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00:00This is the War Memorial in Stratford, Ontario, and it's typical of all the War Memorials
00:15across Canada, in every village, in every town, and in every city.
00:20These memorials are gateways to the First World War.
00:24Unfortunately most Canadians have forgotten the First World War, and they don't realize
00:28that it was the greatest and most traumatic episode in our history.
00:35400,000 Canadians went overseas between 1914 and 18, and 60,000 died for King and Empire.
00:58The Space Nine is a castle's castle, and it's very still for you!
01:00The Space Nine is almost all for you, so it's all for you!
01:05The Space Nine is a castle's castle and there are celebs in the town, and the city of Seattle.
01:11The Space Nine is a castle, and it's all for you.
01:17The Space Nine has an castle, and it's always been thrown out, and there's also been considered
01:21the Force Nine is a castle and a castle.
01:24The River Somme, flowing through the peaceful Somme Valley in northern France.
01:42So peaceful, one can almost forget what happened here.
01:46But locals will tell you, on damp days, you can still smell the rust in the air.
01:51From the shells, bullets, and barbed wire embedded in what is blood-soaked soil.
01:58For the Somme will forever be the graveyard of armies.
02:16In this little valley, more than 24,000 Canadians were killed or wounded.
02:21Just in this little valley.
02:23And this is the nature of the Somme fighting again.
02:25This is just a push forward, push back, failed attack after failed attack, a little bit of success.
02:33It was really a slaughterhouse.
02:34This was an unbelievable slaughterhouse.
02:36July 1916.
02:43Sir Douglas Haig, the British commander-in-chief, a stubborn cavalry officer, surprises his generals.
02:51He decides upon a dangerous gamble to break the deadlock that has reigned along the battle line stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea, the battle line known as the Western Front.
03:02Since the Allies foiled the German invasion of France in 1914, France alone has done most of the fighting.
03:10Now drained of men, and on the verge of collapse, France puts pressure on Britain's top general.
03:16Haig responds and launches the largest British offensive ever, against German positions on the ridges overlooking the Somme.
03:22Artillery fire of a hitherto unimagined intensity rolled and thundered on our front, and thousands of twitching flashes turned the Western horizon into a sea of flowers.
03:40We knew we were on the verge this time of a battle such as the world had never seen.
03:47The young German soldier, huddling deep in his bunker that June morning, could not know how true his words would be.
03:57After eight days of unceasing bombardment, British guns fall silent at 7.30 in the morning, July the 1st, 1916.
04:04A hundred and twenty thousand volunteers go over the top, and General Haig's Battle of the Somme begins.
04:17Ordered forward at a walking pace, the men have no way of knowing that their artillery bombardment has failed.
04:24In the time it takes to go for a short stroll, tens of thousands of young Britons fall under a hail of bullets.
04:31Crouching in a second line to British trenches, waiting their turn, are 700 men from Britain's oldest colony, Newfoundland, not yet part of Canada.
04:47An hour after the initial assault, communications have broken down, confusion is total.
04:52And thinking the attack is going well, Haig's officers order the Newfoundlanders forward.
04:57This is Newfoundland Memorial Park at Bowman Hamel,
05:02This is Newfoundland Memorial Park at Bowman Hamel.
05:27It's the best preserved battlefield of the First World War.
05:30It actually preserves all the battlefield of 1916,
05:35particularly where the Newfoundlanders were chopped up on July 1st.
05:40You get an incredible view from over here.
05:47While the Newfoundlanders attacked over this little piece of land here,
05:50they suffered about 90% casualties.
05:53More than 300 were killed out of 700 that went into the attack.
05:58But they were all killed in this little parcel of land between where we're standing and that tree over there.
06:03They never even got through the barbed wire.
06:09The first segment of the attack which took place over these trenches had failed completely.
06:14But the general got reports that there were some British troops in the German wire who got into the German trenches.
06:20So they decided to order the Newfoundlanders forward who were about, oh, probably 200 yards behind us.
06:26And they had to work their way through these trenches with dead and wounded and the complete chaos of the whole morning catastrophe ahead of them.
06:35So they walked through here and they basically didn't know where they were going.
06:39It gets quiet because all the fighting has died down.
06:42And they'd climb out of these trenches and start their walk because they were walking because they're carrying so much equipment towards the Germans across No Man's Land.
