“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime”
— Ernest Hemingway 1946
How has WW1 Impacted Canada’s Identity?
War was seen as a glamorous, even romantic excursion for many europeans for hundreds of years but world war 1 would destroy any fond memories of war for the many years to come. From poisonous gas to mud so deep it could drown a man world war 1 was one of the most horrific conflicts to ever rock the world. World war 1 was a massive conflict that engulfed the majority of the word into conflict in a matter of months. World war 1 was coined as the war to end all wars because of all the reality’s that war entails. World war 1 brought about many changes to the rules of war as they began the long process to make war a tolerable experience for the soldiers and the civilians.
Europe is messy today with all the countries that are involved in day to day affairs. In the early 20th century these complications were amplified by the strong nationalism and complicated alliances that encompassed every major and minor power in the region. One isolated incident would soon engulf the entire world into war in only a month. Millions would die and many more would be affected after one small event that snowballed into chaos.
It’s June 27th 1914 and the archduke of the austrian hungarian empire Franz Ferdinand is making a controversial visit to the city of Sarajevo. Sarajevo is the major city for the bosnian population of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The tensions between the empire and the bosnian people’s was high but plans were made to include the bosnia in the empire’s name (Austria-Hungary-Bosnia Empire). However this wasn’t only reason this trip for was controversial. Tensions between serbia and the empire (their southern neighbor) continued to rise. Although officially the serbs denounced any terrorist activity against the austrians the threat was still real. On the 28th of June Franz Ferdinand was shot and killed from point blank range by a serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip.
Franz Ferdinand’s death precipitated Austria-hungary’s declaration of war on serbia. Russia, Serbia’s closest ally immediately declared war on Austria Hungary. It was then when Germany was forced to protect their southern neighbour and declare war on Russia. The germans were the strongest military power of the region at the time decided to execute the Schlieffen Plan, in which the germans would swiftly capture paris through neutral belgium to avoid the immonent 2 front war between the russians and the french.
The plan nearly worked but months had passed and the war developed into a stalemate, exactly what the germans sought to avoid. By invading belgium the Germans ran into 1 unintended consequence, drawing the british into a conflict in which germany was already outmanned. This would ultimately be the end for the german army as by late 1918 they simply were outnumbered too much to put up a fight. Canada was automatically at war with germany when the british declared war because even though canada had their independence they didn’t have control over international affairs. By 1917 the US was drawn into the conflict and this would provide the crucial manpower advantage that would slowly but surely push the germans deeper and deeper into their territory. Immediately following the russian revolution the russians pulled out of the conflict but the americans offset the disadvantage and eventually provided more than the russians ever could.
Could something like this happen in today’s world?
For the soldiers of the great war the struggle within themselves is rarely spoken of. The emotional struggle wa soften times worse than the physical one. Waking up every day worrying that they may never speak to their comrades or see another letter from their families ever again. To add on the to the already high stress environment of the bombardment of shelling and poisonous gas. It is hard to come close to imagine the pain of the many soldiers. It isn’t something you can just think about, it is outside of my comprehension of emotional pain. Poems were a powerful source of expressing ones struggle and many were written throughout the war. Soldiers, civilians, officers and even political leaders all tried their hands at trying to put the pain at the front lines and beyond.
…This is the song of the mud, the uniform of the poilu.
His coat is of mud, his great dragging flapping coat, that is too big for him and too heavy;
His coat that once was blue and now is grey and stiff with the mud that cakes to it.
This is the mud that clothes him. His trousers and boots are of mud,
And his skin is of mud…
This is an excerpt from a poem written by Mary Borden, the wife of a British army general
…The feeble folk at home had grown full-used
To ‘dug-outs’, ‘snipers’, ‘Huns’, from the war-adept
In the mornings heard, and at evetides perused;
To day-dreamt men in millions, when they mused—
To nightmare-men in millions when they slept…
This is an excerpt from the poem “And There Was a Great Calm” written by Thomas Hardy the english poet.
Canada’s very own John McCrae wrote one of the most famous wartime poems “In Flanders Fields”. To this day it still is one of the most powerful poems and is spoken of the represent the entire 1st world war. Especially since Lieutenant John McCrae trashed the poem in disgust at the time he wrote it. We try to see ourselves in the shoes of the soldiers but it simply isn’t easy for anyone to do. We must use these first hand sources like these poems to help us decipher the past to ensure something like this never happens again.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
War in its essence pushes countries and nations to their respective limits in terms of invention, production and culture. For many of the advances that we enjoy today we have war to thank. This extra motivation to produce creates an environment in which technology is invented at a rate that a world without conflict could ever hope to match. From communication to planes world war 1 advanced fields of technology for good and for bad.
