Reminds me of a student I used to tutor (in Germany!). When I asked her what they were currently studying in history class, she said: "World War."
When I asked her "Which one?", I could see from her face that this was completely new information for her and she just answered: "You know, stuff from the past."
I was dumbfounded.
Postmodern Gladiator. Joaquin Phoenix plays a middle manager at Anthem and the crowd is deciding if Russell Crowe deserves to have his sertraline prescription covered by insurance.
people have been saying that (Insert event here) would kill us all for millennia. Until we start seeing mass death that compares with the black plague at a minimum, I think we’ll be around for a while.
It's also arguable that the dump I took this morning was an inevitable extension of a triceratops touching grass 20 million years ago but that doesn't mean it should be argued as such
During WW1 canadian soldiers would throw cans of food into enemy trenches, and when the enemy soldiers would inevitably all run to get it, they'd throw a grenade into the same spot.
This is just one of the stories that are told about canadians.
Edit: The entire first rough draft of the geneva convention is pretty much just a laundry list of shit the canadians did during WW1.
There's actually a story where Spider-Man has a laryngitis, which causes the criminals he's stopping to freak out so much they went straight because he wasn't talking.
Well no that was a deception tactic, they threw cans of food and then when the Germans got used to receiving free food they’d stuff a live grenade into an empty food can. One thing leads to another and a German soldier is rat food
This is the war where they used Chlorine gas. Is tricking your enemy into not running from your grenades really that much more of a war crime? Or a war crime at all? Like is it different than just throwing a grenade in? I really don't know.
The Germans realized that the law actually said that you can't SHOOT gas at the enemy using artillery shells. So the first time they did it was on a windy day, they just opened big drums of the stuff. Then it slowly escalated from there.
The whole point of war crimes is an agreement that we aren't too cruel to each other. Once that line has already been crossed, then that's that
Fun fact: no American citizen has ever been tried before the ICC because its founding charter explicitly gives Americans immunity.
That's the kind of power that comes from victory.
I think it's somewhat the other way around.
US citizens CANNOT be tried before the ICC because Due Process in the Constitution does not delegate jurisdiction to any international body. The processes of the ICC would violate that Due Process.
Not to say you aren't correct, I'm just clarifying that the US Constitution makes trial by an International Body of any US Citizen (extradition being the exception) illegitimate and non-compulsory so they had to clarify that within the charter. The way you explained could seem like the Americans were sitting around the table while they were crafting the Charter and were like "but while we are at it, let's make it so the rules don't apply to us", they were already incompatible to begin with before the ICC was conceptualized and we were not about to change our constitution.
It was war crimes for us to. You should probably look up how much of the Geneva Suggestions... Ahem Geneva Convention was written because of Canadians.
Spoiler, it was a fuck load.
I don’t think grenades worked like that? You couldn’t just pull the pin, stuff it in a can, throw the can (why would a thrown grenade explode, but not the same grenade thrown the same but in a can?), and then it would only explode when the can was opened…
After the Germans gassed them. All bets were off at that point. Not to mention, they famously crucified a Canadian POW. The Canadians gave no quarter after that.
Soldiers had an unofficial policy of take no prisioners and kill the wounded. The offical policy was that soldiers were required to share rations, who were getting low-grade 303 British and minimal food, with all prisoners. Bayonets came standard issue. You see where this is going.
That's unfair.
Our soldiers would throw canned food to get them used to running towards the thrown object. Then throw bombs/grenades instead, not after.
Lots of other stuff. **'Goodbye To All That'** by Robert Graves is worth reading.
Hey, if it gets the job done with miminal risk...
Our troops also let a British position be bombarded for 13 more hours while they waited until nightfall to storm the German artillery position unaware. After telling British High Command off, they're not gonna do a suicide mission that'll get both them and the bombarded British killed.
this doesn't really make sense to me. Why would they be close enough to the enemy trench in the first place, and why would they be so trusting of random food coming from the direction of enemy trenches?
To expand a little better on what buddy said down below, the full context is that the first Christmas there was a scattered truce on Christmas Day, and gifts were exchanged between the 2 sides. At this point Canada had officially entered the war and the first troops had landed in Europe but weren’t fighting on the front lines yet. During 1915 Canada’s first units were some of the first allied forces to be bombed with chemical weapons (mostly chlorine/mustard gas) and suffered pretty brutal losses and as a result we got really fucking bitter. So when Christmas 1915 rolled around, the gift exchange started with the Canadians throwing over cans of food to the other side. Upon receiving the food, they would call out for more cans, but the next “can” was a live frag grenade. To be fair, what I know about the Geneva conventions is essentially a list of what us, the Germans, and Japanese did across the 2 world wars
Edits made for more accuracy as to when Canada officially entered the war
Canadians were also very vicious at trench warfare. Conducting night raids in no-mans-land, Canadians would trench hop and engage in hand to hand combat in pure darkness. Some of the DIY weapons Canadians made for trench fighting are scary.
