canada and wwi

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Canada in World War I

1914 - 1918



Introduction

Robert Borden became prime minister of apeaceful and prosperous Canada in 1911.

On August 4, 1914 Britain declared war onGermany taking Canada into a long and bloodyconflict.

More than 60,000 Canadians died in World WarI.

Canada emerged from the war with a strongsense of national identity.



Causes of World War I



Causes of World War I

A war between the major Europeanpowers was, in the opinion of some

historians, inevitable and long overdue.The causes were many and complex but

certain fundamental issues can beidentified.

http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/great_war/causes.htm

http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/great_war/causes.htm



Fundamental Causes I

The Triple Alliance wascomprised of Germany,

Austria-Hungary andItaly.

Entangling Alliances

The Triple Entente consisted of France,

Russia and Britain.War would

automatically pit mostof these nationsagainst each other.



Fundamental Causes II

The European nations had built up largearmed forces against the possibility of war.

The launching of HMS Dreadnought hadresulted in a naval arms race between

Britain and Germany.

Militarism



Fundamental Causes III

The European powers

had large colonialempires which reachedaround the world.

Britain had one of the

largest but Germany wasa very young nation andalso wanted a “place inthe sun.”

Imperialism

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/interviews/massie3.html



Fundamental Causes IV

Nationalism was an intense love of

country and was directly linked toimperialism and militarism.

France had lost the two small territories of

Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in 1871and was driven by nationalism to recoverthese “lost provinces.”

Nationalism

The French Flag



The Balkans

This region on Europe’ssouthern flank was aptlynamed the “powder keg of Europe.”

It was dominated by thesmall but intenselynationalist state of Serbia.

Austria-Hungary , a deeply

divided multi- ethnic nation,feared the influence of Serbia on her southernborder.



Assassination at

Sarajevo

In 1908, much to theannoyance of Serbia and herlongtime ally Russia, Austria-Hungary annexed the two

small territories of Bosnia andHerzegovina.

In June of 1914 the heir to the Austro-

Hungarian throne and his wife were shot deadin Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, by a Serbianterrorist.



The Timetable of War

Austria-Hungary with the support of her allyGermany issued an unacceptable ultimatum tothe Serbs.

Russia mobilized her armies in support of Serbia.

Germany, fearing a Russian attack ,set in

motion the Schlieffen Plan which required anattack on Russia’s ally France through neutralBelgium.

http://www.worldwar1.com/tlwplans.htm

http://www.worldwar1.com/tlwplans.htm



The Timetable of War II

Britain, fearing for her navalinterests in the North Sea andwishing to support the tiny

nation of Belgium, declaredwar on Germany.

The Schlieffen Plan failed toaccomplish the defeat of

France with the result that thearmies became locked in abitter struggle on the WesternFront.



Canada and World War I



Preparing for War

Prime Minister Borden assured Britain of Canada’s full support.

The Canadian people were behind their prime

minister in his promise.Parliament quickly passed a War Measures Act

giving the government extraordinary powers.

A nation wide recruiting campaign was

organized by Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia.



“ , , ” Ready aye ready

Canada and the Outbreak of War

http://www.rootsweb.com/~ww1can/

http://www.rootsweb.com/~ww1can/



The Canadian Expeditionary

Force

A large training camp was established at Valcartier, Quebec.

Troops were armed with the questionable Ross

Rifle and outfitted with equally questionableCanadian manufactured equipment.

Over 30,000 Canadians sailed for England in lateSeptember of 1914.

The first Canadian troops arrived at the front inFebruary of 1915.

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/turner/ar_training.html

http://www.rootsweb.com/~ww1can/weapons.htm




http://collections.ic.gc.ca/turner/ar_training.html



First Ten Men to War 1914

Medicine Hat, Alberta



The 156th Overseas Battalion

Leeds and Grenville



Documentation - A Canadian

Recruit – John Inglis Boyd



The Diary of Stanley Brown -

November 1917

We left Montreal on Nov. 20th Tuesday

on S.S. Megantic.Only the 79th and

some R.F.C (Royal Flying Corps) menwent on board there. We anchored

(and) went on board on the evening

before. We left the docks at 5:30 A.M.

and that evening about 5 P.M. we

anchored near Sorel for the night.



A Soldier’s Diary - From Folkestone, England

to France - February 8, 1918

Left Folkstone aboard Victoria

about 10 A.M. Rough crossing

channel. Arrived at Boulogne at

12:30. Came out to Etaples on

motor lorries arriving about 4

P.M. Good supper around 7 P.M.in evening. Wrote S.



Life on the Western Front



Life in the Trenches

Front line trenchesfaced each otheracross no-man’sland.

