So, as seen in my last few posts, we are currently studying WWI. We have now shifted from studying the big picture of the war, to studying life on the home front of Canada during the war. We have also begun looking into how the war contributed to the growing feeling of Canadian Identity, and have been investigating what it meant to be a Canadian during the Great War.
While Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes were away with the Grade 8’s, us Grade 11’s were left with 100,000 different projects to complete for the week (not really that many, more like three, but it felt like a lot more). One of these assignments was a research study of one Canadian soldier who served in the First World War. Our task was to research these men, and examine any primary documents we could find. We had to put ourselves in the shoes of our soldier and imagine what their war story was. What happened to them, how they felt, what they learned, and what their ending was. Once we figured this out, we had to write a diary entry as this soldier at some point from their life: Before, after or during the war. PLUS, we were encouraged to include some sort of Canadian Identity.
I began researching a potential soldier to write about on a website that has the records of pretty much any Canadian soldier that enrolled in ANY of the world wars. I first searched up my last name and found a few soldiers that sounded interesting, but didn’t have a huge amount of primary sources apart from their enlistment forms. So, I did some more digging around some other websites and came across a few letters that were written by soldiers in Valcartier. I looked into which Canadian soldiers wrote them, and found a man named Goldwin McCausland Pirie.
It turns out that Goldwin was a 20 year old Bank Clerk from Dundas, Ontario, who enlisted into the First World War August of 1914. He was sent to France, and ended up fighting in the 2nd Battle of Ypres. In the counterattack of the 1st and 4th battalions at Mauser Ridge, he was wounded on the battlefield and left for dead for four days. He was recovered by a medical team and sent to Netley hospital (Royal Victoria Hospital) in Southampton U.K. He ended up passing away two months later due to infections of his wounds.
My entry, written in Goldwin McCausland Pirie’s perspective, was based in the month after he was wounded, during the period of time where he believed he would survive.
*Warning: This post is probably the longest on my blog. You might want to find a seat because you’ll be reading for a while*
The Manhattan Project. When anyone hears this phrase, the top secret Atomic Bomb WWII operation conducted by the United States, usually comes to mind. And if it doesn’t I strongly suggest you click here to read up on it, because this post is all about my experience with this alarmingly complex project that a nation kept secret from… well… itself and the rest of the world.
Pretty much, in the beginning of the school year, we were introduced to a new unit; The Manhattan Project². The main purpose of the unit was to fully understand what the project was, who was involved, and the set-up and work that went into it. We were then introduced to a video project as a way to go more in-depth into the topic. We were to work in groups of 5, and focus in on one of the sites of The Manhattan Project: The Hanford Site. We had to come up with one main topic, along with 5 sub-topics, and format it similar to the video series History In 5.
As well as creating an interesting documentary of our topic choice, we were told our film had to use the historical thinking concept of historical perspectives to frame our story. In order to understand the different settings that shaped the lives of people in the past, we had to really think hard, and pretty much transport ourselves into the 1940’s. We wrote letters as if we were those who lived on site at Hanford, and we created character cards, documenting the lives of those who worked on the project in the 1940’s.
My Character Card
Once we really had a good grip on the time period and the main events that took place during the Manhattan Project, it was time for a field study! Duh! But, before our trip, we were supposed to have planned out exactly what our movie was going to be based on, and how we were going to use historical perspective to help tell our story. PLUS, we had to have our whole script written and be ready to begin filming. My group, Anatolia, Chloe, Mike, Nolan, and I, had our topic finalized, as well as our subtopics. Our movie was going to be all about the Secrecy and Security at Hanford and how it ultimately played a part in the success of the Manhattan Project, my sub-topic being how the war would have been very different without the project.
Secrecy Sign from WWII
I researched a whole bunch of different military plans that were created by the United States, before the Manhattan Project even existed, and how very important secrecy was when the project was introduced. I found an interesting invasion plan, named Operation Downfall(that’s kinda intense if I’m being honest). The plan was for the U.S. to invade Japan, but it was predicted that there would be a loss of hundreds of thousands of military troops during the invasion, and potentially thousands more depending on how long the raid were to last. The idea to create the atomic bomb as a weapon was justified by the fact that there would be a smaller casualty and fatality rate among American troops and allies if there were to be a bomb, rather than an invasion. Because of the effort that was put in place to cover up the plans for the Manhattan Project, the United States guaranteed themselves a smooth ending to the war, and saved many American and allied casualties that alternate plans would have caused.
