Canada in World War One

Canada Enters the War

"It is our duty to let Great Britain know and to let the friends and foes of Great Britain know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart and that all Canadians are behind the Mother Country." -Sir Wilfred Laurier

The Second Battle of YpresApril 22-May13, 1915

Was a German attempt to push the Allies back and eliminate the Ypres Salient in Belgium.

Included the first ever gas attack at St. Julien, where the Germans unleashed Chlorine gas on Canadian soldiers.

6035 Canadian casualties, including 2000 killed.

The Second Battle of YpresApril 22-May13, 1915

It was during this battle that John McRae wrote “In Flanders Fields” while working as a surgeon at an aid station.

Because of this poem, the poppy has become a symbol of remembrance, not only for Canadians, but for the British, French and Belgians as well.

St. Eloi and Mount Sorrel Two relatively minor

skirmishes which still cause around 10,000 casualties for the Canadians.

At St. Eloi, Canadians fought for a total of 13 days in 6 water and mud filled shell craters, with 1,373 casualties in those 13 days.

The Battle of the Somme

Hawthorne Ridge Crater

Beaumont-Hamel

Courcelette

"The Canadians played a part of such distinction that thenceforward they were marked out as storm troops; for the remainder of the war they were brought along to head the assault in one great battle after another. Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst.”

–David Lloyd George

Vimy Ridge

"It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade. I thought then . . . that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.”

-Brigidier General Alexander Ross

Passchendaele

Billy Bishop Billy Bishop was a

fighter pilot in WW1 and became the top Ace of the British Commonwealth.

He is credited with 72 official kills, the most of any Allied pilot.