What about the Canadians?: Recent Episodes
What about the Canadians?
The Eastern Front has fallen so all eyes are on the Western Front. The Germans are pushing hard to break through the lines and the Canadians are resting and raiding.
This episode we’re talking about the wonderful, brave, good boys and girls that went to war without a choice. No not conscripts but animals!
With the war raging on in Europe, a national crisis was brewing on the Homefront. The call for conscription was not a mere question of duty, but a direct challenge to the Quebecois and their values. Meanwhile, the women of Canada are facing their own challenges to a changing way of life.
The mud had taken it's toll but the men could finally call Passchendaele a success, or at least they could call it finished
The opening battle begins at Pilckem Ridge, with the British II and V Army, and the French First Army charge to capture the dreaded Ypres Salient. Pocked with craters and shell holes, no-man's land on the Salient had become a graveyard of all that had been lost. Despite receiving warnings, Haig pushed for an assault in the midst of rainy season, hoping to push through to Passchendaele before the plains egin to flood.
Meanwhile the CEF launch a diversionary assault on Hill 70 under the new leadership of Currie. Can Currie capture another victory? Or is he just a one hit wonder?
In part two of our podcast covering the Battle of Vimy Ridge, we explore the new technologies and strategies employed by the Canadians in their preparation for battle. Then given a tight deadline to achieve their objectives, the Canadians emerge from tunnels and go over the top. Are the Canadians doomed to repeat the same mistakes, or does shedding the weight of British influence finally lead the Canadians to an unmitigated victory?
In November 1916, the Canadian 4th Division is moved from the Somme to Vimy, a ridge overlooking the Douai plain located in the Pas-de-Calais region of France, to rejoin the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions. For the first time, all four divisions would prepare and fight together to overtake territory that had been under German control since the outbreak of war. Over 150,000 French and British soldiers lost their lives trying to retake the ridge. Are our 100,000 Canadian soldiers bound to the same fate?
Was this battle a success? The Allies suffered over 614,000 losses including 24,700 Canadian men . Leadership of the British Expeditionary Force, which was also in charge of the Canadians, especially Douglas Haig, was heavily questioned and criticized. But if there were any positives sides to the slaughter it would be that officers were forced to assess their strategies and tactics to overcome not just the Germans but also the sinking landscape.
This long offensive finally has a place for the Canadians but the costs are high and the success are minimal, but on a positive note we have tanks!
In the face of the enemy, four exceptional young men made extraordinary sacrifices for those that served alongside them, and their bravery earned them the British Commonwealth’s highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross. Join us as we explore the men behind the medal and help us ensure that the names of Lionel Beaumarice Clark, James Cleland Richardson, Thomas Orde Lawder Wilkinson, and John Chipman Kerr are not lost to history.
The Allies are growing desperate to break through the German frontlines on the Western Front. To alleviate pressure on the Russians in the east and to turn the tides after the disastrous operations conducted in 1915, a plan for a new offensive is drafted by French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre. Now fully drawn into the war, the British take the lead in planning the offensive at Somme. Have the British learned from their past mistakes? Or will the stubbornness of its generals push their soldiers right into the fire?
Something many of us never learned in Social Studies was the internment of many nationalized Canadians, Canadian citizens and recent immigrants that were from the enemy nations of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Throughout 1915 and early 1916 the Germans maintained their strongholds on the western front making it extraordinarily difficult for the Allies to launch an offensive attack. To cope with the mundaneness of war, there was little for the soldiers to do but man the lines, smoke a cigarette, and perhaps put on a good drag show!
Despite efforts to ease their stress, many could not escape the impacts of shell shock, especially as offensive campaigns resumed at St. Eloi and Mount Sorrel. Do we finally see the tides turn for the Canadians, or is it another case of “the blind leading the blind”?
After a disastrous offensive at the Battle of Auber’s Ridge, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir. John French ordered General Haig to deploy troops from the First Corp to Festubert and Givenchy in May and June of 1915. The Canadians are called to aid the Allies in their hurried plans to overrun enemy lines, as German soldiers are being actively redeployed to Turkey to join the Gallipoli campaign. Join us as we explore what happened during these lesser-known battles.
Men all across the Western Front were sitting in muddy, cold trenches wishing they could be back home for Christmas. The Canadians spent their first Christmas of WWI in the wet, snowy lines that were drawn across Belgium and France. Despite the no fraternization rule that had been cemented the year before, many still hoped for a holiday truce like there was in 1914. Others hung their cleanest socks on the barbed wire hoping Old St. Nick would stop by.
The Canadians were sent into the fire when they joined the French, British and Algerians at the Ypres salient. The allied forces were being overrun on 3 sides and everything was about to get a exponentially worse. The Germans had a chip on their shoulder because of their losses during the First Battle of Ypres and decided to fight back with chlorine gas.
Overlooking the bloody battlefield at Ypres, John McCrae silently penned “In Flanders Fields,” which became the immortal words of the dead, and inspired one woman to sell silk poppies to raise funds for disabled veterans. The poem may be recited around the world, but how well do we know the man behind the words? More than a poet, learn about the brilliant, patriotic, and lovely man that is John McCrae.
We find out about the boots, guns, mud and bad reputations all before the Canadian boys even got to France.