06:57No Man's Land wasn't safe at all and to be even less safe in the time to come because there was no other fighting on the flanks so everything was quiet.
07:05Anyone who came out of the trenches at this point was the only guy the Germans were going to focus on.
07:10And that's exactly what happened to the Newfoundlanders.
07:13They started to get through the barbed wire entanglements and you can still see some of the corkstrew stakes over there.
07:18They start to work their way across and, of course, the German artillery which is on all these ridges,
07:23all these machine guns down here are just peppering these guys and they're dropping one after the other after the other.
07:35By the time they clear the British barbed wire, they go about another 50 meters and they're all gone.
07:52Of the Newfoundlanders, General Beauvoir de Lille said it was a magnificent display of valor and only failed because dead men can advance no further.
08:05The slaughtered Newfoundlanders have become part of the bloodiest day in a thousand years of British history.
08:15Sixty thousand casualties in a few hours and hardly any ground gained.
08:21Unperturbed, Sir Douglas Haig declares the fight will continue, and it does, for another five months.
08:28By September, more than 100,000 young men lie buried on the Somme.
08:35General Haig looks north to Belgium and to the three Canadian divisions who have been fighting in Ypres for more than a year.
08:41A year before, in April 1915, Canada's army of businessmen, bookkeepers, salesmen and students had confronted the first large-scale gas attack in history.
08:56It was their first battle. Too naive to retreat, they stood their ground, saved the city of Ypres, and built a reputation as fierce fighters.
09:06With the Canadians is a 53-year-old Anglican minister from Quebec City, Canon Frederick Scott, who contemptuous of risk and disobeying orders has smuggled himself into the front line.
09:19Rumours began to circulate that we Canadians were to go south, and the signs of the approaching pilgrimage began to manifest themselves.
09:30One did hope that the attack to the south would be the beginning of the end, and that peace would be restored to the shattered world.
09:39Also hearing the rumours is a tough, cynical Scot from Calgary, Alberta, Private Donald Fraser, who, like many Canadian soldiers,
09:48excels at stripping souvenirs from the bodies of dead Germans.
09:53It became known our destination was the Somme. Our Major informed us that we would have a pretty easy time as our artillery had threats well in hand,
10:01pulverizing his lines so completely that the advance would practically be a walkover, and the wounds would be such that they'd only mean a nice little trip home.
10:09He seemed to believe the story himself, but it turned out quite different, the Major himself being one of the first to fall.
10:15Ordered south, it takes a week for Canada's three divisions, 60,000 men, to march from Ypres to what the Germans have come to call the bloodbath of the Somme.
10:27With each step closer to shell-shattered Albert, Private Fraser and his company see more and more signs of what is to come.
10:34The day was hot, and we sweltered as we crept up the hilly road. One was amazed at the German entrenchments in this sector. The ground was honeycombed with deep dugouts and machine gun emplacements.
10:47We passed the remains of a German cemetery, and on the road, I stepped on the body of a Hun, embedded in the soil.
10:57In Albert, which is received to date a fair amount of shelling, the Madonna and child on the top of the cathedral spire are hanging over and swinging with the wind.
11:05The French claim that when they drop, the war will be over.
11:13One of the big superstitions of the First World War concerned the Golden Virgin at the top of this cathedral.
11:20It had been damaged from shelling, and it had fallen at a 45-degree angle, falling down towards us.
11:27And the superstitious people of the time, which was everybody, considered the fact that if it fell, then the war would end, which in most cases meant the Germans would win.
11:37So the French engineers decided they would fix fate, and they strapped it on so that the whole statue laid at this angle, but was still secured and wouldn't fall.
11:46Canadian troops came through here in 1916, and everybody, every memoir, every soldier who was here remembers the Leaning Virgin, and it's in absolutely every memoir.
11:59It seemed to me as if there was something appropriate in the strange position the statue now occupied.
12:05For as the battalions marched past the church, it looked as if they were receiving a parting benediction from the infant saviour.
12:13Canon Frederick Scott.
12:20Well, the men were very superstitious, and you can understand why.
12:24You know, one shell would kill one guy one day and not kill the other guy the next.
12:28Some men knew that they were going to die, and they would go into a battle, even a light action, and sort of give away their goods or get their letters home, and they would always die.
