1. Main Battles of World War One
Canada’s Involvement
in the Great War

2. Canadian troops were engaged in 4 key campaigns:
Ypres
Somme
Vimy Ridge
Passchendaele

3. Ypres (Belgium) April 22-24, 1915
Canada’s first major battle in the war.
Germans used chlorine gas (a new deadly weapon) to break the French line.
The deadly chlorine gas burned the eyes and destroyed the lungs. Soldiers who breathed in the gas choked, gagged, gasped, coughed and eventually died.
A Canadian medical officer, came up with an antidote to defend against the chlorine gas – a handkerchief soaked in urine held over the nose and mouth.
By spring of 1915, Germany occupied all of Belgium except for a five-mile area around the city of Ypres.
Germans are determined to take control of this area by turning to the use of poison gas – a first in the war.
Although the first Canadian troops had arrived on the Western Front in December 1914, they had seen little to no action until this point.
On the evening of April 22nd, with a light breeze blowing toward the Allied lines, the Germans released 160 tons of chlorine gas, aimed at the French sector. As the mysterious green cloud drifted across no-man’s land, French commanders – suspecting a smoke screen for an infantry attack – ordered the troops to ‘stand-to’ on the trenches’ firing step. In this position, they were quickly overcome by the chlorine fumes. Within minutes, thousands were gasping for air and collapsing in the trenches. In panic, the remaining troops dropped their weapons, turned and ran.
The entire French front collapsed, leaving a gaping four-mile hole in the line. A Canadian medical officer from Montreal, Captain F.A.C Scrimger, quickly recognized the chlorine for what it was, and passed word that the Canadians should urinate on their handkerchiefs and hold them against their face to combat the effects of the gas (at the time it was thought the ammonia in urine would have a neutralizing effect; it was later found plain water was just as effective against the water-soluble chlorine gas. A few days later, Captain Scrimger would earn a Victoria Cross for evacuating a medical aid station while under fire).
On April 24th, the Germans would launched a second chlorine gas attack, this time directed at the Canadians. Although the Canadians were forced to abandon their most forward trench positions, they held at a secondary position, and this time drove back the German infantry as they advanced out of the gas cloud.
The First Canadian Division was relieved from the front line on May 3. In 10 days of fighting against a vastly superior force they had suffered nearly 6,000 casualties – or one-third of their total strength – including 1,000 killed. But their stubborn resistance in the face of the horrible new weapon had played a pivotal role in the Allies’ success in holding the Ypres salient. It was a position they would not relinquish through the entire course of the war.
Most Canadian troops were pulled out of the fighting by April 26, but one battalion -- the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, which was attached to a British division -- served through to the end of the battle in late May.

5. Canadian troops worked through the night to fill the gap and also to mount a successful counter-attack.
6,714 Canadian soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured (a total of 59,000 Allied casualties). Began Canada’s reputation as a formidable fighting force in the war, led by Colonel Arthur Currie who demonstrated outstanding leadership.
One of the physicians serving with the CEF was John McCrae, who wrote his famous poem, “In Flanders Fields” to commemorate the dead and injured Canadians he treated at the Second Battle of Ypres.

6. Lt. Col. John McCrae

8. Vimy Ridge
April
The Canadian part of a massive Allied offensive under General Arthur Currie. Vimy is considered a historical Canadian milestone.
Currie was given the task to capture Vimy Ridge – a well-fortified German position that both the French and British could not secure.

9. Battle of Vimy Ridge
Preparations for the attack were extensive, and inclusive. Everybody down to the lowest private knew exactly what the plan was from beginning to end.
Aerial photographs of German lines and defences
Full-scale replica of battle area for training
Maps provided to soldiers
Underground tunnels built to move troops and supplies

10. Battle of Vimy Ridge
Finally, the attack was launched on Easter Sunday morning during a blinding snowstorm. After a short artillery barrage, the Canadians attacked the German lines. Aiming for the element of surprise, waves of Canadian troops pushed forward behind a creeping barrage – known as the “Vimy Glide.”
The Canadian troops also used a new strategy called “leap-frogging.” Fresh battalions advanced to the front from the reserve trenches, while the first attackers fell back to rest.
Currie’s preparation paid off and within three days the entire area was taken for the Allies.

11. Battle of Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge represented the only significant victory for the Allies in 1917.
It is commonly acknowledged as the turning point in the war for the Allies and for Canada.
Canada transformed from colony to country:
“Troops went up the ridge as British soldiers, and came down as Canadians.”
Total of 10,602 Canadian casualties:
3,600 Canadian soldiers killed

12. “Creeping barrage”
Creeping Barrage: The creeping barrage was an artillery tactic developed by the British army during WWI. The idea was that shelling would progress across no mans land to the enemy trenches whilst the soldiers followed the shell fire across no mans land at a safe distance. This was a revolutionary tactic that mean that the Germans had no time to come out of there dugouts after a shelling before the British and allied soldiers overran them.
This tactic effectively broke the stalemate that had developed in trench warfare as previously the shell attacks would stop before the British attacking force even got out of there trenches meaning they were still in no mans land when the Germans left the shelter of their dugouts and had manned the defences’ thus making it very hard for the allies to take an enemy trench.

13. 29th Infantry Battalion advancing over "No Man's Land" through the
German barbed wire and heavy fire during the battle of Vimy Ridge.

14. View over the crest of Vimy Ridge showing the village of Vimy
which was captured by Canadian troops

15. Canadian soldiers returning victoriously from Vimy Ridge

16. Vimy Monument

18. Battle of Passchendaele
October-November 1917
Also called the 3rd Battle of Ypres.
The CEF’s success at Vimy led to a similarly difficult assignment later that same year at Passchendaele.
From July to October, the British slowly pushed back the Germans (about 6 km) but fighting became more difficult because of the battleground conditions.
Heavy rains and shelling had destroyed the drainage system creating a landscape of think and heavy mud.

19. Battle of Passchendaele
In October, Haig turned to the Canadian Corps to carry on the offensive.
General Currie said the offensive would be impossible without heavy casualties, but was told to continue.
Currie and his officers applied the same careful preparation that had worked at Vimy Ridge. Unfortunately, the mud was so deep and thick that it was nearly impossible for troops to advance in.

20. Thousands of soldiers and horses who slipped in the mud were sucked in and drowned. It was also almost impossible for soldier’s to find stable ground on which to place guns – without these, advancing troops would not have the protection of the creeping barrage.
On November 10th, the Canadians finally captured Passchendaele - but at a great loss of life. The British lost 330,000 men, and 15,600 Canadians were killed in the last two weeks of the battle.
As for Passchendaele, it was little more than a pile of bricks in a sea of mud, and a position of little importance.
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21. The mud-filled landscape of Passchendaele

22. Wounded Canadian on way to aid post