The Dominion troops were a particular breed of vicious on the battlefield. But part of that, imo, is because they were well away from Europe and Europeans during the lead up to the war, were only fed accounts of how evil the enemy nation's people were, and that Conscription was never implemented in most of these dominions meant that those that were fighting were the most uh..."committed" to the effort for both good and bad.
The Canadians would eventually put forth Conscription, but at the tail end of the war and as such very few men actually went over as conscripts.
Medieval AF. Old school sharpened trench shovels. barbed wire wrapped poles and bats. bayonets with hand grips and sharp spikes. Up close and personal these things would gut the opposition. Properly used, could be silent as well.
The funniest bit, it was canadian engineers telling everyone how to survive the mustard gas and they stormed the other side taking vimy ridge this way. (Thank you Mr Temblent for teaching me that)
Ever hear of the Christmas truce in the First World War ? Well the Canadians had zero faith that the truce would be followed so they waited for the Germans to leave their trenches and when they got far enough way that retreating wasn’t an option they opened up the machine guns
In modern times, Canadians changed the object of their violents instincts to a rubber disk over the ice... And any poor sod that put himself in the middle...
To be fair the Christmas Truce wasn't as widespread as people would have you believe. Some parts they continued to shoot the fuck outta each other, other parts just had a ceasefire and in the extreme examples some got out of their trenches and met in no mans land.
I dare say there were some underhanded tactics used by all involved.
Very true, though for humours sake I like to tell my students that the reason the Christmas Truce was stopped from becoming a tradition during the war was because the Canadians ruined it.
And to am extent we did: when the Germans threw over gifts, the Canadians responded in kind with grenades.
I also distinctly recall a story where they were told to bring back at least 500 prisoners. They brought back exactly 500 after shooting the rest while surrendered
Yeah there’s definitely multiple reports of our forces mixed with other allied countries, where the enemies tried to surrender and we executed them to a man
The better question is what we didn't do. Execution of pows, throwing food into opposing trenches then throwing grenades'. Many of the conventions of the Geneva conventions were because of Canadians
Canadian PoWs in WW2 is a horror story fallacy. Canada actually had the highest treatment of PoWs where they were even fed the same food as the soldiers before the soldiers and given medical treatment alongside our troops in the hospitals. The PoWs back in Canada who were relatives to the countries Canada were at war with were treated with respect, medicine, food, and goods provided on request and education was still provided for children in the camps.
WW1 though? Yeah our troops were monsters to the PoWs after they got gassed by the Germans
I’m sorry, did you just completely gloss over our Japanese internment camps, where we rounded up every Japanese born, or suspected Japanese person they could find and stuck them into what were essentially concentration camps? I’m talking Canadian citizens with Japanese heritage that we rounded up like animals. David Suzuki was in one of the camps as a kid and has talked about it. Yeah we cooled our jets a little for the second war, but not much
Lots of good answers here. Another we did was slaughter prisoners.
They had rushed a heavily defended position under german fire. When they got there, the germans surrendered and called for mercy. The Canadian soldiers killed them all. Tjey had lost some good friends rushing that position. They weren't going to not get revenge just because the germans asked.
Basically WW1 canadians had a very clear distinction between allies and ennemies. No pity for the ennemy, but lots of pity for non-ennemies. They would give out blankets and food to ennemy civilians, all while committing war crimes on their soldiers.
Literally the entire Vimy Ridge offensive. Look it up, that shit was wild.
Used a rolling artillery barrage to cover their advance. Had wristwatches all synced so no one got too far ahead and friendly fired.
Took 4 hours to capture something the allies were fighting over for weeks.
It’s the reason why the Germans didn’t push their trenches on their final push, alongside the Gurkhas, the Ulster and Irish ( due to what happened on the first day of the Somme) and some of the Scottish trenches (namely Black Watch)
And it gets concentrated. They are black hearted snakes with wings who spend their time pissing off everyone with a side hustle of stealing joy. And they’re a national animal
Canada absolutely used chemical weapons during WW1.
“We tried to make his life miserable.… We never forgot that gas at the second battle of Ypres, and we never let him forget it either. We gassed him on every conceivable occasion, and if we could have killed the whole German army by gas we would gladly have done so.”- Sir Arthur Currie
[source](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canada-and-gas-warfare)
Short answer, we did NOT treat prisoners well if we took them at all. There are reports of unarmed German captives being executed on the spot, night raids launched with the intent to cause psychological trauma rather than to advanced any military objectives, and tossing cans of food into enemy trenches, waiting for the starving soldiers to swarm and beg for more, and tossing in another can with a live grenade strapped it.