12:37They seem to have a premonition. On one hand, you could live, and on the other hand, you could die.
12:42What makes the difference between the two of them? Just a twist of fate.
12:46So I think that's what really, really holds them to their superstitious beliefs.
12:50And I think every soldier had one, and I think this is true of the First World War, or the Second World War, or any war.
12:55We're just in the village of Ovillers, near Lavoiselle, and it's in these fields beside us that the Canadian troops were moving up for the attack on September the 15th, 1916.
13:13All the men of the Second Division were marching up through this area, and what was interesting about it is every time they passed a ridge, the battle got worse.
13:32They were in Albert, and it was not too badly damaged, but war was there, and then they'd pass the First Ridge, and they'd find more shell holes and more bodies.
13:39And by the time they got into this valley here, it was total destruction.
13:44They were amazed by the depth of the German defences, and the number of bodies that were unburied and laying around the area.
13:51The problem was, they still had one more ridge to go at Poziers, where the whole thing would get that much worse.
14:03Every hour of the day, a steady stream of troops were passing between Lavoiselle and Poziers, bringing up a lot of troops.
14:09rations, material, and ammunition.
14:12A continuous queue of wounded were being brought down to the dressing stations, and pioneers were busy burying the dead in the new cemeteries springing up.
14:20Arriving in the rubble of Poziers, Private Fraser and his company learned that it has taken Australian troops seven weeks and 23,000 casualties to fight their way brick by brick into the ruined village.
14:23Arriving in the rubble of Poziers, Private Fraser and his company learned that it has taken Australian troops seven weeks and 23,000 casualties to fight their way brick by brick into the ruined village.
14:38Now to be the Canadian jumping off point for the next phase of the Battle of the Somme.
14:56As we lay there in the darkness, the mind had every opportunity to run riot.
15:03One of our tough guys, Thibaut, took a very serious religious view of things, going so far as to say that he knew he was going to get it.
15:11His premonition turned out correct. He was dead in no man's land a few hours later.
15:17The Somme, September 15th, 1916. Private Donald Fraser is just one of 30,000 Canadian soldiers waiting for the dawn.
15:35Part of a planned assault along a 13-kilometer front, the Canadian's job is to attack Sugar Trench, Candy Trench and the fortified Sugar Refinery,
15:45all of which shield the Germans' next position, the fortified village of Courcelette.
16:00This is the Australian memorial on the windmill at Poziers.
16:04And nothing illustrates the fighting in this area like this monument, which is the remains of a windmill.
16:10This is the highest point on the Albert-Bepaum Road, and the Australians captured it in August 1916.
16:17The village of Poziers, which is just over here, was levelled in a similar fashion.
16:21And it was through these areas that the Canadians came in September to launch their attack on Courcelette.
16:27Shivering to the bone, we were glad to get the news at about 3.30 to move up to the front line, preparatory to attack.
16:40We moved upwards toward the junction of the trenches.
16:42After a few yards, we became chock-a-block. The trench was a jumble of soldiers.
16:47It was impossible to move backward or forward.
16:49The Canadians were going to be the left part of the attack.
16:54And it would start from the little red roof there, which is Moke Farm.
16:58And it would arc across these fields into the village of Courcelette here.
17:07This is the Canadian responsibility.
17:09They had two divisions, or about 35,000 men, ready to attack these positions.
17:15And they walked through here and got into their front line trenches, which are just in these fields,
17:20just in front of us, probably by 50 to 100 yards.
17:28The signal came like a bolt from the blue.
17:31Right on the second, the Allied barrage opened up with a roar that seemed to split the heavens.
17:36Looking along to the left, about 40 yards away, I caught the first glimpse of a khaki-clad figure climbing over the parapet.
17:42It was the start of the first wave, the 27th Battalion.
17:49One of those khaki-clad figures is 29-year-old Will Crossland, a private in the 27th Battalion,
17:55who's left his young wife and their first child, a baby boy, back in Winnipeg.
18:00Will Crossland's grandson is director Harvey Crossland.
18:05What do you got there?
18:06I got a couple pieces.
18:09There's a bone from something.
18:11And here's a little piece of shrapnel that would have been fired at the Canadian trenches.
18:16This is the kind of stuff my grandfather was ducking, right?
