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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.
00:19These 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.
00:58To be continued...
01:07I don't know.
01:37The tranquil fields of Flanders, just outside of Ypres in Belgium, so tranquil that it is difficult to believe a total war was born here, and here a whole civilization lost its innocence. But in these fields, a half a million men died. One hundred thousand still lie beneath this ground.
01:58The farmers will tell you, each year when the poppies bloom, the spring rains wash the bones to the surface, reminders of a great war that began here, on the fields of Flanders.
02:10August 1914. Making his bid for mastery in Europe, William II, the German Kaiser, sends a million troops pouring into Belgium and France.
02:28Great Britain delivers an ultimatum to Germany. Leave Belgium or else. The ultimatum expires without receiving an answer.
02:38And when in London, Big Ben strikes eleven on the night of August the 4th, 1914, the British Empire is at war.
02:47War. At the speed of light, that one word flashes over telegraph wires to the farthest reaches of the empire.
02:55Australia. South Africa. India. And Canada.
02:59Canada. Immediately, Canada offers England an expeditionary force of 20,000 men and calls for volunteers.
03:09And in Edmonton, Alberta, a 22-year-old journalist, Harold R. Pete, eagerly answers the call.
03:17The first feeling of pride came over me, and I'm sure over all the boys, on that eventful night in August,
03:23when thousands of people, friends and neighbors, lined the roadside as we marched to the station.
03:30Strangely enough, no one was crying. Everyone was cheered.
03:34Little did the hundreds of those women, those mothers, dream that this was the last look they would have at their loved ones.
03:40Men were cheering. Women were waving. Weeping was yet to come.
03:45As they leave their children and womenfolk behind, the volunteer journalists, bank clerks, and farm laborers
03:54are keen to fight, but know nothing of war.
03:59City parks stand in as battlefields.
04:04Regimental drums pretend to be German artillery.
04:07While the Canadians play at war, the real war rages in Europe.
04:25When the German armies plunge deep into Belgium and France,
04:29the British, Belgians, and French struggle frantically to stem the German tide.
04:33In two months, the Allies fight the Germans to a standstill.
04:41By Christmas 1914, a half a million men have been slaughtered to create a stalemate.
04:47A 460-mile deadlocked line of trenches known as the Western Front.
04:55Setting sail towards the battlefields of Europe, the Canadians treat the voyage like a holiday.
05:03As soon as they set foot in France, they're ordered north to Belgium and the city of Ypres.
05:10In Belgium, the Germans had made one last desperate attempt to break through the deadlock.
05:15That struggle left a bulge in the Allied line around Ypres, a bulge known as the Ypres salient.
05:22When Harold Peat and his fellow rookies arrive in the salient,
05:25their eagerness turns to trepidation as they stare towards the German lines.
05:30The first night in the trenches, we fired more bullets than on any other night we were at the front.
05:36It was an awful night that first night in.
05:39Stare ahead into the dark anywhere, and something will move.
05:42My imagination at least supplied the Germans.
05:44We had our eyes set, and we peppered away.
05:47An English officer strolled by.
05:48What the blinkity-blank are you shooting at?
05:52Me, sir?
05:53Me, sir?
05:54Germans, sir?
05:57Soon, Private Peat will see a real battle.
06:00But for now, the Canadians merely hold the line, and that is dangerous enough.
06:04The Germans press on the salient from three sides,
06:07and their artillery can target every inch of the Canadian positions.
06:10This is Vormazil Enclosure No. 3 Cemetery,
06:18and it's here at Vormazil that the first Canadians came into the line in the First World War.
06:24It started in these peaceful fields.
06:31This is the grave of the first Canadian killed in the First World War.
06:35He was killed near here on the 8th of January, 1915.
06:39Lance Corporal H.G. Bellinger, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry,
06:458th of January, 1915, age 39.
06:53Killed by a German shell after only two days in the front line,
06:57Lance Corporal H.G. Bellinger is only the first of many.
07:02For the salient is about to become the most dangerous place on the Western Front.
07:05A few days after the Canadians arrive, German guns surrounding Ypres opened fire.
07:13The Germans had decided to capture the medieval city,
07:17the symbol of Allied and Belgian resistance.
07:22Freshly arrived in Ypres is Canon Frederick Scott,
07:26a 54-year-old army chaplain from Quebec City
07:29who has volunteered with the First Canadian Division
07:31to minister to the wounded and dying.
07:37It was a bright and lovely spring morning
07:40when the whole Canadian Division began its fateful journey to Ypres.
07:43Some of us went into the cathedral.
07:47The roof was more or less intact,
07:49the altar and pulpit in their places.
07:55The cloth hall had been burned,
07:58but the beautiful stone facade was still undamaged.
08:01We had several celebrations of the Holy Communion.
08:07It was the first Easter spent away from home.
08:11It was the last Easter that most of these gallant young souls spent on earth.
08:19This is the cloth hall,
08:20one of a number of medieval buildings in Ypres
08:23that were used by the Germans throughout the war
08:25for range finding for their artillery.
08:27At the beginning of the war,
08:32buildings like this would have been untouchable.
08:35But as the war progressed,
08:36the Germans would basically set them on fire
08:38with long-range artillery shells.
08:40In 1914, the cloth hall
08:42and a number of the cathedrals around here caught fire.
08:45And it really signaled part of the change
08:47in the attitude towards war
08:48where from now on, anything was a fair target.
