INQUIRY IDEA E - JOIN THE RANKS, THEY’D CRY!

Consult these excerpts linked to the Web activity Inquiry Idea E "Join the ranks, they'd cry!."

37. What measures did the Canadian Government put in place during the First World War?
38. What kind of operations did Canadian troops take part in?
39. Why is the Battle of Vimy Ridge symbolic to Canadians?
40. What commonly-felt emotion inspired Canadian soldiers to carry on?
41. What were living conditions like for soldiers at war?
42. Why do historians describe the First World War as “trench warfare?”
43. What were the problems affecting Canadian society during the war, and what measures were put in place to correct them?
44. What were some of the consequences of the First World War?

 37) What measures did the Canadian Government put in place during the First World War?

“In August, the government gave the right to vote to soldiers, their spouses, their sisters and their mothers and withdrew the same right from citizens born in enemy territory prior to 1902. Scandalous both then and now, the Wartime Elections Act persuaded Liberals who supported conscription to either join Borden or face a fight they could not win. Heading up a Union government, Borden ran his campaign in the fall of 1917 on the progressive ideas he had always advocated and the Conservatives had always despised, specifically women’s right to vote, the nationalization of railways, a merit-based civil service, and of course, great enthusiasm for the war effort.” [transl.]

Morton, Desmond. “La Guerre d’indépendance du Canada une perspective anglophone”, dans Roch Legault et Jean Lamarre (ed.), La Première Guerre mondiale et le Canada: contributions sociomilitaires québécoises, Montréal, Éditions du Méridien, 1999, p. 22-23.

▲

 38) What kind of operations did Canadian troops take part in?

“Canadian troops taking part in the First World War participated mainly in offensive operations. But their first engagement was a defensive one: it took place on the front lines of Ypres (the second battle of Ypres) where the First Canadian Division suffered the horrible effects of the first chlorine gas attack. Despite taking heavy losses at Ypres and losing ground, the Canadians succeeded in holding back the German army. In Canada, support for the war remained strong. Recruits continued to flood in and the Second Division took shape in 1915. In September, it landed in France; a Canadian Corps was created, and in December, the Third Canadian Division was brought on board, followed in turn by the Fourth Canadian Division. In July 1917, the Corps was led by a Canadian commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie.” [transl.]

Swettenham, John. La percée de la ligne d’Hindenburg, La série des Batailles canadiennes no 3, Toronto,  Balmuir Book Publishing Ltd, November 2003, p. 2. (available via the Web site of the Department of National Defence).

▲

 39) Why is the Battle of Vimy Ridge symbolic to Canadians?

“In spite of heavy losses sustained on the Western Front [in Europe], troop morale remained high and the Corps was filled with a sense of superiority that would carry through to the Armistice. In April 1917, the four Canadian divisions, fighting side by side for the first time, captured a formidable German defensive position: Vimy Ridge. It was the first victory achieved exclusively by the Canadian Corps. From that moment on, the Canadian Corps knew only success and its troops earned a reputation, unrivalled in the whole of the Allied armies.” [transl.]

Swettenham, John. La percée de la ligne d’Hindenburg, La série des Batailles canadiennes no 3, Toronto,  Balmuir Book Publishing Ltd, November 2003, p. 2. (available via the Web site of the Department of National Defence).

▲

 40) What commonly-felt emotion inspired Canadian soldiers to carry on?

“                                    May 5, 1917

This morning rifle ammunition is issued, also a gas mask and a steel helmet. We realize that serious matters now lie ahead and that the days of ‘parade soldiering’ are over. About 3 p.m. a sergent tells us that we leave for the front at night. After he has gone, we are silent. Each of us ponders on the news, and I am conscious of a vague fear. I was in a hurry to join a battalion in the line, but now I feel uneasiness, hard to explain. I am determined, however, to do my duty courageously.”

Lapointe, Arthur. Soldier of Quebec, translated by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, Montréal,  Éditions Edouard Garand, 1931, p. 24.

“From today’s perspective, it is difficult to comprehend the mood of that era or the enthusiasm with which these young men signed up to die. In 1914 war was still considered a ‘glorious” undertaking.  (…) Patriotism was another powerful motive. “I am not doing it,” one lad explained in a letter to his mother, “for want a fight or the love of adventure; it is to fight four our country.” Such sentiments were particularly true of the immigrants from Britain, who accounted for one-third of the more than two million who had come to Canada since the start of the century.”