18:19You'd be ducking this guy.
18:20This stuff killed probably more than anything else, the shrapnel coming down and the high-explosive shells.
18:25Another one.
18:28You got an eye for him.
18:30So this is it.
18:31We're literally walking in the footsteps of our grandfathers, right?
18:35This is exactly where it happened.
18:37This is right where the 27th had been here, you know, within about 50 yards.
18:44Of course, by this time, it's all exploding here because the Canadian artillery is smashing them as far as they can get them.
18:51And you can see the trench, which would be right across that little low area.
18:57These are normally smaller men, so they'd be about maybe 5'4", 5'6".
19:03They'd have these huge packs.
19:06Now, sooner or later, the Germans would be coming out of their trenches and they'd be manning their machine guns.
19:12And then the German artillery would start firing back, so the shells would be popping up here, popping up there.
19:21And you've still got a long way to go.
19:23I was up and over in a trice, running into shell holes, down and up for about 20 yards.
19:32The air was seething my shells.
19:34Bullets from the enemy rifles were whistling and swishing around my ears in hundreds.
19:38To this day, I cannot understand how anyone could have crossed that inferno alive.
19:44The first wave, by this time, is mostly down.
19:54The second wave is going, keeps following.
19:57And they're just going to keep pushing.
19:59We're going to look for protection in shell holes, which is where a lot of the men would go.
20:03A lot of the wounded would crawl into a shell hole.
20:05In the meantime, there's Canadian troops attacking all across this arc.
20:15And British and New Zealand troops all through those woods over there.
20:20This is a huge action, which is good for us because that means the Germans can't focus their artillery on us.
20:27So, there's a better chance with those odds.
20:30Halfway across, the first wave seemed to melt, and we were in front, headed for Fritz, who was firing wildly and strong.
20:38And as the remnants of us were nearing bombing reach, we dropped, almost as one, into the shell holes.
20:43On my left at the edge of the shell hole, a few inches from my shoulder, a little ground flew up, and I saw that I was observed, and that a Fritz had just missed me.
20:51Pulling in my rifle, I lay quiet. Not a man was moving in no man's land.
20:55Save the wounded, twisting and groaning in their agony.
21:01This is a piece of driving band off a shell.
21:07It's the little piece that goes around the base of it that makes it spin out of the barrel.
21:11It's always made of copper, and it's just shattered.
21:14It would be a big piece, probably from a shell about that wide.
21:17It just doesn't stop, does it, with the things that you find here?
21:20This stuff is just, the locals don't even pay attention to this.
21:23So, while we're in this bean fields, so now we're ready to get close to the village.
21:27So hopefully some Canadian troops on the flank are now getting into the trenches, so you can feel a little bit more, more confident.
21:35I looked over my shoulder, and away to my left at the rear, a huge grey object reared itself into view, and slowly, very slowly, it crawled along like a gigantic toad, feeling its way across the shell-stricken field.
21:50I watched it coming, how painfully slow it travelled, downed and up the shell holes it clambered, a weird and gainly monster moving relentlessly forward.
22:00Suddenly, men from the ground looked up, rose as if from the dead, and running from the flanks to behind it, followed in the rear, as if to be in on a kill.
22:10The monster rearing up behind Private Fraser is Britain's secret weapon, the primitive 28-ton Mark 1 tank.
22:20Appearing on a battlefield for the first time, crawling ahead at just a few miles an hour, these tanks prove easy targets for German guns.
22:28But the tank that reaches Donald Fraser is, like several others, about to have a huge impact.
22:36It crossed Fritz's trenches a few yards away from me with hardly a jolt. It gave new life and vigour to our men.
22:43Seeing no one falling, I looked up, and there met the gaze of some of my comrades in the shell holes.
22:48Instinctively, I jumped up and, quickly though warily, ran to where I could see into Fritz's trench.
22:55Down the trench about a hundred yards, several Huns, minus rifles and equipment, got out of that trench and were beating it back over the open, terrified at the approach of the tank.
23:08And they got in there, hand-to-hand fighting, and they took it.
23:12Well, thanks to our French friends.
23:13It would be better to have one of those on your side. I think your support wasn't quite great then.
23:22So this is the basic, the battlefield, as they're really coming in.
23:26You can see the sunken road running the course of that village will go there.
