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Canada in World War I 1914 - 1918

Introduction
Robert Borden became prime minister of a peaceful and prosperous Canada in 1911. On August 4, 1914 Britain declared war on Germany taking Canada into a long and bloody conflict. More than 60,000 Canadians died in World War I. Canada emerged from the war with a strong sense of national identity.

Causes of World War I

Causes of World War I


A war between the major European powers was, in the opinion of some historians, inevitable and long overdue. The causes were many and complex but certain fundamental issues can be identified.

Fundamental Causes I
Entangling Alliances
The Triple Alliance was comprised of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The Triple Entente consisted of France, Russia and Britain. War would automatically pit most of these nations against each other.

Fundamental Causes II
Militarism
The European nations had built up large armed forces against the possibility of war. The launching of HMS Dreadnought had resulted in a naval arms race between Britain and Germany.

Fundamental Causes III


Imperialism
The European powers had large colonial empires which reached around the world. Britain had one of the largest but Germany was a very young nation and also wanted a place in the sun.

Fundamental Causes IV
Nationalism
Nationalism was an intense love of country and was directly linked to imperialism and militarism. France had lost the two small territories of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in 1871 and was driven by nationalism to recover these lost provinces.
The French Flag

The Balkans
This region on Europes southern flank was aptly named the powder keg of Europe. It was dominated by the small but intensely nationalist state of Serbia. Austria-Hungary, a deeply divided multi- ethnic nation, feared the influence of Serbia on her southern border.

Assassination at Sarajevo
In 1908, much to the annoyance of Serbia and her longtime ally Russia, AustriaHungary annexed the two small territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In June of 1914 the heir to the AustroHungarian throne and his wife were shot dead in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, by a Serbian terrorist.

The Timetable of War


Austria-Hungary with the support of her ally Germany issued an unacceptable ultimatum to the Serbs. Russia mobilized her armies in support of Serbia. Germany, fearing a Russian attack ,set in motion the Schlieffen Plan which required an attack on Russias ally France through neutral Belgium.

The Timetable of War II


Britain, fearing for her naval interests in the North Sea and wishing to support the tiny nation of Belgium, declared war on Germany. The Schlieffen Plan failed to accomplish the defeat of France with the result that the armies became locked in a bitter struggle on the Western Front.

Canada and World War I

Preparing for War


Prime Minister Borden assured Britain of Canadas 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.

Canada and the Outbreak of War

Ready, aye , ready

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 questionable Canadian manufactured equipment. Over 30,000 Canadians sailed for England in late September of 1914. The first Canadian troops arrived at the front in February of 1915.

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) men went 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 Soldiers 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

The Western Front

Life in the Trenches


Front line trenches faced each other across no-mans land. They were often wet and rat infested. A tour in the trenches usually lasted six days followed by twelve days of respite behind the lines.

Life in the Trenches II


At night patrols were sent out across no-mans land to probe enemy defenses and cut his barbed wire. Dawn often brought attacks when men were ordered over the top. Once into the open ground of no-mans land they were cut down by machine gun and artillery fire. The wounded were often left to die where they fell.

The Battle of Ypres


Canadians in the Ypres salient in April of 1915 were subjected to the first German gas attack with deadly chlorine. French colonial troops in the line with the Canadians broke and ran. The Canadians held the line for three days suffering terrible casualties.

Ypres Salient 1915

The Battle of the Somme


In July of 1916 nearly 60,000 British troops were killed or wounded in a few hours. At Beaumont-Hamel 310 men out of 684 of the Newfoundland Regiment died in a few minutes of an ill planned attack. The campaign on the Somme shattered three Canadian divisions at the cost of 24,029 lives.

German Helmet

Vimy Ridge
By 1917 Canadians had earned a well deserved reputation as shock troops. Vimy Ridge was a German strong point which dominated a vital area of the front. Several French and British attacks had failed to drive them from the high ground. In April 1917 the Canadians were ordered to take Vimy Ridge.

Vimy Ridge II
One of the most able subordinates of the British commander was a Canadian named Arthur Currie. Currie planned every last detail of the assault including a rolling barrage of artillery. Over 3,500 Canadian lives were lost but the Germans were driven from the ridge Today, Canadas war memorial stands proudly on Vimy Ridge.

The Mud of Passchendaele


Arthur Currie predicted that 16,000 Canadians would die in this battle. Passchendaele, one of the worst battlefields of the war, was described as a featureless desert of yellow mud. 15,654 Canadians soldiers died in the capture of this very questionable military objective.

The War in the Air


Canadas pilots flew with their British counterparts. Names like Billy Barker, Raymond Collishaw and Roy Brown became household words. The most famous of Canadas air aces was Billy Bishop of Owen Sound, Ontario. Bishop shot down 72 German aircraft setting a record for the war.

Canadas War Memorial on Vimy Ridge


.

The Home Front

The Home Front

Contributions by Ordinary Canadians


The Canadian Patriotic Fund collected money for soldiers families. The Military Hospitals Commission set up hospitals to care for the wounded. The YMCA organized canteens and support services for soldiers on leave. The Red Cross provided humanitarian aid and kept track of wounded soldiers.

Families were Separated by the War

Financing the War


The costs were enormous and to meet these expenses government introduced a temporary tax on personal income in 1917. Victory bonds were offered for sale at an interest 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 Canadas agricultural industry was one her most vital contributions to the war. Farmers profited from the sale of wheat to war-torn France and Britain. Over use of soil or grain mining was to help cause the dustbowl conditions of the 1930s.