Planes had been fascination and a source of glamour for many before the war, but didn’t take long for people to realize that the air could be yet another front of war. Throughout the war advancements were made at truly unbelievable rates. From unarmed reconnaissance at the beginning of the war to major battles fought that had major implications in the grand scheme of the war. This dependency on the air force would play an even bigger role in WW2 and it continues to play a large role in today’s conflicts.
Without the pressure of war a lot of the advancements made would never had occurred and many of privileges we have today in terms of aviation and otherwise. When we look back at all conflict it’s easy to say what happened is all bad meanwhile we enjoy the positives of the very conflict we denounce. By the latter stages of the war planes became very advanced for the time. Their were planes with the capability to shoot hundreds of rounds per minute. The is a stark comparison the life pre war when planes couldn’t be mounted with a machine gun.
Long range communication was another field that experienced rapid technological advancement. At the time of the war telephone lines still were still a very new technology. Even though Alexander Graham Bell had invented it decades ago teleph0ne lines were expensive to put up and easy to break especially during the massive shelling barrages that took place during the war.
Telephone lines weren’t a a solution for wartime communication so the army’s looked in different places to more efficiently communicate from the front lines to the generals tents. It didn’t take long for morse code to be developed to help communicate from the front lines. Morse code itself wasn’t a old strategy at long range communication but sending it over radio waves was a new. The development of morse code eventually led to the innovations in the field message sending most notably the enigma machine. The most complex mechanical cryptor machine ever to be made, it was virtually uncrackable through any human or mechanical means. The only way it was cracked was by the invention of the computer. Therefore the development of morse led to the invention of computers. Computers most likely would have been invented regardless but I can’t imagine it would have been as early as it was without the fast advancements in the cryptography industry.
I didn’t touch on close to the large scale technological advancement but the importance seems even in just 2 fields is quite clear. The other major advancement made was much less a technological advancement and more of a development of the rules of war. It defined humane ways to kill and layed out guidelines for surrender and war. These rules would be the groundwork for the creation of the united nations and number of peacekeeping groups. Think about the hundreds of technological fields that were jump started and how much we enjoy the benefits of today. In the end I still believe all the death and suffering was not in vain but there is valid argument for the war potentially being worth the cost. Its a question that we must all ask ourselves every day.
The atrocities of war cannot be ignored but where would be without them?
The topic I chose was the battle of Passchendaele. Passchendaele (The third battle of Ypres) was a massive conflict that was fought between mainly the British expeditionary force (BEF) and her colonies expeditionary forces including the Canadian expeditionary force (CEF) and the german army. There are a range of estimates but it is widely agreed upon that close to 800 000 soldiers died including both sides throughout the 4 months conflict. However high the death toll might be this battle is better known for the impregnable conditions of the battlefield. Historic rains in the flanders region combined with a constant artillery barrage that destroyed the already ancient drainage system.
The battle began on July 31st when the allies made their first push towards the objective of passchendaele. Morale of the soldiers was high hot off the victory at the somme a year earlier. However, advances were slowed by the largest rainfall in Flanders in 70 years coupled with artillery fire that destroyed what was left with the ancient Flanders drainage system. This made an offensive a very slow effort because any land taken had to be defended from constant german counter attack without the big machine guns due to the soggy ground conditions. By late September the allies had won the Battle of Polygon Wood and were advancing into German held points on the Ypres Ridge. The battle over zonnebeke and poelcappelle were well under way.
Capturing the first points of high grounds on the mostly flat fields of Flanders was essential to the offensive and eventually in the capture of Passchendaele. By late October the canadians first saw action in the conflict, in the final siege of passchendaele. However it is important to remember what the battlefield looked like at that point in the battle. The battlefield was one with the mud, and the massive shell holes created lakes big enough to drown a man
The task our class was assigned with was for each of us to create a comic book representation of a specific event, person, group of people, or simply anything about the war. The comic book had to presentable to a group of grade 6/7 students (our target audience) The 4-5 pages had to include
- 1 Formatted intro page
- 2-3 Comic book pages that outlined in details of your topic in simple yet powerful mediums
- 1 page detailing a personal story of a single person
As a class we came up with the requirements via brainstorming. We all discussed the options to ensure we all had a consistent layout and we thought the guidelines up above were fair and provided enough creative constraint to perform our best. We then created our first drafts and prepared for a peer critique. After receiving critique we improved upon our drafts and prepared our prestations at cove cliff.