23:29And you can see the little rise up to where the sugar refinery is.
23:33There's a lot of stiff fighting still to come. This was the most successful part of it.
23:38When I jumped into the trench, the sight I beheld for sheer bloodiness and murder baffles description.
23:45The Huns were terribly mangled.
23:47A German with a ruddy face, clean-shaven and intelligent looking, was lying on his back on the firing step.
23:53At first, I wondered what had happened to him, for he appeared unmarked.
23:56His feet, however, were torn to shreds. He had a pleasant countenance, and looked as if he was smiling in death.
24:04It was off of him that I took the iron cross ribbon.
24:06The successful assault on Sugar Trench, Candy Trench and the sugar refinery has taken just 45 minutes.
24:17But it has cost the Canadians one man for each second the attack lasted.
24:22Two and a half thousand dead, wounded and missing. One of the missing is Will Crossland.
24:27Overwhelmed by the first appearance of tanks, and by the ferocity of the Canadian attack, German infantry flee their frontline trenches in one of the most successful Allied assaults on the morning of September 15th, 1916.
24:52German artillery is quick to provide cover, however, for the retreating troops.
25:01Ordered not to outstrip their own artillery, the Canadians consolidate the morning's gains by taking shelter in the battered German trench system, just outside the fortified village of Courcelette.
25:12Learning that the Canadians are now so close to Courcelette village, General Haig's staff orders them to capture it.
25:25An officer of the French-Canadian Vandusium Regiment, or Vandus, Captain Joseph Chabal leads his men forward.
25:35We went Indian file along a communication trench leading to Candy Trench. It gave some shelter, but what a mess. The trench had been blown apart and was piled with dead Germans and Canadians from the morning's fighting.
25:52Horrible wounds. Blood everywhere. The men hesitated, but went forward, often stepping on dead bodies. Men that a few hours before had been as alive as we were, and we thought that soon we too would be cadavers like them.
26:09This is Courcelette village. This is the scene of the heavy fighting on the evening of September the 15th.
26:21This is the second phase of the attack, and the Canadian troops had now pushed into the village and are trying to push the Germans out.
26:27And you have to keep in mind that these houses would all be fortified. There'd be trenches, deep trenches, connecting everything.
26:33So they were really going into a major fortification, not just a village.
26:38So it's hard to imagine today. It's just a rural French village. But then it was hell.
26:49The remains of the village, its white houses and steeple of the church were lit up by the setting sun as we moved ahead.
26:55One shell exploded to our left. The lads shouted,
27:00Hey, too far left, Fritz!
27:02The next one landed just between two platoons.
27:05Back shot, Fritz! Try again!
27:07And Fritz sent another one.
27:09Damn!
27:11Right on target.
27:13Keep going, lads! The stretcher bearers will pick up the wounded!
27:16We don't have time, we've got work to do!
27:17In Courselet, the Germans desperately fight back, garden by garden, basement by basement.
27:32The battle degenerates into vicious hand-to-hand combat.
27:36With the Canadians making great use of the bayonet, with which they are particularly handy.
27:41Fighting with the bayonet is a bitter struggle. You look right into each other's eyes.
27:50Rifles smash against each other. You parry a blow, you hit back, you feint.
27:56Then suddenly, slipping by his feint, you push the blade in, even as your enemy grabs the blade with his hands.
28:03To get the bayonet out, you have to pull with both hands.
28:06Or if it's cut on a bone, you have to hold the quivering body down with your boot.
28:16The Canadians take Courselet, but all through the night and for the next three days,
28:21Prussian regiments counterattack again and again.
28:25The big guns on both sides never let up.
28:28And by the evening of the 17th of September, there's not a single house standing.
28:32Courselet has been captured, but it no longer exists.
28:37So my grandfather never would have made it to here, no?
28:52No, your grandfather would have been killed back before or around Sugar Trench.
28:55That's where most of those guys went down.
28:58And the artillery fire.
29:00The thing is, of course, is what happened to them.
29:04And so many of these people, they just were missing.
29:07So they would write to the Red Cross and they would write to the various guys in the unit.
29:12Many were already dead.
29:14And they'd ask for information.
29:15And it was always, he died a noble death.
29:17He didn't suffer.
29:18I mean, you know, he died cheerfully, all this sort of stuff, all of the period.
