The document discusses Canada's involvement in World War 1, including the training of troops, key battles like Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, and the impact on Canada. It describes how Sam Hughes established a training camp and trained 32,000 troops. It also discusses major battles that Canadian troops fought in, such as Vimy Ridge in 1917 where Canadian troops captured the strategically important ridge, and Passchendaele in 1917 which cost over 15,000 Canadian lives despite warnings from General Currie.
2. Training the Troops
• The task of training and supplying the troops, and
making them ready for war went to Sam Hughes,
the minister of militia
• He established a training centre in Valcartier,
Quebec
• Basic training was given to 32,000 enthusiastic
Canadian and Newfoundland troops
3. Training the Troops
• Before WWI, Canada was a patchwork of regions
with few transportation and communication
connections
• Wartime training brought diverse Canadians
together as a group
• Boot camp built bridges between them and
fostered a sense of national identity, a sense of
being Canadian
4. Training the Troops
• The army that was formed from these volunteers
was known as the Canadian Expeditionary Force
(CEF)
• The troops were enthusiastic, but ill-prepared and
ill-equipped
• The Canadian made Ross Rifle often jammed from
dirt and mud or when fired rapidly
• It was later replaced by the British Lee Enfield Rifle
5. The War Measures Act
• Prime Minister Borden realized that to meet the
demands of the war, the government would need
more control over the country’s affairs
• Almost immediately after war was declared, Borden
introduced the War Measures Act
• This granted the government the authority to do
everything necessary “for the security, defence,
peace, order, and welfare of Canada”
6. The War Measures Act
• Gave the government the power to strip ordinary
Canadians of their civil liberties
• Mail could be censored
• Habeas corpus was suspended
• Anyone suspected of being an enemy alien or a
threat to the government could be imprisoned or
deported
• 8579 immigrants from Germany and the Austro-
Hungarian Empire were held in internment camps
7. The Schlieffen Plan
• The Schlieffen Plan was
Germany’s bold plan for a
two-front war
• France to the west was the
Western Front, Russia to the
east was the Eastern Front
• Almost worked: German
troops were 35km from
Paris
8. Stalemate
• Military deadlock: the war raged on, but trench
lines moved very little
• No man’s land: the area of land between two
enemy trenches that neither side wishes to openly
move on or take control of due to fear of being
attacked by the enemy in the process
• War of attrition: the act of weakening or exhausting
by constant harassment, abuse, or attack
9. The Second Battle of Ypres
• Some of the bloodiest
battles of the early war
years were fought in and
around the Belgian city of
Ypres, in the Flanders
district
• April 1915: First major
battle for the CEF
10. The Second Battle of Ypres
• Germans used chlorine gas for the first time in a
military battle, even though the use of gas for
military purposes had been outlawed since 1907
• Men suffocated or choked to death
• Canada lost 1 man in 3 — from gas, but also due to
inexperience and failing weapons
11. The Battle of Somme
• July 1916: General Douglas
Haig launches a massive
attack along low ridges
near the Somme River
• A veteran of cavalry
warfare, Haig insisted on
using strategies he knew
had worked well in
previous wars
12. The Battle of Somme
• Wave upon wave of troops were ordered to march
across open fields
• They were almost immediately mowed down by
German machine guns
• 85% of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, over
700 men including all officers, were killed or
wounded with half an hour
• When the battle ended, there were over 1 million
casualties; Canada had 24,000 casualties
13. The Battle of Vimy Ridge
• Since their first offensive in
1914, Germany had
controlled Vimy Ridge, a
strategically important area
in northern France
• The French tried three
times to regain Vimy, but
were unsuccessful
14. The Battle of Vimy Ridge
• Canadian troops were chosen to lead a new assault
under the command of General Julian Byng (later
appointed Governor General of Canada)
• Byng developed new strategies, and rehearsed
movements thoroughly
• Army engineers constructed tunnels to move
troops secretly to forward positions
15. The Battle of Vimy Ridge
• April 1917, Easter Monday, Canadian troops moved
into attack position
• Executing their plan of attack, the Canadian corps
had taken their first objectives in less than two
hours
• The Canadians gained more ground, took more
prisoners, and captured more artillery than any
previous British offensive in the entire war
16. The Battle of Vimy Ridge
• The cost was high: over
3500 men killed, over 7000
seriously wounded
• However, this was
significantly fewer than in
any previous Allied
offensive
• The victory marked a
Canadian milestone
18. Passchendaele
• Byng was promoted for his role at Vimy
• He was replaced by a Canadian, General Arthur
Currie, the first Canadian ever appointed to
command Canada’s troops
• Currie brought an increasingly independent
Canadian point of view to the British war effort
• Open to new strategies, Currie still took orders from
General Haig
19. Passchendaele
• In 1917, Currie and the CEF were called upon to
retake Passchendaele Ridge in Belgium
• Unlike Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele was of little
strategic importance
• Haig’s earlier assault on Passchendaele left massive
shell craters in the ground
• Many soldiers and horses drowned in these
conditions
20. Passchendaele
• Currie warned that casualties would be high
• Haig and the British command didn’t listen to
Currie’s protests
• He was right: the Allies won the battle, but the
“victory” cost over 15,000 Canadian lives and nearly
half a million soldiers from both sides