Dancocks, Daniel G. Welcome to Flanders Fields, The first Canadian Battle of the Great War: Ypres, 1915, Toronto,  Douglas Gibson Book, 1988, p. 20-21.

▲

 41) What were living conditions like for soldiers at war?

“At dawn, I leave the miserable shelter and set out on the main road to Ypres. My legs, stiffened by the cold and wet, drag badly at first , but bit by bit they limber up. When I come to the end of my strength  I stop, then walk on more slowly. I reach a Y.M.C.A hut, on which a notice is posted: “ Open at 6 a.m. for distribution of coffee to troops from the trenches.’ The doors are closed and while waiting for them to open, I walk up and down the road. Hunger is gnawing at my vitals, as I have had no food since yesterday at noon. The doors open at last and I go inside, drink two cups of steaming coffee, eat some biscuits, then my head sinks down and I fall asleep.”

Lapointe, Arthur. Soldier of Quebec, translated by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, Montréal,  Éditions Edouard Garand, 1931, p. 78.

“I am wakened by an explosion which rips the tarpaulin from the entrance of our hole and blinds us with dust. We are unhurt, though standing up we would have been knocked over by the shell. The Germans guns are active and the air is full of flying steel. Are the enemy about to attack our front?”

Lapointe, Arthur. Soldier of Quebec, translated by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, Montréal,  Éditions Edouard Garand, 1931, p. 46.

▲

 42) Why do historians describe the First World War as “trench warfare?”

“There was no uniformity to methods used to build trenches. During an advance or a retreat, troops would receive an order to stop on an imaginary line and entrench themselves. They would then each drop down into shell-holes. If there wasn’t one there, the soldier would simply lie on the ground and dig the soil with a type of short-handled shovel, an important part of his kit. Moving quickly, he would bore a hole six feet long and at least 18 inches deep, being careful to pile the soil on the enemy’s side to form a barrier. As soon as enemy fire subsided, or with the fall of night, reinforcements would move in quickly from the rear to secure the line, a goal reached by widening and deepening the holes, linking them together to create a single trench. The trench would follow a zigzag pattern to limit the effects of shelling.” [transl.]

Filteau, Gérard. Le Québec et le Canada et la guerre 1914-1918, Montréal, Éditions de l’Aurore, 1977, p. 43.

“The close conditions in trenches (…) led to infestations of lice and the spread of disease. Snow and rain filled the trenches and had no place to go. Therefore, men often spent days standing in knee-high, filthy water. This led to a condition called “trench foot,” where the skin rotted from the bone. Frostbite led to amputation. For a young man used to the open skies of the English fields or North America prairies, the confinements of the trenches could lead to severe claustrophobia.”

Granfield, Linda. Where Poppies Grow, a World War I Companion, Toronto, Stoddart, 2001, p. 11.

▲

 43) What were the problems affecting Canadian society during the war, and what measures were put in place to correct them?

“In the struggle against Kaiserism, all people of goodwill must surely agree on the need to purge Canadian society of greed, corruption, partyism, vice, and the liquor evil. Wartime solidarity left no room for the arrogance of capita, the violence of revolutionaries, or the selfishness of sects. Middle-class feminists who had led the struggle for the vote found a fresh argument in the war: if victory depended on moral regeneration, the most moral members of the race must extend their power beyond the family: “Women have cleaned up things since time began,” declared Nellie McClung in 1916, “and if women get into politics there will be a cleaning up of pigeon-holes and forgotten corners in which the dust of years has fallen.”

Morton, Desmond and J.L. Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon, Canadians and the Great War 1914-1918, Toronto,  Lester and Orpen Dennys Limited, 1989, p. 88.

▲

 44) What were some of the consequences of the First World War?

“For Canadians as well as for most of those who have studied it, the First World War remains a tragedy of Western civilization and a deathblow to the illusion of glory in war. Sixty thousand Canadians left for war and never returned, and at least sixty thousand others came home so crippled, in body and mind, their lives were never to be the same. The War tripled the national debt and inspired a federal income tax that has remained with us to this day. Canadian women won the right to vote and all Canadians lost the right to drink during the war, although total prohibition would end for most people in 1925.”

Morton, Desmond and J.L. Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon, Canadians and the Great War 1914-1918, Toronto,  Lester and Orpen Dennys Limited, 1989, p. 32.

▲