They were oftenwet and ratinfested.

A tour in thetrenches usuallylasted six daysfollowed by twelvedays of respite

behind the lines.



Life in the Trenches II

At night patrols were sentout across no-man’s land toprobe enemy defenses andcut his barbed wire.

Dawn often brought attackswhen men were ordered “over the top.”

Once into the open groundof no-man’s land they werecut down by machine gunand artillery fire.

The wounded were often leftto die where they fell.



The Battle of Ypres

Canadians in the Ypres salient in April of 1915were subjected to the first German gas attack with deadly chlorine.

French colonial troops in the line with theCanadians broke and ran.

The Canadians held the line for three dayssuffering terrible casualties.

http://www.worldwar1.com/sf2ypres.htm

http://www.worldwar1.com/arm006.htm

http://www.worldwar1.com/arm006.htm

http://www.worldwar1.com/sf2ypres.htm



Ypres Salient 1915



The Battle of the Somme

In July of 1916 nearly 60,000British troops were killed orwounded in a few hours.

At Beaumont-Hamel 310 menout of 684 of theNewfoundland Regiment diedin a few minutes of an illplanned attack.

The campaign on the Somme shattered three Canadiandivisions at the cost of 24,029lives.

German Helmet

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/beaumonthamel






Vimy Ridge

By 1917 Canadians had earned a welldeserved reputation as shock troops.

Vimy Ridge was a German strong point whichdominated a vital area of the front.

Several French and British attacks had failedto drive them from the high ground.

In April 1917 the Canadians were ordered totake Vimy Ridge.



Vimy Ridge II

One of the most ablesubordinates of the Britishcommander was a Canadiannamed Arthur Currie.

Currie planned every last detailof the assault including a rollingbarrage of artillery.

Over 3,500 Canadian lives werelost but the Germans weredriven from the ridge

Today, Canada’s war memorialstands proudly on Vimy Ridge.

http://www.worldwar1.com/bioccurr.htm

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/Vimy

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/Memorials/Vimymem.htm

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/Memorials/Vimymem.htm

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/Vimy

http://www.worldwar1.com/bioccurr.htm



The Mud of Passchendaele

Arthur Currie predicted that 16,000 Canadianswould die in this battle.

Passchendaele, one of the worst battlefields of thewar, was described as a “featureless desert of yellow mud.”

15,654 Canadians soldiers died in the capture of

this very questionable military objective.

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/turner/ar_passchendaele.html

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/turner/ar_passchendaele.html



The War in the Air

Canada’s pilots flew withtheir British counterparts.

Names like Billy Barker,

Raymond Collishaw andRoy Brown becamehousehold words.

The most famous of Canada’s air aces was BillyBishop of Owen Sound,

Ontario. Bishop shot down 72

German aircraft setting arecord for the war.

C d ’ W M i l

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/bishop.html






Canada’s War Memorial on

Vimy Ridge

.



The Home Front



The Home Front

C t ib ti b O di



Contributions by Ordinary

Canadians

The Canadian Patriotic Fund collectedmoney for soldiers’ families.

The Military Hospitals Commission set uphospitals to care for the wounded.

The YMCA organized canteens andsupport services for soldiers on leave.

The Red Cross provided humanitarian aidand kept track of wounded soldiers.

F ili S t d

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/turner/ar_redcross.html





Families were Separated

by the War



Financing the War

The costs were enormous and to meet theseexpenses government introduced a temporarytax on personal income in 1917.

Victory bonds were offered for sale at aninterest rate of 5%.

The sale of bonds vastly exceeded expectations

and raised $500 million in 1917.



Victory Bonds

By 1918 the war was costing Canada over one million dollars a day.

Large sums were raised through the sale of Victory Bonds.



Food

The produce of Canada’s agriculturalindustry was one her

most vital contributionsto the war.

Farmers profited fromthe sale of wheat towar-torn France and

Britain.Over use of soil or grain

mining was to helpcause the dustbowl conditions of the 1930s.



Enemy Aliens

German and immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were looked on bymany Canadians with hostility andsuspicion.

In 1915 over 8,000 “enemy aliens” wereinterned in camps.

The city of Berlin, Ontario was forced tochange its name to Kitchener.

http://infoukes.com/history/internment/

http://infoukes.com/history/internment/



The Armaments Industry

Canada was a majormanufacturer of weaponsand ammunition.

Col. Sam Hughes , theMinister of Militia, foundeda Shell Committee tocoordinate orders fromBritain.

The Shell Committee was

marked by corruption andinefficiency and was soonreplaced by the ImperialMunitions Board headed byJoseph Flavelle.



Women and the War Effort

By 1915 women werefilling jobs in all of Canada’s industries.