Enemy Aliens
German and immigrants from the AustroHungarian Empire were looked on by many Canadians with hostility and suspicion. In 1915 over 8,000 enemy aliens were interned in camps. The city of Berlin, Ontario was forced to change its name to Kitchener.

The Armaments Industry


Canada was a major manufacturer of weapons and ammunition. Col. Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia, founded a Shell Committee to coordinate orders from Britain. The Shell Committee was marked by corruption and inefficiency and was soon replaced by the Imperial Munitions Board headed by Joseph Flavelle.

Women and the War Effort


By 1915 women were filling jobs in all of Canadas industries. Many Canadian women served overseas as nurses and ambulance drivers. There were many reforms improving the lot of women but the vote was denied to most until 1917. Womens groups campaigned against the use of alcohol.

The Halifax Explosion 1917


In 1917 war came suddenly and violently to Halifax, a naval port and departure point for overseas convoys. Ships formed up in Bedford Basin and passed out though the harbour narrows on their way to the open sea. The Mont Blanc a French munitions ship collided with the Imo a Norwegian ship in the Narrows. The resulting explosion destroyed most of the north end of Halifax and killed or injured 11,000 citizens.

Halifax After the Explosion

The Conscription Crisis of 1917

Quebec and Recruiting


Quebec had supported the war in 1914 and many hoped that the war might encourage national unity. Recruiting in Quebec was difficult because many men married young and were often employed in labour intensive farm jobs. There were no separate French speaking units until late in the war.

Source of Volunteers in Proportion to Population


% of Volunteers in Proportion to Population 1.2 1
Percent (%)

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0


bi a Sa sk at ch ew an rta ba nt ar io ec M an ito Al be lum ue b NB , NS , PE I

Br itis h

Co

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 in 1918.

Conscription and The Military Service Act


Mounting casualties forced the government to introduce a conscription bill in 1917. All men between the ages of twenty and fortyfive could now be forced to enlist. There was widespread opposition to the Military Service Act particularly in Quebec. Borden was forced to fight the election of 1917 on the issue of conscription.

Casualties and Enlistments 1917


35,000.00 30,000.00 25,000.00 20,000.00 15,000.00 10,000.00 5,000.00 Ja nu ar y M ar ch M ay Se Ju pt ly em No ber ve m be r

Troops

Casualties Enlistment

The Khaki Election of 1917


Borden entered the election with a Union Government. This was a coalition of Conservatives and English speaking Liberals. Debate on the conscription issue divided Canada. Bordens victory was assured by the War Time Elections Act giving votes to female relatives of soldiers and the Military Voters Act which allowed soldiers to vote outside their home ridings.

Results of the 1917 Election


80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Liberal Union P.E.I N.S. N.B. Quebec Ontario Manitoba Sask. Alta. B.C. Yukon

What was Achieved by the Military Service Act?


404,395 men were called up. 380,510 men applied for exemptions. 20,000 men reported for training. In all only 24,000 conscripted men saw service in France.

The End of the War

The Last Days


Germany was exhausted on the front and suffering from starvation at home. Russia withdrew from the war in 1917. The United States entered the war on the side of Britain and France in the same year. A final German offensive, Operation Michael, was launched prior to the Americans arriving in numbers, but it failed. On November 11, 1918 an armistice was signed and a terrible war drew to a close.

World War I Casualties


6,000,000 5,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 0 Dead Wounded France British Empire Russia Italy USA Germany Austria-Hungary Turkey

Great War Victory Medal

Canadian Culture and World War I

Mary Riter Hamilton 1873 - 1954


Several Canadians including Maurice Cullen, A.Y. Jackson and Kenneth Forbes were commissioned by the Canadian War Records Office to paint the battlefields. Some of the most powerful paintings were produced after the war by Mary Riter Hamilton, an artist from Winnipeg. She went to France in 1919 and painted the battlefields where Canadians had fought.

The Sadness of the Somme by Mary Riter Hamilton

Canadian Monument Passchendaele

Ridge by Mary Riter Hamilton

Canadian Artillery in Action by Kenneth Forbes

John McCrae 1872-1918


John McCrae was a Canadian doctor who went 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 was published posthumously in 1919.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

In Flanders Fields Museum

World War I and Canadian Nationalism

The War and Canadian Autonomy


After Vimy the Canadian Corps was commanded by Arthur Currie a Canadian from Victoria, B.C. In 1916 the British War Cabinet was expanded to become the Imperial War Cabinet which included all of the Dominion prime ministers. Canada placed her own signature on the Treaty of Versailles and took a separate seat on the League of Nations.

Conclusion
The war had cost 60,000 Canadian lives but many historians believed that Canada had become a nation on the slopes of Vimy Ridge. Never again would Canada go to war because of a British declaration. Canadian industrial power was considerably expanded. The war had severely strained national unity.

Additional Web Sites


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

Image Credits

Image Credits
Every effort has been made to credit images and sound used in this presentation. All images and sound clips not otherwise credited have been obtained from clip art collections or are believed to be in the public domain. The authors would be pleased to correct any omissions.
Slide # 1 Canadian War Amps http://www.waramps.ca/Operation/idx-wwi.html Slide # 2 National Archives of Canada PA 028128 Slide #14 National Archives of Canada PA 028128 Slide #16 Private Collection, R.W. White Slide #17 -#21 Private collection, R. W. White Slide #30 National Archives of Canada PA 001370 Slide #33 Canadian War Amps http://www.waramps.ca/Operation/idx-wwi.html Slide #35 Private collection, R. W. White Slide #37 Private collection, R. W. White Slide #39 National Archives of Canada C-097748

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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