So anyways, back to the best part…. the actual trip! The HPC 11 class was the first cohort to travel this year, and I was super excited as the days rolled closer to our departure. At the end of September, we finally made our way down to Portland, Oregon, and Richland, Washington, on our good old Seycove bus, to investigate further into what the Hanford Site was and gather all the information and primary sources we could for our documentaries. We spent four days abroad, visiting many Manhattan project exhibits in museums, such as the REACH Museum, interviewed many knowledgeable people, some of whom took part in the project, and took a few bus tours to historical landmarks like the B-Reactor at Hanford.
HPC 11 With The B-Reactor At Hanford
On Our Way To Portland
Our Class at The REACH Museum
Every time our class goes on a field study, we get along so well, and bond as a cohort more and more. I had a very enjoyable and memorable experience learning first hand about how this technological endeavour helped to shape a nation, and changed the course of history. My group used these four days full of primary sources and firsthand accounts from the Manhattan Project quite well, gathering as much information as we could, as well as video and pictures to add into our movie. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up filming any clips of us talking on the trip, because we hadn’t finished our scripts beforehand, which resulted in us being behind from the get-go.
So, once we returned to Vancouver (Canada, not Washington. Just in case you hadn’t figured that out), we officially began constructing our movies. Let’s just say my group had to work extra hard to finish within the deadline. We had to fish out all of the rich information that we gathered on our trip, turn that into a script, actually film our parts, put it altogether, and hand it in. The worst part of all of this was that it was only the first draft (I’m just kidding, being able to make and hand in multiple drafts and receive critique is one of the best parts of PLP). We formatted our video sort of similar to the History In 5 example that we watched earlier in the year: We shot ourselves speaking in front of a green screen, then added pictures and videos to break up our clips. We thought it was ok for a first draft. It was a really really rough cut, but it was still something.
So then, after handing our new draft in, and hearing Mr. Hughes and Ms. Willemse’s constructive feedback, we started the same cycle for our second draft. We ended up shortening our movie length from 15 minutes long, to 9 and a half minutes long, as there was a large amount of “extra” information that was taking away from the core message. We had quite a lot of trouble with our audio because we realized the space we were using was echoey and…well it just had really bad sound for our iPads to pick up. But we ended up borrowing a microphone from Willemse and Hughes, so our audio problem was fixed…For the most part. By the time the second draft was due, our video still had a sort of rough feeling to it, not something you typically want in a second draft. But we still wanted to hand it in to receive more critique and feedback.
After playing around with the last few things to fix in our movie, it was suddenly time to hand our third and final draft in. My group was pretty nervous, as these videos weren’t just being put on our blogs, but they are being shown to our tour guides at the Hanford Site, and I mean these people know everything about anything Manhattan Project. So to say we were a tad intimidated was an understatement. But we handed it in regardless of our nervousness, and ended up being pretty proud of our creation. After days of filming and re-filming clips, fiddling with pairing up audio and visuals, long nights spent at Anatolia’s house with the group working on completing our movie, and a whole bunch research, we finally had handed in what seemed like a lifetime’s worth of work. To say I was relieved is an understatement.
But even when you hand work in when you are a part of PLP, you always pick out things in the project that could have gone differently, better, or not gone on at all. Now, one of the problems I had with this History In 5 movie, was that I somehow thought it was a good idea to not complete my prior research and planning of my script and movie, which turns out to be the most important part! I’m not going to lie, I knew that I was making a mistake, but I thought all would work out by the end. And it did, but only by the skin of my teeth. I know that for the next project like this one (because we always expect this sort of thing in PLP), I need to work harder on my organization and preparation skills. I know that if I had just prepared a bit more in the beginning, I wouldn’t have had to work so hard near the end to complete our Secrecy and Security At Hanford video.