29:23You know, they didn't want to hurt anybody.
29:25They didn't want to say he died of a sucking chest wound from a large shell.
29:30Madam, we regret to inform you that Private William Crossland was reported missing in action on September 15th, 1916.
29:39Well, what happened with your grandfather is that they apparently buried him because they had sent back one of his identity discs.
29:55In the late 1916, they went, the men went in with two dog tags, the dead meat tags, one green one and one round red one.
30:02And they would stay with the body, one would stay with the body, the other would go and be sent back to base with effects.
30:10And the issue was, he was probably buried, they probably put up a cross or maybe not, whatever they could do.
30:16But when the time came to clear up the battlefields in 1919, they couldn't find him or find him and identify him.
30:23So in all probability, he would have been found and been brought into this cemetery and buried as an unknown soldier.
30:29Here, so if he was an unknown soldier, where would he have ended up?
30:31Well, what's unique about the Canadian troops is that they all wore their number on their collar, so C-27.
30:37So he would have been identified as a 27th Battalion man.
30:40And there are a number of unidentified 27th in this cemetery.
30:44This soldier here is a 27th Battalion man that was found in Courcelet Village.
30:50And the probability is that probably about one in ten that he would be your grandfather.
30:56Wow.
31:01As they tour the captured German trenches, Canadian officers begin to question whether a few muddy holes...
31:03...are worth the lives of thousands of young men.
31:04As they tour the captured German trenches, Canadian officers begin to question whether a few muddy holes...
31:05...are worth the lives of thousands of young men.
31:06As they tour the captured German trenches, Canadian officers begin to question whether a few muddy holes...
31:09...are worth the lives of thousands of young men.
31:10And for the first time, a few of them dare criticise British tactics.
31:14But the British commander, Sir Douglas Haig, turns a deaf ear.
31:16He has already set his sights on a new weapon.
31:17He has already set his sights on a new weapon.
31:18And the British commander, Sir Douglas Haig, turns a deaf ear.
31:19He has already set his sights on a new weapon.
31:20As they tour the captured German trenches, Canadian officers begin to question whether a few muddy holes...
31:23...are worth the lives of thousands of young men.
31:24And for the first time, a few of them dare criticise British tactics.
31:39But the British commander, Sir Douglas Haig, turns a deaf ear.
31:42He has already set his sights on a new objective.
31:45The longest German trench system on the Western Front.
31:48A menace to the British hold on the Somme Ridges.
31:51Overriding all objections, the High Command orders the Canadians to prepare to take Regina Trench...
31:58...before the winter rains can stop the fighting.
32:01Rumours filter down to the tired Canadians that something big is in the offing.
32:13In battlefield dressing stations, Cannon Scott picks up on the sombre mood.
32:21The army had set its teeth and was out to battle in grim earnest.
32:26But the price we had to pay for victory was indeed costly.
32:29And one's heart ached for the poor men and their awful struggle in that region of gloom and death.
32:35This is the valley that Regina Trench ran through.
32:48It was the longest trench on the Western Front.
32:51And it was positioned in this little gully.
32:54And it zigzagged across the front to about a mile and a half in that direction.
32:59The advantage of being in a gully like this meant that Canadian artillery couldn't locate the position very well.
33:06And they couldn't hit the trench.
33:08So they couldn't destroy the German positions inside of it.
33:11Secondly, it was defended by heavy belts of barbed wire all across these fields here.
33:16Up the rise, past the cemetery.
33:18The other thing that really started to happen at this time is that the British High Command started to put pressure on the Canadians to keep up the attacks.
33:27And these attacks that the Canadians were making here were not properly prepared.
33:31They didn't have enough artillery and often the wire wasn't cut.
33:34And they had very little chance of success.
33:37And it's really because of these battles that the generalship of the Canadian Corps started to lose trust in the British High Command.
33:52As they wait to attack Regina Trench, the autumn rains begin on the Somme.
33:57The trenches and dugouts are soon knee-deep in water.
34:01Mist and rain mingle with the stench of dead men, dead mules, dead horses.
34:12In spite of its name, the Canadians' camp in Death Valley is one of the few relatively safe places near Regina Trench.
34:19Only a few dozen casualties a day, from snipers' bullets, from big guns, from mortar shells.
