3. 1.We will be able to describe some key interactions between different communities in Canada, and between Canada and the international community and explain their effects.

4. 1.We will identify some of the causes of WWI and explain some of the consequences of Canada’s military participation in the war.

5. What caused WWI and what were the consequences of Canada’s participation in the war ?

6. Which Battles were most Important?

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8. The 1st Canadian Division arrived at the front which was located just outside the city of Ypres, in Belgium. The German army fired 5,700 rounds of chlorine gas filled rounds on to Canadian and Allied positions. During the gas attack, the allied French Army was forced to retreat leaving a four mile gap in the Allied line. The Canadians knew that the gap was a very big disadvantage, so they spent the whole night attempting to fill it. -

9. The only protection Canadian soldiers had against the gas attack was to wrap their mouths in a damp cloth to filter out some of the gas (usually they used urine to dampen the cloth). The Canadians withdrew from the battle on May 3rd, when they were relieved by British forces. The number of Canadian casualties accounted for were 5,975, and 1,000 of these were termed fatal. -

10. Losses during the Second Battle of Ypres are estimated at 69,000 Allied troops (59,000 British, 10,000 French), against 35,000 German. After the battle of Ypres, Canada sat in a different position in the eyes of Belgium and France. The name Canada was a word symbolizing thankfulness and bravery - due to the effort of the 1st division in the Battle of Ypres. PRIMARY SOURCE: Click here Click here to read a personal account of an American solider during the gas attack at the Second Battle of Ypres. -

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12. The attack was preceded by an eight-day bombardment of the German lines, beginning on Saturday 24 June. This was meant to destroy the entanglement of barbed wire and destroy much of the German defences. The bombardment failed to do either. Many troops were killed or wounded the moment they stepped out of the front lines into No Man's Land. Despite heavy losses during the first day - 58,000 British troops alone – the British generals persisted with the offensive in the following months. -

13. The first tanks, which totalled 50, reached the Somme in September. While they achieved a large measure of shocked surprise when sprung upon the German opposition, these early tanks proved clumsy and were highly unreliable. More than 24,000 Canadians and 700 Newfoundlanders were killed, wounded or went missing in the Somme Region in 1916. -

14. During the attack the British and French had gained 12 kilometres of ground, the taking of which resulted in 420,000 estimated British casualties, plus a further 200,000 French casualties. German casualties were estimated to be around 500,000, for a total of 1,120,000 casualties in a few months. -

16. I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air-- I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair. "June 28, 1916. We go up to the attack tomorrow. This will probably be the biggest thing yet. We are to have the honour of marching in the first wave. I will write you soon if I get through all right. If not, my only earthly care is for my poems. I am glad to be going in first wave. If you are in this thing at all it is best to be in to the limit. And this is the supreme experience." A poem by Alan Seeger written during the Battle of the Somme A letter home by Alan Seeger. He died the next day during this attack

17. "It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade. I thought then... that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.“ - Brigadier-General Alexander Ross

18. German forces seized control of the ridge in September 1914 and promptly constructed deep defensive positions comprising bunkers, caves, passages and artillery-proof trenches, heavily protected by concrete machine gun emplacements. French attempts to grab control of the ridge throughout 1915 were repelled with the loss of some 150,000 French casualties.

19. The British had also attempted to take the ridge and failed. As the Canadian Commander of the 1st Division, Major-General Arthur Currie, said, "Take time to train them.” This is exactly what the Canadian Corps did. A full-scale replica of the battle area was laid out with reels of coloured tape and flags behind the Canadian lines. Major-General Arthur Currie

20. Maps were given out to guide the smallest units. The troops were fully informed about their objectives and their routes. Ariel reconnaissance and night raids helped the Canadians know more about German defences. A series of tunnels and subways were tunnelled underground before the battle.

21. The Canadians used the “Creeping Barrage” perfectly. It was used in the Somme but proved to be disastrous. Behind the Creeping Barrage advanced 20,000 soldiers of the first attacking wave of the four Canadian divisions. Within thirty minutes the Canadian 1st Division had succeeded in capturing the German front line positions in spite of a snowstorm; within the next half hour, the second line had similarly passed into Canadian hands.

23. With the entire ridge wholly under Allied control by April 12 th, the operation was judged a spectacular success, the single most successful Allied advance on the Western Front to that date. The ridge remained in Allied hands for the remainder of the war.

24. 10,602 Canadians were wounded during the attack, and 3,598 killed. The opposing German force suffered even more heavily: 20,000 casualties. Vimy Ridge is seen as the battle which unified Canada and gave many Canadians a sense of international pride, at a level which had never been seen in Canadian history.

26. Click here Click here for a radio interview (1967) with soldiers who fought in Passchendaele.

27. Before this battle Canadian commander Arthur Currie inspected the battlefield and was shocked at the conditions. He tried to avoid having his men fight in the muddy fields but he was overruled. On mud drenched battlefields the fighting began. The task of actually capturing the infamous village fell to the "City of Winnipeg" 27th Battalion and they took it that day.

28. Canadian soldiers succeeded in the face of almost unbelievable environmental challenges. Unwilling to concede the failure of the breakthrough, Haig pressed on with a further three assaults on the ridge in late October. The eventual capture of Passchendaele village (by British and Canadian forces on November 6th) finally gave Haig an excuse to call the offensive a success.

29. More than 4,000 Canadians died in the Battle of Passchendaele and almost 12,000 were wounded. Canada's success there added to our nation's reputation as one of the best offensive fighting force on the Western Front. The British Expeditionary Force suffered some 310,000 casualties, with the number of German casualties at 260,000.

30. “The Canadians have had more luck than the English, New Zealand and Australian troops who fought the way up with most heroic endeavour, and not a man in the army will begrudge them the honour which they have gained, not easily, nor without the usual price of victory, which is some men's death and many men's pain. After an heroic attack by the Canadians, they fought their way over the ruins of Passchendaele and into the ground beyond it. Their gains held, the seal is set upon the most terrific achievement of war ever attempted and carried through by British arms.” Sir David Watson Canadian journalist, newspaper owner, and general.