08:54With almost all of Belgium
08:55occupied by the German army,
08:58Ypres is overflowing with refugees.
09:01I heard the ripping sound of an approaching shell.
09:04It grew louder,
09:05till at last a terrific crash told us
09:07that the monster had fallen not far off.
09:10A number of people crowded into an adjoining cellar
09:12where they fell on their knees
09:14and began to sail at me.
09:16It was a pitiful sight.
09:18There were old men and some women
09:19and some little children
09:20and a young girl who was in hysterics.
09:24They seemed so helpless,
09:25so defenseless against the rain of shells.
09:27The final and dreadful bombardment of Ypres
09:31had begun.
09:38As the giant shells demolish the city,
09:40the Germans are massing thousands of infantry in the fields
09:43near the village of Langemark,
09:45overlooking Ypres and its Canadian defenders.
09:49Six months before, in these same fields,
09:52the first German assault on Ypres had ended in catastrophe
09:55when the German high command
09:57threw thousands of untrained troops
09:59against British regulars.
10:01Tens of thousands of Germans died,
10:04including 25,000 university students
10:06who had eagerly signed up in the first days of the war.
10:09This is Langemark German cemetery,
10:14the largest German cemetery around Ypres,
10:17and we're really here to illustrate the point
10:19of failure of the Germans
10:21in their attempt to capture Ypres in 1914.
10:25And nothing illustrates this point
10:27more than a cemetery containing more than 44,000 German soldiers,
10:32including a mass grave here
10:34containing almost 25,000 Germans,
10:36predominantly killed in 1914
10:39when the Germans tried to capture this area.
10:43Each one of these blocks
10:45lists the names of roughly 500 German soldiers
10:48who were killed around Ypres
10:50and are buried in this mass grave.
10:53You can see by looking on the list
10:55that a number of them were killed
10:56in the first battle of Ypres,
10:58where the German soldiers were shot down
11:00by the hundreds,
11:01by British riflemen and machine gun fire.
11:04Many of the troops were very young,
11:06and it was actually christened
11:07at the Kindermordem by the Germans,
11:09meaning the death of the children.
11:12One of them here is a...
11:13...France Huber,
11:16who was killed in the battle in October 1914.
11:20It was one of those hundreds
11:22that were shot down coming across the salient.
11:24There's lots of tramp metal in this field.
11:32You can actually see it all over the place
11:33from exploded shells.
11:35Here's a piece here that's a shell fragment.
11:39Here's a piece of barbed wire.
11:42Here's a shrapnel ball.
11:47It's not uncommon to find them
11:48just sitting on the surface this time of year.
11:50In shrapnel, the shell would be full of
11:54probably two or three hundred of these little balls,
11:57and it would be fused to blow up overhead
12:00so that the little balls would be fired out
12:03in an area, a wide area,
12:05and it's used as an anti-infantry device
12:07and also to try to cut barbed wire.
12:11This piece would be from a high-explosive shell probably,
12:14and the shell, which is a big piece of cast iron like that,
12:18would just be blown to smithereens by the explosion.
12:21Needless to say, these items,
12:23and these items caused the most number of casualties
12:25in the Great War.
12:27The fields around Langemark were littered
12:30with the dead of the German army
12:31and the French and the British,
12:33and through the winter, those corpses just lay there.
12:36So when the Canadians came out in April 1915,
12:38they found many of them still lying there.
12:40What the Canadians didn't know
12:42was that the Germans were massing for a new attack
12:44and they were going to use a new secret weapon.
12:54April 22nd, 1915.
12:57The Germans are preparing to attack Ypres
12:59using a weapon never before used in war.
13:02In 1915, one of Germany's leading scientists,
13:06the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Chemical Institute,
13:08Dr. Fritz Haber,
13:10hits upon the idea of using chlorine as a poison gas.
13:15Working with scientists at IG Farben Chemicals,
13:19Fritz Haber transforms chlorine into a weapon of war.
13:25Using rudimentary gas masks
13:26and experimenting on their own troops,
13:29the Germans discover that chlorine ruptures the lungs.
13:33If a man breathes chlorine,
13:35he will drown in his own fluids.
13:37Germany now has its new secret weapon.
13:43Specialized troops,
13:44what German soldiers jokingly call the stink pioneers,
13:49bury over 5,000 canisters of chlorine in the German parapets
13:52facing the French and Canadian line.
13:55The Canadians have just arrived.
13:59They are about to experience their first real battle
14:02and the first mass poison gas attack in history.
14:06Fritz Haber's experiment will be called Operation Disinfection.
14:10We're on what were the German front lines on April 22nd, 1915.
14:17It was here that the Germans released the chlorine gas
14:20on unsuspecting French troops
14:22and on the newly arrived Canadians.
14:25It was here that the Germans changed the whole concept of warfare
14:28warfare, and it's here that total war started,
14:31right on these fields.
14:37As dawn breaks on April 22nd, 1915,
14:41German long-range guns step up their bombardment of Ypres.
14:44Four miles away, on their lines along the north side of the salient,
14:50the Canadians watch Ypres burn.
14:54Next to the Canadians, French colonial troops from North Africa
14:58hold trenches protecting Kilken.
15:02The Canadian lines extend in front of the village of Saint-Julien.
15:05In the German lines at Langemarque, the troops wait to attack.