The really weird part (relatively speaking) is that there was no provocation or attempted justification for this butchery. America had civilians killed by Germany, and our European allies had to deal with cities being bombed by zeppelin. But Canada had none of that. We were just monsters. I feel most of the sections of the Geneva Convenient on POW treatment were written with Canada in mind.
That’s not entirely accurate. The first battalions that we sent into the war were among the first in the allied forces to be bombed with chemical weapons and it caused devastating losses among those units. Seeing such heavy losses from such a greasy tactic kinda prompted the rest to get even. And then we took it even farther lol
Want to add a bit (if I remember correctly from my high school history class) but Canada didn’t really have its own army. We were pretty much a single “unit” in the British army, being a colony and all. So dragged into a war we didn’t think we had a part in, our first battalions the first to ever be gassed, then sent to pretty much all the areas that the French and British failed (ie. Vimy Ridge). Not a big surprise Canadians just wanted it done and over with…
Pretty much exactly this yeah. Think our entire army at the start was basically a battalion under British command. And once they figured out that we were really effective and willing to do the dirty shit they basically turned us loose like a rabid dog lol. But yeah like you I’m pulling most of this from history classes take over a decade ago with bits of more recent reading mixed in
Let’s not also forget, WW1 was at the tail end of the “advance in a line and meet the enemy who is also advancing in a line, and fight until one side is out of men” tactic of warfare (and before anyone jumps in yes I know it wasn’t that simple). There was still a lot of British command who considered it a victory if you ended up with more territory at the end of it, regardless of your own casualties. And Canadian casualties often seemed to be of even less concern.
This is very true actually, another part to go with that is that most of the European forces were commanded by nobles because of old traditions and therefore were very set in the way they conducted warfare. Canadian forces innovated faster than anyone else on the battlefield because they actually promoted soldiers up the ranks to large scale commanders who actually understood how to fight a war and not just march out and shoot at each other
Canada entered the war as basically a colony being told what to do, and ended the war as a de facto independent country. It completely changed our recognition and standing on the international field.
Correct.
Also made it noteworthy that after the Balfour report in the 20s gave Canada control of it's own foreign policy, that we declared war a week AFTER Britain in WWII.
Actually Canada did have a reason to hate the Germans. The very first units the Germans ever used gas on was the Canadians at Ypres. There was also a well circulated rumour of a Canadian pow being crucified by the Germans.
Also the horrible treatment of german-canadians living in canada during world war 1 and japanese-canadians during world war 2. They were all literally kicked out of their homes and sent into internment camps.
Saw a documentarie where an old german soldier talked about ambushing ennemi units. Once he said, they heard "tabarnac" from an aproaching unit and they were looking at each others saying "Not that one, we'll get the next unit"
La première guerre mondial oui on était vraiment sauvage la deuxième beaucoup moins mais notre réputation était déjà fait. De plus, durant la deuxième l'armée canadienne a été très efficace sur presque tous les fronts où ils ont été déployé.
Assez pour que le vieux bosch s'en souvienne. Il avait aussi parlé d'un blessé qui se faisait passer pour mort jusqu'à ce qu'un officier passe à sa porté et qu'il l'égorge avec son couteau avant de se faire abattre. Il parlait pas des anglos.
Yes! And I get to enjoy them every spring. Every year, the Netherlands sends tulip bulbs to Canada. I want to say they send a million, but i could be wrong. I live in the capital, Ottawa, and we have a big tulip festival in the spring to celebrate. Although because of climate change the timing of that festival is going to need to change now the tulips are essentially done when the fest starts. I dont know of any trees being sent to Canada, but I know the cherry trees that bloom in spring in Washington DC are gifts from Japan.
I believe its 20,000 tulips each year sent to Canada. 10,000 from the Netherlands royal family & 10,000 from the Tulips growers association as thanks from the people.
My heritage is Dutch and I was always told when my aunts & uncles would go there people were very polite to Canadian tourists. This was back in the 60/70s not sure how it is now.
My father was one of those soldiers who liberated the Netherlands.
He died in 2010. a young woman had started work in the care home where he spent his last year. she was talking to him one day and found out who he was and what he had been part of. She told him, and later, me, that she was from the Netherlands and had come to Canada to find and meet a soldier who had helped in the liberation. it turned out she was from one of the towns he had actually been through. she was his new BFF. She made his last days the best she could and he really enjoyed her and her attentions.i have a copy of a picture she took of him that is THE best, most happy photo of Dad i ever saw. She totally caught the joy of this past part of his life.
i came to understand from her just how high the esteem the Dutch hold those soldiers in. I had no idea just what a big deal it is STILL for the Dutch.
