The Great War: A Decisive Moment In Canadian History

THE KILLING GROUND
The World War I was the biggest armed conflict on the first half of the XX century; it was also a decisive moment in Canadian history. When the Great War started Canadian men, particularly English-Canadian men, where eager to volunteer and aid militarily to Britain as part of said empire. But when Canadian troops got to the battlefield the volunteers realized that the war was no what the propagandas had made them think; the conditions of the soldiers on the field were rough, the time that they spent in foreign lands was longer than the time the volunteers had been promised and many times the attack plans made by European generals ended up in massacres of the troops. Some Canadians were sacrificed needlessly through military

The day before to the battle of the Ypres commanders of the Allies forces had been warned of an attack with poisonous gas that the Germans were planning for the next day but they decided to ignore the warnings. On the 13th of April of 1915 the German troops released a chlorine gas attack over no man’s land that dispersed the French troops and killed many of them; the Canadian troops were positioned meters behind the battle front and, when the saw the French troops running away from the gas, they stood their ground and with just a cloth over their mouth as protection against the gas the Canadians fought the German soldiers. That day the Canadians proved themselves as strong capable forces but many of the soldiers on the field that day died due the effects of the chlorine gas in their system. Another of the battles were a bad plan resulted on unnecessary bloodshed of Canadian troops was on the Somme, where the reckless attitude of General Haig resulted on the death of thousands of soldiers on the hands of the enemies’ troops and where, once again the Canadian regime of Newfoundlanders proved their military value and were the Canadian troops earned the name of