15:10With thousands of others, one young German stink pioneer
15:14nervously prepares to release the poison gas.
15:18I'll never forget that day in the middle of April.
15:21The weather had to be just right.
15:23No rain that would wash the gas out of the air.
15:27A wind of 12 to 18 miles an hour was ideal,
15:30going towards the French lines.
15:32It was a beautiful day.
15:33The sun was shining.
15:35We should have been going on a picnic,
15:37not doing what we were going to do.
15:38We opened the valves with the strings about suppertime.
15:43The gas started towards the French.
15:46Everything was stone quiet.
15:50As this great cloud of green-gray gas was forming in front of us,
15:54we suddenly hear the French yelling.
15:56Every field artillery gun, every machine gun,
15:59every rifle that the French had must have been firing.
16:02I had never heard such a noise.
16:05The hail of bullets going over our head was unbelievable.
16:07But it was not stopping the gas.
16:10The wind kept moving the gas towards the French lines.
16:13We heard the cows bawling and the horses screaming.
16:17The gunfire starts to quiet.
16:19After half an hour, only occasional shots.
16:22Then everything was quiet again.
16:25Jean Mordac, French commander of the Algerians,
16:31hurries forward to see what has happened.
16:34His army has disintegrated.
16:36He has seen nothing like it before.
16:38It was tragic.
16:40It was tragic.
16:41Everywhere were fugitives.
16:43Infantry without weapons.
16:45Haggard, great goats drawn away, wide open.
16:48Running around like man-men,
16:50begging for water in loud cries.
16:53Spitting blood.
16:54Some even rolling on the ground,
16:55making desperate efforts to breathe.
16:57In a while, the gas had cleared
17:02and we walked past the empty gas bottles.
17:04What we saw was total death.
17:07The horses, cows, everything, all were dead.
17:11The smell of the gas was still in the air.
17:14We got to the French lines.
17:16The bodies of French soldiers were everywhere.
17:18It was unbelievable.
17:20You could see where men had clawed at their faces and throats,
17:23trying to get breath.
17:24Some had shot themselves.
17:27These are the fields that were the flank
17:29of the Canadian 1st Division on April 22, 1915.
17:34The Canadian lines were down that way,
17:37from where I'm standing,
17:38and the French lines went over to the other side.
17:41And all through the day on the 22nd,
17:43the Germans had been shelling very heavily,
17:46so the Canadians knew that something was up,
17:48that some attack or something was coming.
17:51And they were watching very closely,
17:53at about 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.,
17:56the Germans started to release gas on the French.
17:59And from this position,
18:00the Canadians could actually see the gas
18:02forming up in a cloud
18:04and just drifting across the field.
18:06And they could see the French running in terror,
18:08which really isn't surprising.
18:10The Canadians had a couple big problems.
18:12One, they had no defense for the gas.
18:15There was no gas mass at this time in the war.
18:17The second was,
18:18the French were vacating their positions,
18:19and that meant the flank was wide open.
18:23The gas had ripped open a four-mile gap
18:26in the Allied line.
18:27Into this gap,
18:28thousands of German infantry advance.
18:31Only the Canadians now stand between the Germans
18:33and victory at Ypres.
18:35The Canadians immediately,
18:38this is to their credit,
18:39because they were very inexperienced troops,
18:42formed up small groups,
18:43and they came into this field here
18:44and started shooting at the German infantry,
18:47who were now advancing behind the cloud.
18:50The men were primarily from the 13th,
18:52the Black Watch,
18:53and they included men like Norsworthy,
18:55and Drummond,
18:56and Fred Fisher.
18:57And they took their small groups of men
18:59out in this area
19:00and kept shooting at the Germans
19:02until they attracted so much attention
19:04that the Germans turned around on them.
19:12Guy Drummond,
19:14a Montrealer,
19:14already a millionaire at 26,
19:16a member of the best clubs
19:18in the British Empire,
19:19and a friend of the British Prime Minister.
19:22Guy rushes into a muddy beet field
19:24to rally a few surviving Algerians.
19:27With him is Edward Norsworthy,
19:30a dashing stockbroker
19:31used to gambling with his own
19:32and other people's money.
19:34Now, Norsworthy gambles his life,
19:37leading the Canadians and Algerians
19:38against the advancing German infantry.
19:43Major Norsworthy sprang to the front
19:44and called out,
19:45Come on, men.
19:46Remember that we are Canadians
19:48and all the eyes of Canada are upon us.
19:50And we all followed him with a wild cheer
19:52and advanced to the ditches along the road
19:54facing the advancing Germans.
19:55The ditches gave us some little protection
19:58and we stuck it there to the last man.
20:03In 1919,
20:04when they were clearing these battlefields
20:05and taking all the remains
20:06into the military cemeteries,
20:08they came across a wooden cross
20:11that said two unknown officers
20:14of the Royal Highlanders of Canada.
20:16And they dug them up
20:17and they found a femur of one of them
20:19was so large
20:20that it had to be an enormous man.
20:22And Drummond was about six foot three.
20:24So they could actually identify
20:25that it was Guy Drummond.
20:27And they knew that Norsworthy
20:28had been buried with him.
20:30So the two of those men
20:32were taken to Tynecott Cemetery
20:34and reburied
20:35and identified.
20:46Further south,
20:48Major William King
20:49rushes his three 18-pounder field guns
20:51into an orchard
20:52just behind the St. Julien Road.