34:26While merely crouching in a trench, eating a meal, or lighting a cigarette.
34:31Hundreds of soldiers are killed each week by weapons they never see.
34:35Their deaths are simply referred to as trench wastage.
34:42The man was brought in who looked very pale and asked me piteously to get him some water.
34:47I told him I could not do so until the doctor had seen his wound.
34:51I went over to the table, and there I saw a sight too horrible to be described.
34:56A shell had burst at his feet, and his body from the waist down was shattered.
35:01Beyond this awful sight, I saw the white face turning from side to side, and the parched lips asking for water.
35:09The man, thank God, did not suffer very acutely, as the shock had been so great.
35:15I knelt down beside him and talked to him.
35:18He was a French-Canadian and a Roman Catholic, and as there happened to be no Roman Catholic chaplain present at the moment,
35:24I got him to repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary, and gave him the benediction.
35:29He died about half an hour afterward.
35:39After two disastrous failed attacks on Regina Trench, Canadian soldiers are forced to go to ground again.
35:46The season advances. It is getting colder, wetter, and muddier.
35:52But General Haig orders the Canadians to mount a new assault on Regina Trench, using double the number of battalions.
35:59The attack is set for October the 8th.
36:01Well, on October the 8th, the Canadians along Death Valley, and all across this field, were supposed to capture Regina Trench.
36:20So, at the jump off time, all across these fields, the Canadians, probably around 3,000, 4,000 men, came out of their trenches.
36:29So, the men have bounced up these hills, right to get to the top here.
36:34And then they're starting to get into the barbed wire.
36:36They still haven't seen Regina Trench, it's still over this little rise here.
36:41But now they're running into real trouble, because the artillery didn't do what it was supposed to do,
36:46which was to cut the barbed wire.
36:54So, now the Germans are manning their positions, and they're shooting at them with rifles,
36:58and machine guns, and they're having to go to ground.
37:01A lot of them are being killed, and it's at this point that their piper, James Richardson, decides to take the action into his hands.
37:09And he takes his pipes, as a lot of the Scottish units often had pipers attacking with them.
37:15He plays his pipes, and he walks back and forth in front of the barbed wire.
37:19And it managed to encourage the men so that they can get through the wire, and they actually get into Regina Trench,
37:25which is just in this little gully down here.
37:28Richardson, for some reason, was not killed.
37:38How they missed him, I'll never know.
37:41And he went with the men into the trench.
37:43The unfortunate part was that the attack all along that site had failed completely.
37:49They didn't even get into the trench.
37:51Over here, the Toronto regiments, there's two of them fighting here, were successfully in Regina Trench.
37:59But Richardson's men got in, and then later that night, as the Germans started to counterattack, they had to evacuate.
38:06The men, at about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, started to pull out across these fields, evacuating all their gains for the day.
38:13Piper Richardson forgot his bagpipes, or so the story goes.
38:17He returns to the trench and was never seen again.
38:28Ordered to attack before their artillery can destroy enemy barbed wire and machine gun nests,
38:33the Canadians suffer huge losses and fail for a third time to take Regina Trench.
38:38But as he withdraws with the three exhausted Canadian divisions,
38:42Canon Scott learns that General Haig refuses to be deterred by this third failure.
38:47To renew the battle, he has ordered the newly formed 4th Canadian Division down to the Somme.
38:53In the 4th Division is a young captain yet to prove himself in battle.
38:58His name is Henry Hutton Scott, Canon Scott's second eldest son.
39:03When the 4th Division arrived to take over the line, I had the great joy of having my second son near me.
39:13From my window, I could see the officers and men of his battalion walking about in their lines.
39:18It was a great privilege to have his battalion so near, for I had many friends among their ranks.
39:24Canon Frederick Scott.
39:26Also with the 4th Division is 20-year-old Victor Wheeler.
39:32Diagnosed as having a weak heart, Victor has been told he will last no more than three months in the front line.
39:39Now, as he looks out over no man's land towards Regina Trench, Victor Wheeler celebrates his second month in the front line.
39:48Even before getting close to Regina Trench, we had lost 25 men killed or wounded.
39:54The incessant rains had turned the whole Somme area into a quagmire.
39:58The heavy guns thundered continuously.