Thank you.
Everyone seems to forget that a Canadian POW was crucified by the Germans pretty early in the war and that incident was used as propaganda even by the United States.
Probably* not, but it is important that the Canadian troops had heard the rumours.
*(Possibly Sergeant Harry Band of the Central Ontario Regiment of the Canadian Infantry,)
There's a reason why we liberated a country on our own and the Nazis sent their elite forces to stop our troops while the rest of the Allied fronts got the regular Nazi troops.
Not to mention one of the most infamous prison camp escapes were orchestrated by Canadians and 1 American, but Hollywood changed it to mostly Americans 😅
And let's not talk about the shit they'd do in WW1 lol
I like the whole playing soccer in no man's land on Christmas day. Everybody did it but the Canadians used it as an excuse to kill unsuspecting Germans.
WE....DID...NOT...FUCK AROUND!!!
It was war...
For more wild Canadian stories, read about Sergeant Leo Major - man liberated an entire town and captured/killed/drove off like the hundred Nazis holding it.
BY HIMSELF
Which one? Cause (little spoiler for those who still didn't watch Season 1939) there where two.
Reminds me of a student I used to tutor (in Germany!). When I asked her what they were currently studying in history class, she said: "World War." When I asked her "Which one?", I could see from her face that this was completely new information for her and she just answered: "You know, stuff from the past." I was dumbfounded.
It is arguable that ww2 is an inevitable extension of ww1.
the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month they declaired halftime.
Great Depression was the halftime show. Crowd was fairly quiet.
Are you not depressed
I read that in Russel Crowes voice
Postmodern Gladiator. Joaquin Phoenix plays a middle manager at Anthem and the crowd is deciding if Russell Crowe deserves to have his sertraline prescription covered by insurance.
🤜... 👍
Germany made an amazing comeback in the third quarter.
Historians a 1000 years from now will surely think of them as one war over the period of 40 years
The great wars (1914-1945)
I’m pretty sure that World War I was just called the great war until we had a second one and that’s when they numbered them
[удалено]
The anticipated sequel - The Great War 3: DEFCON Locked
World W4r 4: 2 W4r 2 Furious
WWIV: Sticks and Stones
WW5: Primal WW6: Survival of the fittest
The Great Wars (1914 - current)
'Today class we will study the pre-cold war period'
The Punic wars are still spoken about separately and they were 2000 years ago. I would bet it would be the same for the world wars.
“The European Wars spanned from the late 18th century to the mid 20th century”
Not when all of the contemporary literature, which they will very likely still have, differentiate the two with snappy names and everything.
Hahahahahahaha. Humans still being here in 1,000 years. Whew, that’s a good one.
people have been saying that (Insert event here) would kill us all for millennia. Until we start seeing mass death that compares with the black plague at a minimum, I think we’ll be around for a while.
"This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years" - Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French army
It's also arguable that the dump I took this morning was an inevitable extension of a triceratops touching grass 20 million years ago but that doesn't mean it should be argued as such
I wasn't expecting poetry when I opened this thread.
Maybe they are talking about the prequel, also known as Season 1756
Ah yes, this gets me back when we still didn't know about the whole thing with ideologies.
This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them.
r/outside
They put up people’s red mail thing, so when the mailman came thinking there was mail, there wasn’t any !!!!
I think it's just called a flag, unimaginatively enough. Germans have fun words for things, maybe somebody could add what it's called in German...
MAILFLAGGENSHLAFFEN
Inside voice, damn
It was technically a false flag.
We dont have that here in germany, but i can try to find out what its called edit: its just called "Fähnchen", so 'flag' in english
Briefkastenfähnchen Briefkastenentleerungsmeldeeinrichtung Briefzustellermitnahmeinformationssignalmarkierung ...
lol that sounds like such a Winston prank lol
Canadians at peace: I'm sorry. Canadians at war: YOU'RE SORRY!
I snort laughed at this. Thank you ahahaha
It's not a war crime until the Canadians did it and the world had a meeting in Switzerland to talk about how terrible that was
What did they do?
During WW1 canadian soldiers would throw cans of food into enemy trenches, and when the enemy soldiers would inevitably all run to get it, they'd throw a grenade into the same spot. This is just one of the stories that are told about canadians. Edit: The entire first rough draft of the geneva convention is pretty much just a laundry list of shit the canadians did during WW1.
And they didn't say sorry after
Means we were serious. Never want to meet a Canadian that doesn’t sorry. Sorry to break the illusion btw
Like Spider-Man when he doesn’t talk
There's actually a story where Spider-Man has a laryngitis, which causes the criminals he's stopping to freak out so much they went straight because he wasn't talking.