So that’s all I have to say about this crazy, historical perspective-y, Manhattan Project² performance task, I hope you somewhat enjoyed this extremely long blog post (hey don’t say I didn’t warn you in the beginning), and if you are reading this I am proud that you made it this far. You’ll hear from me next time in our upcoming WWI blog post (thanks Ms. Willemse).
I’m sure everyone has heard about how WWI began in 1914. How the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, of Austria-Hungary, was the trigger that shot Europe’s nations into chaos and war. But there are many, many other theories out there, about the underlying causes that lead to the beginning of this horrific Great War. My theory is that Germany was constantly causing a great disruption to the nations of Europe, which started with the Franco-Prussian war. This war created instability, which was the main cause of the formation of the two main alliances, the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance, and ultimately lead to the beginning of WWI.
The Franco-Prussian War was between the Second French Empire Of Napoleon III and the German States of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia, and lasted from 1870 to 1871. The main causes of the conflict were the determination of the Prussian statesman, Otto von Bismarck, to unify the North and South of Germany under the control of Prussia, as well as being able to eliminate the influence of France over Germany. Over in France, Napoleon III, emperor of France from 1852 to 1870, was threatened by Prussia’s military strength, as demonstrated in the Austro Prussian War in 1866, and the French feared the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded their goal of the unification of Germany.
France was certain that they would be able to defeat Prussia and Germany in a war, and on July 19, 1870, Napoleon III was declared the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war, mainly because of the confidence he was receiving from his military advisers. France soon realized that Germany had the greater manpower, and as Otto von Bismarck had hoped, the southern states of Germany had decided that France was a threat and sided with Prussia.
When the war began, it was made clear that the France was the weaker side of the fight, and Napoleon III soon was forced to surrender to the enemy, on August 2nd 1870. French resistance was carried on against desperate odds by a new government of national defence, which began in Paris on September 4, 1870. Then, on September 19th, Germans attempted to surround and invade Paris. Foreign Minister in the new French Government, Jules Favre, attempted to negotiate with Bismarck, but the discussions were halted when he found that Germany was demanding the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine. Léon Gambetta, the leading figure in the provisional government, organized new French armies which fought German troops, but did not win against them. Paris was taken over by the German side, and Germany then annexed Alsace and Lorraine. France ended up having to pay 5 billion francs as compensation and cover the costs of the German occupation of France’s northern provinces until this compensation was paid.
So really, this war meant that France wanted revenge against Germany, and a determination to recover Alsace and Lorraine kept the two nations constantly prepared for war. Their strong hostility towards each other, was the start of instability caused across European nations.
In 1882, Otto von Bismarck realized that in order to continue to industrialize Germany and make it stronger, he had to supported a security policy to keep peace throughout Europe, and prevent France and Russia from forming an alliance. He soon formed the Triple Alliance, where Germany was allied with Austria-Hungary and Italy. In case a war were to break out, these countries promised to support each other. But in 1888, the choice to concentrate more on a global cause, instead of a cautious security policy set in, when the German Emperor Wilhelmina II came into power. With this change, the Triple Alliance was reformed and renewed, and Russia was quick to align with France.
In 1904, Germany attempted to gain favour in Morocco, but this move sent England, who feared the growth of the German’s fleet, to the arms of Russia and France, which marked the beginning of the Triple Entente.
For the next ten years, the two alliances needed little to provoke a war between them. There was an enormous amount of tension throughout the divided continent, and when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand took place, it was the perfect spark to infinite the immense hatred between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, and to begin World War I.
Ok so that was A LOT of information to process! I knew that I had to give you the reasons and evidence to support my thesis, but I honestly didn’t anticipate this much writing was going to be involved. So to give you a clearer, and less wordy picture of how I think WWI was ignited, I have decided to create a visual representation of my thoughts, sort of like a brainstorm in picture form. I used the App Paper, my favourite drawing App, and I split the Franco-Prussian War apart from the other events that support my thoughts, because it had way too much information for just a small box. I chose to label it and separate the drawings with boxes, so that my ideas weren’t too messy on the page, I hope you can learn a bit more, in a bit of a less brain clogging way, about the beginning of WWI!