40:01The earth convulsed as landmines planted 30 to 50 feet underground spawned, then exploded, shattering every living and inanimate thing.
40:09Madness and misery were everywhere.
40:14Good and brave men were helpless pawns, sometimes longing to be put out of their misery.
40:23On October 21st, the Canadians were once again ready to attack Regina Trench.
40:28And here was the men from Alberta with Victor Wheeler.
40:31It was the 87th with Henry Scott, who was Canon Scott's son.
40:35And they were ready to assault what was left of Regina Trench, which had just been pounded by the artillery continually through October.
40:42The attack took place right here, and they had a very short distance to go.
40:47The wires cut. In fact, Regina Trench almost didn't exist anymore.
40:50The dawn was now completely hidden by a dense smoke barrage laid down like a great woolen blanket to conceal our movements.
40:58My flesh seemed to take on ethereal form, and the foe's death-dealing steel-tipped bullets seemed to be passing through my weightless body as we advanced across the forbidding terrain.
41:15Victor Wheeler survives the attack on Regina Trench, and at dusk he returns to base camp.
41:20But others have not been so lucky, as Canon Scott is soon to learn.
41:32I heard a knock on the door, and there stood an old man with a letter in his hand.
41:37He handed me the letter, and then, taking my hand, he said to me in French,
41:41My brother, have courage. It is very sad.
41:45At once the truth flashed upon me, and I said,
41:48My son is dead.
41:50The old man shook my hand and said again,
41:53Have courage, my brother.
41:57This whole section along here was taken on that morning.
42:02Unfortunately, one of those killed was Henry Scott, Canon Scott's son.
42:06And one of the most moving memoirs discusses Canon Scott coming here to try to find his son's grave right in this field.
42:21My only chance of finding my son's body lay in my making the journey before my son's battalion moved away.
42:26Huge shell holes half filled with water pitted the fields in every direction, and I had great difficulty to keep from sliding into them.
42:35I started at 6 a.m. for Death Valley, and then went to Regina Trench.
42:40I had brought a little sketch with me of the trenches, which showed the shell hole where it was supposed the body had been buried.
42:47I got the runner to try in another place, and still we could find nothing.
42:51We tried once again, and after he had dug a little while, he came upon something white.
42:57It was my son's left hand with his signet ring on it.
43:02The mist was lifting now, and the sun to the east was beginning to light the ground.
43:07We heard the crack of bullets, for the Germans were sniping us.
43:11I read the burial service and then took off the ring.
43:14We made a small mound where the body lay.
43:18And then by quick dashes from shell hole to shell hole, we got back at last to the communication trench.
43:23In the five-month Battle of the Somme, it is estimated the Germans suffered as many as a half a million casualties.
43:39Sir Douglas Haig declares himself very pleased with such a result.
43:46In their few weeks on the Somme, the Canadians have suffered 25,000 dead, wounded and missing for an advance of just four kilometers.
43:55After the war, they brought in a lot of isolated graves from the battlefields of Regina Trench and Desire Trench.
44:07And amongst the graves they found were the remains of Piper Richardson.
44:12Richardson had last been seen going back into Regina Trench to retrieve his pipes and he had never been heard of since.
44:18His bravery had already won him the Victoria Cross, and finally he was confirmed as killed in action.
44:25He was only 20 years old when he was killed.
44:41It is often said that what happened at the Somme was the beginning of the end of the British Empire.
44:47A generation disappeared.
44:50For the Canadians, it was their first great bloodletting,
44:53the experience of a new kind of war, slaughter on a grand scale.
44:58Something they swore would never happen to them again.
45:06The Battle of the Somme cost the British Empire half a million killed, wounded and missing.
45:10This is the Thiepval Memorial and it commemorates 73,000 British soldiers who have no known grave who are the missing of the Somme.
45:20And this monument, which is incredible, it really captures the loss of the Somme, all these men lost for so little.
45:28It was really a disaster.
45:37Well, there's going to be a lot more battles in the First World War like the Somme.
45:41And unfortunately, the generals had yet to learn their lessons.
45:44They learned their lessons.
46:14For some while, there's still a hurricane.
46:16But.
46:18After feels hard to be beaten.
46:21Don'tー bring it back to the US.
46:23Go be a continued猿.
46:26Complex Tape修減
46:29The За Lean