20:55He opens fire,
20:56sending deadly shrapnel shells
20:58that explode over the German troops.
21:00At dusk,
21:01the Germans charge King's battery.
21:03But a 19-year-old school cadet,
21:06Fred Fisher,
21:07brings a machine gun forward
21:08to cover King's retreat.
21:10With all four of his crew dead,
21:12Fisher pushes the gun further forward
21:14and keeps fighting.
21:18Even Fisher himself
21:20was killed later on,
21:21although he was awarded
21:22a Victoria Cross for his action.
21:26I don't think these men
21:27knew enough to run away.
21:29I certainly would have run away.
21:31These were inexperienced troops.
21:33They had never seen
21:34anything like this.
21:35And they made an immediate decision
21:37to stand and fight,
21:39which is really quite incredible
21:40when you think about it,
21:41because the odds
21:42were totally stacked against them.
21:44They were proud of their heritage.
21:46They'd been raised on the stories
21:48of the British Empire,
21:49of Kipling,
21:50and a good Englishman didn't run.
21:53And they considered themselves
21:54to be good citizens of the Empire.
22:04North of Ypres,
22:06attached to a Canadian artillery battery,
22:08is a brilliant doctor,
22:1042-year-old John McRae.
22:11One surgeon described the scene
22:14as McRae and the other surgeon
22:16struggled to keep up.
22:20There are wounds here,
22:21wounds there,
22:22wounds everywhere.
22:24Legs, feet,
22:25hands missing.
22:26Faces horribly mutilated.
22:29Bones shattered to pieces.
22:31We're at John McRae's dressing station.
22:38It was here on the night of the 22nd,
22:41when the attack was five or six hours old,
22:43that McRae was tending to the wounded
22:44coming back from the front.
22:47This entire area was chaotic.
22:49There was Belgian refugees
22:50trying to get out of the fighting.
22:52There was troops going to the front.
22:54There was artillery.
22:55This entire situation
22:56was completely,
22:57completely out of control.
23:05Well, we're right inside
23:06McRae's dressing station.
23:08He operated here
23:09for more than two weeks,
23:10and I don't know
23:11how many hundreds of men
23:12he would have treated.
23:13Many of them
23:13would have been gas cases.
23:15The suffering of the men
23:16affected him deeply,
23:18and throughout the war,
23:20he never forgot this experience.
23:21But the one they got on the most
23:23was on May the 1st, 1915,
23:25when his good friend,
23:26Alexis Helmer,
23:27was hit by a German long-range shell.
23:30The shell had blown
23:31Alexis Helmer to pieces.
23:34His fellow gunners
23:34collected the remains,
23:36placed them in sandbags,
23:37put these in a blanket,
23:39and pinned the blanket together,
23:41trying to give it something
23:42approximating a human shape.
23:45While the guns of the battery
23:46fired without ceasing,
23:47John McRae recited
23:48the Anglican service
23:49from memory.
23:50It was night.
23:52Even a candle
23:53would draw German artillery fire.
23:55Alexis Helmer
23:56was buried in darkness.
23:59This is Essex Farm Cemetery.
24:02It was established
24:02during the Second Battle of Yip,
24:04and the original burials
24:05were for those soldiers
24:06who died on the way
24:07to the front
24:08or died at the dressing station.
24:10It was overlooking
24:11these fresh graves
24:12that McRae wrote
24:13in Flanders Fields.
24:16In Flanders Fields,
24:18the poppies blow,
24:19between the crosses,
24:20row on row
24:21that mark our place.
24:23And in the sky,
24:24the larks,
24:25still bravely singing,
24:26fly scarce heard
24:27amid the guns below.
24:29We are the dead.
24:31Short days ago,
24:32we lived,
24:33felt dawn,
24:34saw sunset glow,
24:35loved and were loved,
24:36and now
24:36we lie
24:37in Flanders Fields.
24:39Take up our quarrel
24:41with the foe.
24:42To you,
24:43from failing hands,
24:44as we throw the torch,
24:45be yours to hold it high.
24:47If ye break faith
24:48with us who die,
24:50we shall not sleep,
24:52though poppies grow
24:53in Flanders Fields.
24:54That very night,
24:58the Canadians prepare
24:59to pick up McRae's torch
25:01and make a desperate
25:02counterattack
25:03against the advancing Germans.
25:11As night deepens
25:12on April the 22nd,
25:13the German attack
25:14draws closer to Ypres.
25:16The big guns
25:17batter the city.
25:18Fires spread.
25:19People flee in panic.
25:20Ypres is about to fall
25:30and Ken and Frederick Scott
25:32looks on in horror.
25:35I said to myself,
25:37has old England
25:37lost the war after all?
25:40My mouth became suddenly dry
25:41as though filled with ashes.
25:43That was one of the most
25:44awful moments of my life.
25:48Some men came marching
25:49up the canal.
25:50I called out,
25:51Where are you going, boys?
25:53The reply came
25:54glad and cheerful.
25:55We're going to reinforce
25:57the line, sir.
25:58The Germans have broken through.
26:01That's all right, boys,
26:02I said.
26:03Play the game.
26:04I will go with you.
26:06This area had been broken
26:08open completely
26:09on the 22nd
26:10and all through the ridges
26:12ahead of us
26:13there was German troops
26:14digging in
26:15and moving in
26:15and taking advantage
26:16of the gap created
26:17by the French colonial troops.