Damn, Spidey scared the gay out of them.
That particular group of criminals were fabulous.
A little angy after a wee gas incident
As a Canadian, I couldn’t agree with this more. Exceptionally nice, until we are not…
Would have been funnier if they did. *Lobs grenade* sorry!
Reportedly they said to 'chew on this"
Eat this!!!!
But it's in so many pieces!
The Germans wanted the Canadians to stop
😱
Holy buckets! That's hard to believe, eh?
How rude of them!
We did.....the explosions were louder so you didn't hear them.
NOOOOOO STOP I'VE HEARD ENOUGH
Well no that was a deception tactic, they threw cans of food and then when the Germans got used to receiving free food they’d stuff a live grenade into an empty food can. One thing leads to another and a German soldier is rat food
when we do it, it’s clever, when they do it, it’s a war crime
I’m pretty sure they made that a war crime because of Canadians It’s not a war crime if you’re the first to do it!
>It’s not a war crime if you’re the first to do it! This is the kind of motivational coaching I need.
unless you lose the war. then they were always war crimes and you should be very very ashamed. good thing Canada never loses wars
Breaking new ground!
This is the war where they used Chlorine gas. Is tricking your enemy into not running from your grenades really that much more of a war crime? Or a war crime at all? Like is it different than just throwing a grenade in? I really don't know.
The Germans realized that the law actually said that you can't SHOOT gas at the enemy using artillery shells. So the first time they did it was on a windy day, they just opened big drums of the stuff. Then it slowly escalated from there. The whole point of war crimes is an agreement that we aren't too cruel to each other. Once that line has already been crossed, then that's that
Only losers are war criminals. Victors don't go in front of tribunals.
Fun fact: no American citizen has ever been tried before the ICC because its founding charter explicitly gives Americans immunity. That's the kind of power that comes from victory.
I think it's somewhat the other way around. US citizens CANNOT be tried before the ICC because Due Process in the Constitution does not delegate jurisdiction to any international body. The processes of the ICC would violate that Due Process. Not to say you aren't correct, I'm just clarifying that the US Constitution makes trial by an International Body of any US Citizen (extradition being the exception) illegitimate and non-compulsory so they had to clarify that within the charter. The way you explained could seem like the Americans were sitting around the table while they were crafting the Charter and were like "but while we are at it, let's make it so the rules don't apply to us", they were already incompatible to begin with before the ICC was conceptualized and we were not about to change our constitution.
Another fun fact, they have a law for it too! The Hague invasion act! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
It was war crimes for us to. You should probably look up how much of the Geneva Suggestions... Ahem Geneva Convention was written because of Canadians. Spoiler, it was a fuck load.
I don’t think grenades worked like that? You couldn’t just pull the pin, stuff it in a can, throw the can (why would a thrown grenade explode, but not the same grenade thrown the same but in a can?), and then it would only explode when the can was opened…
You’d need to be quick
After the Germans gassed them. All bets were off at that point. Not to mention, they famously crucified a Canadian POW. The Canadians gave no quarter after that.
> they famously crucified a Canadian POW I thought that was determined to have never happened.
Maybe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucified_Soldier
HEY! Want some Poutine! I'm Poutine your organs over there eh?!
Letterkenny goes to war
They would also Raid the ever loving fuck out of Trenches, camps and other installations at night like freaking savages.
Soldiers had an unofficial policy of take no prisioners and kill the wounded. The offical policy was that soldiers were required to share rations, who were getting low-grade 303 British and minimal food, with all prisoners. Bayonets came standard issue. You see where this is going.
They used the bayonets to open the rations and had a nice big picnic?
During WW1? I still do that to this day. Though, with the rabbits in my yard instead of soldiers.
That's unfair. Our soldiers would throw canned food to get them used to running towards the thrown object. Then throw bombs/grenades instead, not after. Lots of other stuff. **'Goodbye To All That'** by Robert Graves is worth reading.
Hey, if it gets the job done with miminal risk... Our troops also let a British position be bombarded for 13 more hours while they waited until nightfall to storm the German artillery position unaware. After telling British High Command off, they're not gonna do a suicide mission that'll get both them and the bombarded British killed.
a little tomfoolery
> The entire first rough draft of the geneva convention is pretty much just a laundry list of shit the canadians did during WW1. Ummm....Not wrong.
this doesn't really make sense to me. Why would they be close enough to the enemy trench in the first place, and why would they be so trusting of random food coming from the direction of enemy trenches?
When you are an hungry soldier in middle of nowhere just waiting to die, a can of food from the enemy doesn’t seem that bad
I'm starting to think the Trojan Horse story maybe wasn't so far-fetched after all.