The real challenge was putting all this info into a comic that younger kids could comprehend and find interesting at the same time. When creating the comic I put an emphasis on simple photos and understandable text in support. My style of formatting is simple and it fit the comic well. I felt the squares blend quite well as you read it and the text goes just enough in depth to give good information but not so deep that the reader is overwhelmed. Overall I was very happy with the way I used words, photos, titles and other design elements to draw in the viewer.
The Shattered Ground was another comic book style piece of literature that tried to shed light on the great war. We red the shattered ground novel at the tail end of our unit and I felt it put a good close on all that we had learned. Told in third person it showed the brotherhood and the loss of the many in the war. The shattered ground combined drawings and text to help the reader understand the situation. I found the text very informative and a good size so it is informative yet knowledgeable.
Our assignment was simply to read the book and complete a short summary after every chapter. The summary made you think a little deeper about the events of the chapter, and by the end I felt very close to the character in the book. The book was a very nice close to the unit to say the least as it made me come face to face with the reality’s of the first world war once again.
The last major assignment we worked was a book report on one of three books. We were given the choice between reading “Private Peaceful” “War Horse” and “Generals Die in Bed”. Our first task was to read the book that you chose, for me that was Generals Die in Bed. It was a narrated story in which the narrator is one the soldiers. The story shows the brutality of all war and defines how much of war is game of chess in which every pawn means so little. The whole book paints a very real and brutal face of the war.
For the book report I was given a number of options ranging from choosing songs to represented the book, photos that represented the book, poetry that represented the book, drawing that represented the book, or even creating a movie trailer for the book. I choose to do the photo route but I would make edits to each photo using graphic artwork. I had to include a write up that explains how the photo relates to the book. As I was creating the pieces I really put in an effort to use symbols and metaphors to help represent bigger issues in a small image.
The Storm Inside
…It must have been awful to not only have to deal with facing death every day but also the internal emotional struggle that torture entails. When I was creating this piece I highlighted the beautiful cloud scene on the painting to bring out how on the outside these soldiers seemed so brave and so strong…
I believe the most powerful part of the image is the fog. It shows how the true struggle of the soldiers is convoluted, complicated and hidden from outside view. You can see outlines of the storm underneath but you can never truly understand the struggle until you have experienced trench warfare.
Merely a Pawn
…Any means are valid if they help win the war, people’s families, people’s lives come second to any war effort. Every soldier is merely a pawn, some will reach greatness and heroic status, but the majority are sacrificed for the long term game…
There is nothing worse than feeling like you have no control over your life. When you are told to sacrifice your life for the greater good it is demoralizing to think that that is all that your life is worth. It is easy to boil war but down to a few statistics and soldiers as mere pawns to longer game but if you are forced to face every face war becomes much more real.
Death All Around us
…Once you reach the top of the trench you are greeted by colours of red and the textures of storm. The cloud of death engulfs everything you know in the war and It’s only a matter of time until our narrator is trapped in the spiral as well…
The storm is closing in and death is only a few metres away. Whether its advancing germans, shelling, machine guns or mortars death is constant prospect on the battlefield. When death is simply that close it becomes numb and many of the soldiers and generals began to slowly downgrade the value of life until its not worth nothing at all. To think that life and death have no meaning is a terrifying thought and was a reality for many of the soldiers.
How has WW1 Impacted Canada’s Identity
Canada grew out of its shell in world war 1 but its my opinion that Canada didn’t become what it is today without the actions of canadian soldiers every day. Canada defines itself with every peacekeeping mission, every armed conflict where canada strives for peace and an end to armed conflict. Canada began to define itself in the first world war but it would take many years and similar efforts to finally reach the world stage that it does today. Canada’s identity was set in motion during the first world war but we had a lot of space to go to reach where we at today. We have a come a long way in terms of our acceptance and our diversity. Today we take a lot of our identity for granted but we must step back and realize that others that do not have the privilege of the great maple leaf on our shoulders.
After this unit I am left with tons of questions but I feel I understand world war 1 well enough that I could debate about it. If I feel that confident in a subject I know I learned enough about it. However, I still am struggling with a number of takeaways of this unit
What is the value of human life?
The atrocities of war cannot be ignored but where would be without them?
Will we ever truly understand the horrors of war in the trenches?
Could a conflict engulf the whole world today like it did in 1914?
Will we ever have another conflict this destructive again and what can we do to avoid this bloodshed?
Many of these questions could never be answered but if I keep them in the back of my mind by learning from the past I can avoid past mistakes.
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it”
– George Santayana