26:19There were still
26:21some Canadian reserves
26:22and that's what happened here.
26:23They brought forward
26:24two battalions
26:25of Canadian reserves
26:26to go and take the Germans
26:28and capture
26:29Kitchener's Wood.
26:30on the night of April 22nd, 1915
26:37the situation was desperate
26:38and the high command knew
26:40that they had to seal
26:41the gap the Germans
26:42had created
26:42or Yip would be lost.
26:44They ordered all available men
26:46forward to the attack
26:47and in this field
26:48they ordered
26:49two Canadian battalions
26:50the 10th from Alberta
26:52and the 16th Canadian Scottish
26:54to come to this field
26:55and capture Kitchener's Wood.
26:57and really they didn't even know
26:59where Kitchener's Wood was.
27:02The German commanders
27:03order their troops
27:04to dig in for the night
27:05at Kitchener's Wood
27:05and prepare for the final assault
27:07the next day.
27:09The Germans do not know
27:10that nothing stands
27:11between them and Yip.
27:14Just a few thousand Canadians.
27:16They were actually given
27:17an impossible task.
27:18They had never seen the positions.
27:21It was a night attack.
27:23They had never been in battle.
27:24They had actually
27:25no opportunity at all
27:27for success.
27:27They had no chance for success.
27:29That's why their feat that night
27:30is actually so remarkable.
27:33An officer came down
27:34and told us that the Germans
27:35were in the wood
27:36which we could see before us
27:37at some distance
27:38in the moonlight.
27:39I passed down the line
27:40and told the men
27:41it's a great day
27:42for Canada boys.
27:44Those words afterwards
27:45became a watchword
27:46for the men said
27:48that whenever I told them that
27:49it meant that half of them
27:51were going to be killed.
27:52Well they marched
27:54for about half of the way.
27:56The Germans for some reason
27:57didn't pick up on them
27:58and we're talking
27:58about 1600 men.
28:00Then all of a sudden
28:01one flare came up
28:02from the wood
28:02and then a dozen more
28:04and it was lit up like day
28:05and the Germans opened fire.
28:09Men on each side of me
28:11were crying out in pain
28:12and still we went on.
28:14I personally felt
28:15I must surely be hit
28:16that the hail of bullets
28:17was so thick.
28:18The cracking of the bullets
28:19close to the ears
28:20made them sing
28:21and it was impossible
28:22to make oneself heard
28:23even to one's nearest neighbor.
28:29The struggle became
28:30a dreadful hand-to-hand conflict.
28:33We fought in clumps
28:34and batches
28:34and the living struggled
28:35over the bodies
28:36of the dead and dying.
28:38The clashing bayonets
28:39flashed like quicksilver
28:40in the moonlight.
28:43It was all so mixed up
28:44you just didn't know
28:45for anything
28:45and a great big German
28:47stepped out
28:48and he may have been
28:48going to surrender
28:49I couldn't tell you
28:50but I pulled the trigger
28:51and ran.
28:54Well they captured the wood
28:55and they secured it
28:56but by four o'clock
28:57in the morning
28:58they had to leave it.
28:59Their flanks were up
29:01in the air
29:01and they could not
29:02hold it anymore.
29:03They withdrew from the wood
29:04and dug in
29:05across these fields.
29:07There were about
29:081,500 men
29:08in the initial attack
29:10and about 700
29:11were killed or wounded
29:12just in a couple of hours.
29:15We're going to try
29:17to find Kitchener's Wood
29:18Memorial
29:19which should be up here
29:20somewhere along this road.
29:24It's a very obscure monument.
29:26It's a newer one
29:26and one of the hardest
29:28to find on the western front.
29:32This is the Kitchener Wood
29:34Monument.
29:36It's right in front
29:37of this farmer's house.
29:38It's in his front yard really
29:39and it says
29:41Kitchener's Wood
29:4222nd of April 1915.
29:45There's a plaque here
29:46at the bottom.
29:48During the night
29:49of April 22nd 1915
29:51after the first
29:52chemical attack
29:53in warfare
29:53the 10th Battalion
29:55Canadians
29:55and the 16th Battalion
29:57the Canadian-Scottish
29:58retook Kitchener's Wood.
30:02It's quite an attractive
30:03monument
30:04in a very difficult location
30:07but there's always
30:09some difference
30:10between the monuments
30:11that were raised
30:11by the veterans
30:12and those raised
30:13by people today.
30:16But I guess they say
30:17it's better late than never.
30:18As dawn breaks
30:34the day after the gas attack
30:35the Canadians follow up
30:36their successful assault
30:38on Kitchener's Wood
30:39against overwhelming odds
30:41again and again
30:42they attack
30:43the German line.
30:44Duke Albrecht
30:48of Württemberg
30:49commander of the
30:504th German army
30:51brings up
30:5234 battalions
30:5320 of them fresh
30:55to finish off
30:56the Canadians
30:57less than 8,000 men.
31:00At 4 o'clock
31:01in the morning
31:02Saturday
31:02the 24th of April
31:03the Germans
31:05smash down
31:05on the Canadians
31:06at the very apex
31:07of the salient.
31:09First
31:09massed artillery
31:10blasts the trenches
31:11then poison gas
31:13floods in
31:14then behind the gas
31:15come 30,000
31:17German infantry.
31:19The trench
31:20was a weird spectacle.
