Transcript Canada and the Great War

CANADA AND THE
GREAT WAR
The Story So Far
June 28th
The Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated
July 28th
Austria Declares war on Serbia
August 1st
Germany declares war on France and
Russia
August 4th, 11pm
Britain declares war on
Germany
How will Canada respond to the
war and the call for recruits?
VS
Where might you place the following people on the scale
For War
Against War
Imperialist
Nationalist
A French Canadian
An English Canadian
A Pacifist
Sam Hughes
•Minister of
Canadian Militia in
1914
•Participated in the
Boer War
•Initially promises
to send 25,000
•
By
1916,
Hughes
men to Britain
has promised
500,000 men
•In 1914, 3,000
members of the
Canadian army
•2 battleships
•BUT, by the end of
1914, more than
59,000 had
volunteered
•In 1915, 159,000 had
volunteered
WHY WOULD YOUNG MEN JOIN
THE WAR EFFORT?
Military
Those men who signed up for the effort
would be given a uniform;
a visible sign of masculine honour and pride.
Women respected men in a uniform
The war was presented as a great ADVENTURE
Propaganda posters encouraged Canadians
to enlist in order to protect the British
Empire
Training at Valcartier
•Recruits trained at Valcartier
in Quebec.
•Camp Valcartier was
hurriedly built in only four
weeks to provide a place for
the training and mobilization
of Canadian troops in World
War One.
•Soldiers first left in Oct.
1914
•They were to be further
trained in England upon
arrival.
•When they arrived they
were placed on Salisbury
Plain in winder
•It rained EVERY DAY but
one – on that day:
•It snowed
Canadian Militia Faulty Equipment
#1 Ross Rifle:
•Marketed as a great target and
sporting weapon.
•However, it was out of place in trench
conditions
•Rifle jammed when covered in mud
•Canadians would steal guns off dead
British soldiers and disposed on Ross
Rifle
#2 Macadam Shovel
•Invented and patented by Sam Hughes
•Shovel has hole for shooter to put gun
through
•BUT – where do you look?!?!
•ALSO – not bulletproof!
•Entire shipment of 22,000 shovels
which had cost the gov’t $29,000 was
sold off as scrap in 1917 for $1,400.
Think about it….
•What do you as a Canadian living in
Northern Ontario expect from your
winder boots?
Warmth
Dryness
Durability
Cardboard Boots?!?
•Canadian Soldiers complained
that their boots were not fit for
the trenches.
•They were cheaply made, cold
and thin
•In effort to cut costs, Canadians
equipped boots with soles made
from cardboard
•By the end of August
the Allied armies were
in retreat. The French ordered a
counterattack
and halted the
German advance.
Unable to break
through to Paris, the
German army was
given orders to retreat
to the River Aisne.
Stalemate (A deadlock)
•In the West, the Germans
decided that they must
hold onto those parts of
France and Belgium that
they still occupied.
•They were ordered to dig
trenches that would
provide them with
protection from the
advancing French and
British troops.
•Trenches were
usually about
seven feet deep
and six feet
wide and often
possessed deep
underground
dugouts that
housed large
bodies of soldiers.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
miqzY_yDKyg
•The Germans were the
first to decide where to
dig, they had been able
to choose the best places
to build their trenches.
•The possession of the
higher ground not only
gave the Germans a
tactical advantage, but it
forced the British and
French to live in the
worst conditions.
German
French
•No Man's Land is
the term used by
soldiers to
describe the
ground between
two opposing
trenches.
•Its width along
the Western Front
could vary a great
deal but generally
averaged about
200-250 meters.
•The German Army first
used chlorine gas
cylindersin April 1915
against the Allies at the
Second Battle of Ypres.
The use of Chlorine gas
was soon followed by
more potent chemical
weapons like Mustard
Gas.
•Although these new
weapons did not help
one side win the war,
they did increase the
level of suffering for
both sides.
It has been estimated that the
Germans
used 68,000 tons of gas against Allied
soldiers. This was more than the
French Army (36,000) and the British
Army (25,000).
Conditions in Trenches
•Apart from being cold, hungry and
wet most of the time, soldiers in
the trenches suffered from a
variety of problems during the
war.
•Rats, lice, dysentery (disease of
large intestine), trenchfoot, and a
host of other hardships made life
in the trenches horrific and
impossible to forget.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3XtxfN4uzU
•Men in the trenches suffered from lice
that left blotchy red bite marks all
over the body.
•As well as causing frenzied
scratching, lice also carried disease.
This was known as trench fever.
•Although the disease did not kill, it
did stop soldiers from fighting and
accounted for about 15% of all cases
of sickness in the British Army.
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugmU-hN1hxk
Shell Shock
•By 1914 British doctors working in
military hospitals noticed patients
suffering from "shell shock". Early
symptoms included tiredness,
irritability, lack of concentration
and headaches. Eventually the
men suffered mental breakdowns
making it impossible for them to
remain in the front-line.