cologne and Paris, the unfortunate Belgian priests who refused to ring the church bells when Antwerp was taken have been sentenced to hard labour.” - Corriere della Sera (Milan, Italy) <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">“According to the information in the Corriere della Sera, from Cologne via London, it is confirmed that the barbaric conquerors of Antwerp punished the unfortunate Belgian priests for their heroic refusal to ring the church bells by hanging them as living clappers to the bells with their heads down.” Le Matin (Paris)

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 7
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">“Honour Roll...Brother [Sergeant Harry] Band served in France, was taken prisoner by the Germans and met death by crucifixion while in the hands of the enemy.” <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Minutes of the Sons of Temperance, Moncton, New Brunswick, 14 July 1920 *Ypres, *memorials, *1910s

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 8
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The names of members of the British and Empire armies who died in the fighting around Ypres and whose bodies were never found are inscribed on a gate on a main road leading towards the front line of the Second Battle of Ypres.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">No 2088 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Name Band, Harry <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Rank Sergeant <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Service 27286 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Regiment Canadian Infantry <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Date of Death 24/05/1915 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Age 29

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">This information comes from Cemetery Reports, Menin Gate, Ypres

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 9
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[A soldier wrote to tell Elizabeth Petrie that her brother Harry had died. When she wrote back to ask how he died, two soldiers told her that he had been crucified. This letter to her brother became public in 1987.]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Dear Martin: I have got another letter admitting the crucifixion of Harry...I have got it at last, the horrible details. Don't tell Bertha them all. I told her he was crucified, but they took him down alive. He was all hacked to bits and spat on and his eyes out. Oh, Martin, think of it, and yet the War Office has never notified me... <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Letter by Elizabeth Petrie to her brother, 20 June 1916

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Document 10
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">British Red Cross nurse Ursula Challoner treated an eyewitness at the Battle of Ypres, who named the crucified soldier as Harry Band. A letter she wrote on 11 July 1915, containing this information, was found among her personal papers when she died many years later.