31:22Men were spitting
31:23cursing
31:23roveling
31:24trying to vomit.
31:26Some officers
31:27had already guessed
31:28that water
31:29with acid in it
31:30would dissolve
31:30the chlorine.
31:31Piss on your handkerchiefs
31:32and tie them
31:33over your faces
31:34yells our lieutenant.
31:35There are some
31:36who do not take
31:37this precaution
31:37and they roll about
31:39gasping for breath.
31:40The great bulk
31:42of our men
31:43got down
31:43into trenches
31:44or ditches
31:44or anything low
31:45because you avoided
31:46bullets by doing that
31:47but you didn't
31:48avoid the gas
31:49you took it
31:50and when you saw
31:51men suffering
31:51dying with the gas
31:53oh it was
31:53a pitiful thing.
31:55I stayed up
31:56in the high spots
31:57I would rather
31:58have the bullets
31:59than the gas.
32:02There are about
32:03two to three hundred
32:04men lying in that ditch.
32:06Some are clawing
32:07at their throats
32:07their brass buttons
32:09are green
32:09their bodies
32:10are swelled
32:11some of them
32:12are alive
32:12still writhing
32:13on the ground
32:14their tongues
32:15hanging out.
32:17Choking with gas
32:18the Canadians
32:19try to hold on
32:20the Ross rifles
32:21jam
32:22their obsolete
32:23Colt machine guns
32:24break down
32:24in pieces of the
32:26broken line
32:26the survivors
32:27fight on
32:27while the Germans
32:29sweep by them
32:29breaking through
32:30towards Gravenstaffel Ridge
32:31and the village
32:32of Saint-Julien.
32:34Well we're on
32:35Gravenstaffel Ridge
32:36which was the scene
32:37of ferocious fighting
32:38on the third day
32:39of the battle.
32:41The Germans had broken
32:42through Canadian positions
32:43on the main road
32:44and it created
32:45a large gap
32:46and one of their
32:47objectives was to
32:48capture Gravenstaffel Ridge.
32:50There was very fierce
32:51fighting along here
32:52as all sorts
32:53of Canadian troops
32:54everyone who was
32:54available stood up
32:55against the Germans
32:56and you can see
32:57by where we're standing
32:58why Gravenstaffel Ridge
33:00is so important.
33:01You can actually see
33:02yeep in the distance.
33:06Again it was another
33:07German breakthrough
33:07and they had to be
33:08stemmed.
33:09The advance was just
33:10flowing all over the place.
33:12They were right at this
33:13point fighting
33:14with the Canadian troops
33:14in Saint-Julien village
33:16and it already
33:16surrounded them in fact.
33:18They didn't know that
33:19at the time.
33:20So the Germans now
33:21are pouring through
33:21this gap between
33:22where we stand
33:23and Saint-Julien village
33:25in the hollow.
33:28Each farmhouse,
33:30each barnyard,
33:31each ditch
33:31becomes a slaughterhouse.
33:34The Canadians
33:34turn each building
33:35briefly into a redoubt.
33:37In the middle
33:38of the fighting
33:38for Saint-Julien
33:39is Private Harold R. Pete.
33:42Every man was engaged.
33:45Cooks, doctors,
33:46stretcher bearers,
33:47chaplains.
33:48Everyone held a rifle.
33:51The wounded
33:51had to take their chances
33:52because there was no way
33:54of conveying them
33:54back to shelter.
33:56As the day passed,
33:582,000 of us
33:59were still in the old position.
34:01Still,
34:01we held
34:02in our safekeeping
34:03the road to Calais,
34:05to Paris,
34:06to London,
34:06and farther.
34:07The key to world power
34:09which the Kaiser coveted.
34:12Later,
34:13a bullet ripped
34:13through Private Pete's shoulder.
34:15For the rest of his life,
34:17his right arm
34:17was paralyzed.
34:18As the battle continues
34:22to rage,
34:28Cannon Scott escorts
34:29a convoy of wounded
34:30back to the little town
34:31of Vlammerting,
34:32three kilometers
34:33behind Ypres.
34:34When we reached Vlammerting,
34:43we were compelled
34:44to use the church
34:45and it also soon
34:45became a scene
34:46of suffering.
34:47We had only a few candles
34:49with which to light it.
34:50The wounded were laid out,
34:52some on the floor,
34:53some on chairs.
34:54Once,
34:55the silence was broken
34:56by a loud voice
34:57shouting out
34:58with startling suddenness.
35:00Oh God,
35:01stop it!
35:04He was a British sergeant.
35:06He would not speak,
35:07but I think
35:07in his terrible suffering,
35:09he meant the exclamation
35:10as a kind of prayer.
35:15Then I said,
35:16boys,
35:17the curé won't mind
35:18your smoking
35:18in the church tonight,
35:19so I'm going to pass
35:20around some cigarettes.
35:22Let's have a prayer
35:22for our comrades
35:23up in the roar
35:24of battle at the front.
35:26When I say
35:27the Lord's Prayer,
35:28join in with me,
35:29but not too loudly
35:31as we don't want
35:31to disturb those
35:32who are trying
35:33to sleep.
35:37The Germans
35:38failed to take Ypres
35:39and Cannon Scott
35:40follows the exhausted
35:41Canadian division
35:41as it is withdrawn
35:43from the battle.
