Follow Canada: The Last 100 Days of the War

What happened?

Chronology of important Canadian WWI milestones, technological advances in warfare and devastating losses.

1915

• December 1915- Medical officer John McCrae wrote the famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ to grieve for a friend who was killed. First published in Punch Magazine.
• April- May 1915- The Second Battle of Ypres: The first major battle for the Canadians. On this battlefield, chlorine gas was introduced by the Germans causing Allied troops to retreat. The Canadians held strong and stopped the Germans from advancing. Canadians troops gained the reputation of being tenacious.
• May 1915- The Battle of Festubert: The Germans held the advantage on the field. The Canadians had very little preparation time and were given inaccurate maps to prepare for their assault. This battle showed the importance of reconnaissance and preparation.

1917

• Early 1917- Vimy Ridge: the Canadian Corps was tasked with the capture of Vimy Ridge. Previous attempts to seize the ridge by French and British troops had been unsuccessful.
• The Canadians had to apply the lessons learned from their own battle experience, and that of their Allies, to carefully plan an operation that would succeed.
• Assaulting infantry battalions had to locate the enemy. For the first time ever, not only officers, but all soldiers were given details about their objectives.
• 40,000 trench maps were printed and distributed to the attacking Canadians.
• A ‘creeping barrage’ was a method of coordinated artillery fire designed to create a ‘wall of steel’ that moved forward slowly at a predictable rate ahead of the advancing troops. Soldiers practiced their timing to coordinate perfectly with the artillery barrage. This rate of advance became known as the ‘Vimy glide’.
• Preparations for Vimy included extensive underground excavations. This included placing large amounts of explosives near or beneath the enemy’s position in “mines” at the end of underground tunnels. These were to be blown up just before the attack began. When detonated, the explosions would destroy part of the enemy’s trenches and the attacking troops would rush into the gap created.
• Air reconnaissance helped to locate vital enemy locations. German artillery emplacements and trench systems were spotted and mainly destroyed before the arrival of the infantry because of the close coordination between the pilots and the gunners. Airplanes and the concept of humans flying had only been created 14 years earlier by the Wright brothers!
• The Americans joined. In response to the German sinking of American ships, the U.S. joined the Allies. This would tip the balance in favour of the Allies when 10,000 men a day began arriving from the U.S. in early 1918.
• With casualties mounting overseas, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden pushed for conscription to make up for the recruiting shortfalls required to fill the ranks of the Canadian Corps. Heated debate raged across Canada for a year and forcing an election, sparking riots, and finally earning Canadian women the right to vote.
• In 1917, for the first time, Canadians were led by a Canadian commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie. Capturing a strategic, dominating point near the city of Lens, the CEF seized considerable territory and inflicted tremendous casualties on the Germans, at a cost of 9,198 Canadian casualties.
• July 1917- The Battle of Passchendaele, also called the “Third Battle of Ypres” was launched by the British in July to secure the Belgian coastal ports and quickly became synonymous with “mud”. Water and mud made the combat very difficult and slowed movements to a crawl. The offensive had ground to a near-halt by October when the Canadians, now regarded as Shock Troops, were ordered to finish it off. They achieved success, fighting for weeks through waist-high mud to capture Passchendaele, a strategic village that dominated the Ypres salient.
• The cost was high: 15,654 Canadian casualties. Overall there were 500,000 combined German and British casualties.
• Casualties were similarly high for both sides: 275,000 for the Allied Forces and 220,000 for the Germans. The Germans had a harder time recovering as the United States had just joined the Alliance and their manpower would soon arrive.
• August 1917- Hill 70: Canadians captured Hill 70 in France under the command of Canadian General Arthur Currie, the first time a Canadian Corps was led by a Canadian. In one day 1,056 Canadians died, 2,432 were wounded and 39 were taken prisoner. At the end, 9,000 Canadians were killed or wounded, and an estimated 25,000 Germans killed or wounded. Six Victoria Crosses were awarded.

An Overview of the Canadian Uniforms

Each soldier carried a minimum of 60 pounds of equipment. Adding to that, the weight of mud collected on uniforms and equipment typically added another 60 pounds.

The Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers wore the same uniform which was made from a thick wool and dyed in khaki. Wearing a drab color was a good way to camouflage on the battlefield.

Officers’ uniforms like this one on the left were slightly different from those worn by soldiers. Officers had a button shirt and a tie underneath a opened collar jacket. Their pants were not a straight cut but larger around the thighs and tighter around the calves. Officers were also allowed to carry certain objects with them such as a whistle, a camera and a handgun.

What’s an Officer ?

An officer has a wide range of responsibilities such as coming up with plans and being trusted with the execution of operations and daily activities. Officers are in command so they issue orders and lead soldiers to achieving the plans.

The Last Hundred Days? Well, 96 days.

Between August 8th, 1918 and November 11th, 1918, the Allied forces led a series of successful attacks on the Western Front. The Canadian Expeditionary Force contributed greatly to this last push and the event was nicknamed “The Hundred Days”.

German troops were pushed back from Amiens, France to Mons, Belgium in under 100 days by a fast-moving infantry force supported by tanks, aeroplanes and a well-coordinated artillery. The retreating German troops were unable to retaliate and their morale progressively worsened.

On November 11th, at 11:00 am the Armistice was signed and the fighting stopped. It took a further six months to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28th, 1919.