Canadian Battles of World War I

1
Canadian Battles of World War I

Canadian History 11 D. Denike
2
The Main Canadian Battle Sites

• Ypres (1915) Belgium
• St-Eloi, France (1916)
• Mount Sorel, France(1916)
• Battle of the Somme, France (1916)
• -Beaumont Hamel France (1916)
• Vimy Ridge, France (1917)
• Passchendaele, France (1917)

3
Ypres

• Canadian First Division, 20 000 soldiers
• Faced poison gas attacks from Germans
• More than 5200 Canadian troops died
• Canadians held their position

4
Battle of the Somme

• 141 days of battle
• Canadians fought with British troops
• The first day of battle was disatrous 57 470
  casualties

5
Battle of the Somme

• Canadians fought heroically
• Casualties for both sides had reached 1.25
  million
• 24 000 Canadian soldiers died

6
Battle of the Somme

• Troops from Newfoundland and Labrador played a
  major part
• They advanced across no-mans land at Beaumont
  Hamel against heavy machine gun fire from the
  Germans
• Only 68 of the 790 soldiers of the Newfoundland
  regiment survived

7
Battle of the Somme

• After 5 months of battle, the British had only
  advanced 11 km
• People at home were horrified by the massacre
• Tanks, a British invention, were used for the
  first time at the Somme
• Tanks would eventually help with the war

8
Vimy Ridge

• For the first time all 4 Canadian divisions
  fought together on April 1917
• 100 000 Canadians launched the attack
• We went up Vimy Ridge as Albertans and Nova
  Scotians. We came down as Canadians

9
Vimy Ridge

• From the dugouts, shell holes, and trenches, men
  sprang into actionand advanced to the
  ridgeEvery division of the Canadian Corps moved
  forward together. It was Canada from the Atlantic
  to the Pacific on paradeIn those few moments I
  witnessed the birth of a nation.
• Brigadier-General Alex Ross, describing the
  attack at Vimy Ridge

10
Vimy Ridge

• Canadian soldiers captured the ridge
• On that day, more ground, more guns, and more
  German prisoners were taken than in the first
  two-and-a half years of war
• It was a crucial victory and step toward Allied
  victory in WWI

11
Vimy Ridge

• Four Canadians won the Victoria Cross at Vimy
• There were 10 602 casualties at Vimy Ridge
• 3598 Canadian soldiers died in battle

12
Destroyed Tank at the Battle of Vimy Ridge
13
Trenches at Vimy
14
(No Transcript)
15
Vimy Ridge Memorial April 9 1917 Canada won its
most celebrated battle of WWI
16
Early gas mask
17
Germans soldiers firing guns
18
Wounded soldiers in a trench
19
Present day trench Vimy Ridge
20
Battle field at Vimy Ridge
21
(No Transcript)
22
A view from the trenches
23
Inside the Vimy Memorial
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)