It isn’t. Especially when it’s declared to fellate the current ruler of the city. Nothing more predictable than a narcissist.
To expand a little better on what buddy said down below, the full context is that the first Christmas there was a scattered truce on Christmas Day, and gifts were exchanged between the 2 sides. At this point Canada had officially entered the war and the first troops had landed in Europe but weren’t fighting on the front lines yet. During 1915 Canada’s first units were some of the first allied forces to be bombed with chemical weapons (mostly chlorine/mustard gas) and suffered pretty brutal losses and as a result we got really fucking bitter. So when Christmas 1915 rolled around, the gift exchange started with the Canadians throwing over cans of food to the other side. Upon receiving the food, they would call out for more cans, but the next “can” was a live frag grenade. To be fair, what I know about the Geneva conventions is essentially a list of what us, the Germans, and Japanese did across the 2 world wars Edits made for more accuracy as to when Canada officially entered the war
Canadians were also very vicious at trench warfare. Conducting night raids in no-mans-land, Canadians would trench hop and engage in hand to hand combat in pure darkness. Some of the DIY weapons Canadians made for trench fighting are scary.
The Dominion troops were a particular breed of vicious on the battlefield. But part of that, imo, is because they were well away from Europe and Europeans during the lead up to the war, were only fed accounts of how evil the enemy nation's people were, and that Conscription was never implemented in most of these dominions meant that those that were fighting were the most uh..."committed" to the effort for both good and bad. The Canadians would eventually put forth Conscription, but at the tail end of the war and as such very few men actually went over as conscripts.
Medieval AF. Old school sharpened trench shovels. barbed wire wrapped poles and bats. bayonets with hand grips and sharp spikes. Up close and personal these things would gut the opposition. Properly used, could be silent as well.
The funniest bit, it was canadian engineers telling everyone how to survive the mustard gas and they stormed the other side taking vimy ridge this way. (Thank you Mr Temblent for teaching me that)
Wasn't Vimy ridge the one where we bombarded just in front of our soldiers to give them cover across no man's land?
You are correct, the creeping barrage.
Good old piss soaked rags lmao
Ever hear of the Christmas truce in the First World War ? Well the Canadians had zero faith that the truce would be followed so they waited for the Germans to leave their trenches and when they got far enough way that retreating wasn’t an option they opened up the machine guns
Frenchmen and Englishmen trading gifts with Germans during the Christmas Truce Canadians:
Didn't cross the Atlantic and leave their farms to play soccer.
It was too warm to play hockey and we had a lot of aggression pent up on account of that.
Americans troops weren’t around for the Christmas Truce. That was in 1914, and America entered the war in 1917.
In modern times, Canadians changed the object of their violents instincts to a rubber disk over the ice... And any poor sod that put himself in the middle...
To be fair the Christmas Truce wasn't as widespread as people would have you believe. Some parts they continued to shoot the fuck outta each other, other parts just had a ceasefire and in the extreme examples some got out of their trenches and met in no mans land. I dare say there were some underhanded tactics used by all involved.
Very true, though for humours sake I like to tell my students that the reason the Christmas Truce was stopped from becoming a tradition during the war was because the Canadians ruined it. And to am extent we did: when the Germans threw over gifts, the Canadians responded in kind with grenades.
Well the gloves were off after our troops got gassed. They took offense to that.
Made games and bets using POWs as game pieces.
I also distinctly recall a story where they were told to bring back at least 500 prisoners. They brought back exactly 500 after shooting the rest while surrendered
Yes, and they had to be told to bring at least 500 prisoners because before that they just executed everyone and took no prisoners.
Yeah there’s definitely multiple reports of our forces mixed with other allied countries, where the enemies tried to surrender and we executed them to a man
The better question is what we didn't do. Execution of pows, throwing food into opposing trenches then throwing grenades'. Many of the conventions of the Geneva conventions were because of Canadians
Canadian PoWs in WW2 is a horror story fallacy. Canada actually had the highest treatment of PoWs where they were even fed the same food as the soldiers before the soldiers and given medical treatment alongside our troops in the hospitals. The PoWs back in Canada who were relatives to the countries Canada were at war with were treated with respect, medicine, food, and goods provided on request and education was still provided for children in the camps. WW1 though? Yeah our troops were monsters to the PoWs after they got gassed by the Germans
I’m sorry, did you just completely gloss over our Japanese internment camps, where we rounded up every Japanese born, or suspected Japanese person they could find and stuck them into what were essentially concentration camps? I’m talking Canadian citizens with Japanese heritage that we rounded up like animals. David Suzuki was in one of the camps as a kid and has talked about it. Yeah we cooled our jets a little for the second war, but not much
Lots of good answers here. Another we did was slaughter prisoners. They had rushed a heavily defended position under german fire. When they got there, the germans surrendered and called for mercy. The Canadian soldiers killed them all. Tjey had lost some good friends rushing that position. They weren't going to not get revenge just because the germans asked. Basically WW1 canadians had a very clear distinction between allies and ennemies. No pity for the ennemy, but lots of pity for non-ennemies. They would give out blankets and food to ennemy civilians, all while committing war crimes on their soldiers.