Many Canadian womenserved overseas as nurses

and ambulance drivers. There were many reforms

improving the lot of women but the vote wasdenied to most until 1917.

Women’s groupscampaigned against theuse of alcohol.

The Halifax Explosion

http://www.heritageproject.ca/media/minutes/expanded/mcclun.htm

http://www.heritageproject.ca/media/minutes/expanded/mcclun.htm

http://www.herald.ns.ca/aboutus/hfxexplosion.html




The Halifax Explosion

1917

In 1917 war came suddenly and violentlyto Halifax, a naval port and departurepoint for overseas convoys.

Ships formed up in Bedford Basin and

passed out though the harbour narrowson their way to the open sea.

The Mont Blanc a French munitions shipcollided with the Imo a Norwegian ship in

the Narrows. The resulting explosion destroyed most of

the north end of Halifax and killed orinjured 11,000 citizens.





Halifax After the Explosion



Quebec and Recruiting

Quebec had supported the war in 1914and many hoped that the war mightencourage national unity.

Recruiting in Quebec was difficult becausemany men married young and were oftenemployed in labour intensive farm jobs.

There were no separate French speakingunits until late in the war.



Native Canadians

Nearly 4,000 of the 11,500 Native Canadians eligible for war service enlisted.

They were much sought after for their skills as

infantry and snipers.Johnny Norwest, a Cree sniper, personally killed

115 of the enemy before losing his own life in1918.

http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/nativee.html

http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/nativee.html



Casualties and Enlistments



Casualties and Enlistments

1917

-5,000.00

10,000.0015,000.0020,000.00

25,000.0030,000.0035,000.00

J a n u a r y

M a r c h

M a y

J u l y

S e p t e m b e r

N o v e m b e r

T r o o

p s

CasualtiesEnlistment



Results of the



Results of the

1917 Election

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Liberal Union

P.E.I

N.S.

N.B.

Quebec

Ontario

Manitoba

Sask.

Alta.

B.C.

Yukon

What was Achieved by the



What was Achieved by the

Military Service Act?

404,395 men werecalled up.

380,510 men applied

for exemptions.20,000 men reported

for training.

In all only 24,000conscripted men sawservice in France.



The End of the War



The Last Days

Germany was exhausted on the front andsuffering from starvation at home.

Russia withdrew from the war in 1917.

The United States entered the war on theside of Britain and France in the same year.

A final German offensive, Operation Michael,

was launched prior to the Americans arrivingin numbers, but it failed.

On November 11, 1918 an armistice wassigned and a terrible war drew to a close.



World War I Casualties

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

Dead Wounded

France

British Empire

Russia

Italy

USA

Germany

Austria-Hungary

Turkey

G t W Vi t M d l

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/collections/cmdp/mainmenu/group03/vm18.htm




Great War Victory Medal





Canadian Culture and World War I



The Sadness of the Somme by Mary Riter Hamilton

Canadian Monument Passchendaele



Ridge by Mary Riter Hamilton

Canadian Artillery in



Canadian Artillery in

Action by Kenneth Forbes

John McCrae



1872-1918

John McCrae was a Canadian doctor whowent overseas with the Canadian Medical

Corps in 1914.He wrote one of the best known poems of

the Great War.

In Flanders Fields and Other Poems waspublished posthumously in 1919.

http://www.museum.guelph.on.ca/mccrae.htm

http://www.museum.guelph.on.ca/mccrae.htm



The War and Canadian



Autonomy

After Vimy the Canadian Corps wascommanded by Arthur Currie a Canadian from

Victoria, B.C.

In 1916 the British War Cabinet was expandedto become the Imperial War Cabinet whichincluded all of the Dominion prime ministers.

Canada placed her own signature on theTreaty of Versailles and took a separate seaton the League of Nations.



Additional Web Sites

The Heritage Minuteshttp://www.heritageproject.ca/media/minutes/default.htm

http://www.heritageproject.ca/media/minutes/default.htm

http://www.heritageproject.ca/media/minutes/default.htm



Image Credits



Image Credits

Slide #43 Canadian War Amps

http://www.waramps.ca/Operation/idx-wwi.html

Slide #45 National Archives of Canada C-003624C

Slide #52 National Archives of Canada PA-028128

Slide #54 Private collection, R.W. White

Slide #60 Canadian War Amps

http://www.waramps.ca/Operation/idx-wwi.html

Slide #61 National Archives of Canada and The Estate of Mary Riter Hamilton

Slide #62 National Archives of Canada and The Estate of Mary Riter Hamilton

Slide #63 National War Museum 8158 (Accession # 19710261-042)

Slide # 67 National Archives of Canada PA-001370

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