35:44A day later,
35:45a German staff officer,
35:46Rudolf Binding,
35:47rides forward
35:47to inspect the battlefield.
35:50April 27, 1915.
35:53The battlefield is fearful.
35:54One is overcome
35:55by a peculiar,
35:56sour,
35:57heavy and penetrating
35:58smell of corpses.
36:00A sleeping army
36:01lies in front of us.
36:02They rest in good order
36:03and will never wake again.
36:05Canadian divisions.
36:07The enemy's losses
36:08are enormous.
36:09At Boulogne,
36:18the wounded are evacuated
36:19to hospital ships.
36:21In four days,
36:22the Canadians
36:22have left 2,000 dead
36:24in the fields of Ypres.
36:26Shattered bodies
36:27are carried up the gangplank
36:28where a few weeks before,
36:30eager recruits
36:31had disembarked.
36:34Ypres is in ruins,
36:35but the Canadian division
36:37had held the line
36:38and the city
36:39is still in allied hands.
36:42The Germans mass
36:43for another assault,
36:45centered on Belward Ridge,
36:47the last bit of high ground
36:48defending Ypres.
36:51And holding Belward Ridge
36:53is the only Canadian unit
36:54still left in the line,
36:56the Princess Patricia's
36:57Canadian Light Infantry.
36:58Dear Mabel,
37:02Galt, Niven, and I
37:03sleep in one little dugout.
37:04I forget if the baseball bats
37:06did arrive.
37:07They could very well
37:08be used here
37:08as a weapon of defense
37:09when our ammunition runs out.
37:11We now have only
37:12400 fighting men
37:13and seven officers left.
37:15It seems to be certain
37:16that this line cannot be held
37:18and we are only
37:19making a bluff at it.
37:20Well, goodbye, old girl.
37:22Ever thine, Agar.
37:25Every day,
37:26Agar Adamson
37:27writes to his wife, Mabel.
37:2948 years old
37:30and blind in one eye,
37:33Agar was one of the first
37:34to sign up with
37:35the Princess Patricia's
37:36Canadian Light Infantry,
37:38a regiment of men
37:38who had already fought
37:39for the empire
37:40in which begins the war
37:42with the Imperial British Army,
37:44not with the Canadian Division.
37:48We're on our way
37:49to find the Princess Patricia's
37:50Canadian Light Infantry Memorial
37:52that marks their action
37:53of Belward Ridge
37:54in the Second Battle of Ypres.
37:56It's a particularly
37:57obscure monument
37:58and really an unknown
38:00part of the battle,
38:02although it was
38:02a very courageous one.
38:05We have to go down
38:06these little farm tracks
38:07to find it.
38:09Oh, here we go.
38:09Here's some evidence
38:10of the First World War.
38:12You can actually see
38:13that this farmer
38:14has used both German
38:15and British corkscrew stakes
38:18in his fencing here.
38:20This is a German barbed wire stake
38:24and you can tell
38:26because it doesn't have
38:27the top to it
38:28and it's a little electrified
38:29and also the one over here
38:31is an English one
38:33and you can tell
38:34by the way
38:35the piece shoots up
38:37at the top.
38:38The bottom
38:39is a big corkscrew
38:40and then at night
38:41they'd go out
38:42to no man's land
38:43and screw them
38:43into the ground
38:44and string the barbed wire
38:45and there must have been
38:46millions of these things
38:47left around here
38:48after the war.
38:52We're just coming up
38:53to one of the most
38:54obscure monuments
38:55to Canadians
38:55in the First World War.
38:57It's to the
38:58Princess Patricia's
38:58Canadian Light Infantry
38:59and it commemorates
39:01their action
39:01here at Beloir Ridge
39:03in May 1915.
39:05It's got a very
39:06poignant inscription
39:07and it reads
39:09here 8th May 1915
39:12the originals
39:13of the Princess Patricia's
39:15Canadian Light Infantry
39:16commanded by their founder
39:17Major A. Hamilton Gault
39:19DSO
39:20held firm
39:21and counted not the cost.
39:23The patricians suffered
39:24more than 400 casualties
39:25in this battle
39:26and it took place
39:27on that ridge
39:28just behind the monument.
39:37Dear Mabel
39:38Yesterday
39:39Lieutenant Gao
39:41shot badly.
39:42Four men killed
39:43nine wounded
39:44two went mad
39:45and had to be disarmed.
39:46Six are in what is called
39:47a state of collapse
39:49having been shelled all day
39:50and having to remain
39:51underground all day.
39:53Today
39:53in advanced trenches
39:54since last night
39:55under very heavy
39:56artillery fire.
39:58Living in deep ditches
39:59five killed
40:00eleven wounded
40:01one machine gun
40:02smashed to pieces
40:03and crews buried
40:04and wounded
40:05Gray was badly shot.
40:07Ever thine
40:08Agar.
40:09The Battle of Belward Ridge
40:12was a continuation
40:13of the Second Battle of Yip.
40:15It's now about
40:16two weeks later
40:17since the gas attack
40:19took place
40:19and now the Germans
40:20are putting more pressure
40:22on the Canadians
40:23and in this case Canadians
40:24and the British forces
40:25in the area.
40:26This is a
40:32303 bullet
40:34which would be
40:35British or Canadian.
40:37It's been fired
40:37so you can see
40:38the rifling marks
40:39in the bullet.
40:41Could have been fired
40:42in the Battle of Belward Ridge.