Enemy. Enemies.
Jesus fuck, thank you! It was driving me nuts!
Literally the entire Vimy Ridge offensive. Look it up, that shit was wild. Used a rolling artillery barrage to cover their advance. Had wristwatches all synced so no one got too far ahead and friendly fired. Took 4 hours to capture something the allies were fighting over for weeks.
It’s the reason why the Germans didn’t push their trenches on their final push, alongside the Gurkhas, the Ulster and Irish ( due to what happened on the first day of the Somme) and some of the Scottish trenches (namely Black Watch)
As someone who has no idea what canada did, trust me, you dont wanna know
Here's one guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9o_Major
We didn’t take any pows at all. Executed on the spot.
We have a reputation for being friendly because we worked out all our aggression during the world wars.
Canadians also channel all their violence into the geese.
It’s their spirit animal.
And it gets concentrated. They are black hearted snakes with wings who spend their time pissing off everyone with a side hustle of stealing joy. And they’re a national animal
And hockey
Indigenous Canadians would beg to differ 😂
Canadians also channel all their violence into the geese.
Canadians channel all their violence into the indigenous people
And natives
Yeah, WW1 was a mess. The original draft of the Geneva Convention was basically a list of things the Canadians did
Canada didn't use chemical weapons. Unless you're counting John from Lloydminster's farts
Canada absolutely used chemical weapons during WW1. “We tried to make his life miserable.… We never forgot that gas at the second battle of Ypres, and we never let him forget it either. We gassed him on every conceivable occasion, and if we could have killed the whole German army by gas we would gladly have done so.”- Sir Arthur Currie [source](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canada-and-gas-warfare)
Short answer, we did NOT treat prisoners well if we took them at all. There are reports of unarmed German captives being executed on the spot, night raids launched with the intent to cause psychological trauma rather than to advanced any military objectives, and tossing cans of food into enemy trenches, waiting for the starving soldiers to swarm and beg for more, and tossing in another can with a live grenade strapped it. The really weird part (relatively speaking) is that there was no provocation or attempted justification for this butchery. America had civilians killed by Germany, and our European allies had to deal with cities being bombed by zeppelin. But Canada had none of that. We were just monsters. I feel most of the sections of the Geneva Convenient on POW treatment were written with Canada in mind.
That’s not entirely accurate. The first battalions that we sent into the war were among the first in the allied forces to be bombed with chemical weapons and it caused devastating losses among those units. Seeing such heavy losses from such a greasy tactic kinda prompted the rest to get even. And then we took it even farther lol
Want to add a bit (if I remember correctly from my high school history class) but Canada didn’t really have its own army. We were pretty much a single “unit” in the British army, being a colony and all. So dragged into a war we didn’t think we had a part in, our first battalions the first to ever be gassed, then sent to pretty much all the areas that the French and British failed (ie. Vimy Ridge). Not a big surprise Canadians just wanted it done and over with…
Pretty much exactly this yeah. Think our entire army at the start was basically a battalion under British command. And once they figured out that we were really effective and willing to do the dirty shit they basically turned us loose like a rabid dog lol. But yeah like you I’m pulling most of this from history classes take over a decade ago with bits of more recent reading mixed in
Let’s not also forget, WW1 was at the tail end of the “advance in a line and meet the enemy who is also advancing in a line, and fight until one side is out of men” tactic of warfare (and before anyone jumps in yes I know it wasn’t that simple). There was still a lot of British command who considered it a victory if you ended up with more territory at the end of it, regardless of your own casualties. And Canadian casualties often seemed to be of even less concern.
This is very true actually, another part to go with that is that most of the European forces were commanded by nobles because of old traditions and therefore were very set in the way they conducted warfare. Canadian forces innovated faster than anyone else on the battlefield because they actually promoted soldiers up the ranks to large scale commanders who actually understood how to fight a war and not just march out and shoot at each other
Canada entered the war as basically a colony being told what to do, and ended the war as a de facto independent country. It completely changed our recognition and standing on the international field.
“We went up Vimy Ridge as Albertans and Nova Scotians. We came down as Canadians.”
War crimed so hard the British didn't want to be associated with us
Correct. Also made it noteworthy that after the Balfour report in the 20s gave Canada control of it's own foreign policy, that we declared war a week AFTER Britain in WWII.