40:47We're now on top
40:48of the Belward Ridge
40:49where the fighting
40:50actually took place
40:51and there's
40:52here's some
40:52here's some
40:56leather either
40:57from a boot
40:57or from a
40:58pouch
40:59and here's a
41:01piece of webbing equipment
41:05this would be British
41:07this I can't tell
41:09what it is
41:10there's a lot
41:11of material up here
41:12here's another piece
41:14this is a
41:19part of a fuse
41:22looks like
41:23from a British shell
41:24an 18 pounder
41:26and you actually
41:28can see where
41:29they've painted it red
41:30along here
41:32along the fuse
41:33the red painted fuses
41:34were ones for high explosive
41:35and if they were painted orange
41:36it was for shrapnel
41:37for high explosive
41:39you don't usually
41:39find much at all
41:40because they'd be
41:41blown to smithereens.
41:44At dawn on the 8th of May
41:46in another effort
41:47to break through to Ypres
41:48the German guns
41:49open a tremendous barrage
41:51and their infantry
41:52rushes the patricians.
41:55Watching the attack begin
41:56is Corporal Edward Edwards.
42:01At half past six
42:02the morning stillness
42:03was punctuated
42:04by a single shell
42:05which broke barely
42:06in our rear
42:06and then
42:07the ball commenced.
42:09They poured in
42:10a very destructive
42:10enfilade fire
42:11which swept up and down
42:12the length of the trench
42:13like the stream of a hose
42:14making it a shambles.
42:16Each burst of high
42:17explosive shells
42:18each terrible pulsation
42:19of the atmosphere
42:20if it missed the body
42:21seemed to rend the very brain
42:23or else stupefied it.
42:26North of the Prince's Pats
42:27German troops
42:28break through the British line
42:29and jump into the trenches.
42:33The rest was chaos
42:34pure bit of hell
42:35men struggling
42:36buried alive
42:38and looking at us
42:39for the aid
42:40they would not ask for
42:41soldiers all.
42:43But as the Germans came on
42:44they trampled our dead
42:45and bayoneted our wounded.
42:48After 17 hours
42:49of non-stop fighting
42:50the Prince's Pats
42:52repulse the final
42:53German assault.
42:55The Battle of Belward Ridge
42:56is over.
42:58Of the 550 Pats
43:00who began the day
43:01150 are left at the end.
43:07Severely wounded
43:08Agar Adamson
43:09is evacuated to England.
43:10Here's a little bit
43:13of a find.
43:15This is
43:15looks like
43:17an iron potato
43:18but really
43:19it's a
43:19British mills bomb
43:21from the First World War.
43:23It's unexploded obviously
43:24it's live
43:25not particularly dangerous
43:27but this would have been
43:27left over from the fighting
43:28probably in 1915
43:31or in 1917.
43:33It's not unusual
43:34to find these
43:34in the fields around here.
43:38Today Belward
43:39is really known
43:39for its amusement park
43:40and you can hear
43:41the sounds of the
43:42roller coasters
43:43and the drop of doom
43:44right now.
43:45People come to Belward
43:47to have fun.
43:49No one remembers
43:50this battle.
44:04At Kitchener's Wood
44:06at St. Julien
44:07at Belward Ridge
44:08Canada's amateur soldiers
44:10had come through
44:11their baptism of fire
44:12and saved the city of Ypres
44:14but at a terrible cost.
44:18They were very proud
44:19of what they had achieved
44:20in stopping the Germans
44:21but I don't think
44:22anyone really had any idea
44:24that they would have
44:25this sort of casualties.
44:272,000 killed
44:28over a weekend
44:29was not like
44:30any other war
44:30that had ever been.
44:31The Allies expressed
44:38outrage
44:39at Germany's use
44:40of poisoned gas
44:41but within months
44:43they used it themselves
44:44and in the war
44:45poisoned gas
44:47scarred, maimed
44:48and killed
44:49well over
44:50a million men.
44:51The Second Battle of Yeap
45:09was Canada's first
45:10great battle
45:11in the Great War.
45:12They had suffered
45:13tremendous casualties
45:14but they had succeeded
45:15in holding the Germans
45:16and it was here
45:17at St. Julian
45:18that Canada chose
45:20to commemorate
45:21her fallen.
45:22This monument
45:23the brooding soldier
45:24was unveiled in 1923
45:26and it was so emotional
45:28that it's the only place
45:29where they used
45:30this sculpture.
45:31This panel
45:32states
45:34this column marks
45:36the battlefield
45:37where 18,000 Canadians
45:38on the British left
45:39withstood the first
45:41German gas attacks
45:42the 22nd
45:43to 24th April 1915.
45:462,000 fell
45:47and lie buried nearby.
45:49There would be
45:50a lot more bloodletting
45:51before the war was over.
45:52of the war was over.
45:55A vision set
45:56of the world
45:57was over.
45:57A vision set
45:58and the sea
45:58to get there
46:00in the sky
46:00and the sea
46:02will be
46:03again.
46:05The plague
46:05will be
46:06again.
46:06In the 1950s
46:07of the sea
46:08and the sea
46:09have been
46:10sailing
46:10as a
46:11slank.
46:12This took
46:13a long time
46:14to end
46:14to the sea
46:15and the sea
46:16and the sea
46:17will be
46:17down
46:18to the sea
46:19and the sea
46:19and the sea
46:21and the sea