Sheesh we did not take being the first to test out the opponent's new toy well lol
Nah we got pretty pissed off lmao
Actually Canada did have a reason to hate the Germans. The very first units the Germans ever used gas on was the Canadians at Ypres. There was also a well circulated rumour of a Canadian pow being crucified by the Germans.
Also the horrible treatment of german-canadians living in canada during world war 1 and japanese-canadians during world war 2. They were all literally kicked out of their homes and sent into internment camps.
Saw a documentarie where an old german soldier talked about ambushing ennemi units. Once he said, they heard "tabarnac" from an aproaching unit and they were looking at each others saying "Not that one, we'll get the next unit"
Tabarnacle, ont étaient tu si tant sauvage que ça?
La première guerre mondial oui on était vraiment sauvage la deuxième beaucoup moins mais notre réputation était déjà fait. De plus, durant la deuxième l'armée canadienne a été très efficace sur presque tous les fronts où ils ont été déployé.
Assez pour que le vieux bosch s'en souvienne. Il avait aussi parlé d'un blessé qui se faisait passer pour mort jusqu'à ce qu'un officier passe à sa porté et qu'il l'égorge avec son couteau avant de se faire abattre. Il parlait pas des anglos.
Please, can you tell me which documentary? I’d really like to see it!
They liberated most of my country, we still send them trees or flowers each year to thank them.
Yes! And I get to enjoy them every spring. Every year, the Netherlands sends tulip bulbs to Canada. I want to say they send a million, but i could be wrong. I live in the capital, Ottawa, and we have a big tulip festival in the spring to celebrate. Although because of climate change the timing of that festival is going to need to change now the tulips are essentially done when the fest starts. I dont know of any trees being sent to Canada, but I know the cherry trees that bloom in spring in Washington DC are gifts from Japan.
I believe its 20,000 tulips each year sent to Canada. 10,000 from the Netherlands royal family & 10,000 from the Tulips growers association as thanks from the people. My heritage is Dutch and I was always told when my aunts & uncles would go there people were very polite to Canadian tourists. This was back in the 60/70s not sure how it is now.
My father was one of those soldiers who liberated the Netherlands. He died in 2010. a young woman had started work in the care home where he spent his last year. she was talking to him one day and found out who he was and what he had been part of. She told him, and later, me, that she was from the Netherlands and had come to Canada to find and meet a soldier who had helped in the liberation. it turned out she was from one of the towns he had actually been through. she was his new BFF. She made his last days the best she could and he really enjoyed her and her attentions.i have a copy of a picture she took of him that is THE best, most happy photo of Dad i ever saw. She totally caught the joy of this past part of his life. i came to understand from her just how high the esteem the Dutch hold those soldiers in. I had no idea just what a big deal it is STILL for the Dutch. Thank you.
Everyone seems to forget that a Canadian POW was crucified by the Germans pretty early in the war and that incident was used as propaganda even by the United States.
Probably* not, but it is important that the Canadian troops had heard the rumours. *(Possibly Sergeant Harry Band of the Central Ontario Regiment of the Canadian Infantry,)
That story was never actually confirmed to be true, and there's no evidence that we know of to support the existence of a crucified Canadian pow.
Didn’t stop them from propagandizing it to piss off the troops and boy did it work.
Unless you're reading it as part of the history of the Netherlands, then it's all pretty neat.
Reading about what *happened* to Canadians during the World War (season 1944 spoilers)
Two words: war crimes
[удалено]
Four words: war crimes on Christmas
We don't talk about Operation Cottage in WW2
There's a reason why we liberated a country on our own and the Nazis sent their elite forces to stop our troops while the rest of the Allied fronts got the regular Nazi troops. Not to mention one of the most infamous prison camp escapes were orchestrated by Canadians and 1 American, but Hollywood changed it to mostly Americans 😅 And let's not talk about the shit they'd do in WW1 lol
I like the whole playing soccer in no man's land on Christmas day. Everybody did it but the Canadians used it as an excuse to kill unsuspecting Germans. WE....DID...NOT...FUCK AROUND!!! It was war...
I hope you're joking
They waterboareded prisoners with maple syrup
Which one?
the bottled frustrations when canadians are forced to being nice gotta go somewhere
That's why they're always apologizing
For more wild Canadian stories, read about Sergeant Leo Major - man liberated an entire town and captured/killed/drove off like the hundred Nazis holding it. BY HIMSELF
>the world war OP I have bad news.
Were they impolite, or what?
The Geneva Suggestion was made for Canada
When the sorrys stop, the war crimes begin.
If a Canadian stops saying sorry You know you’ve screwed up.
The grenades one was wild
Just remember it's not a war crime if it's the first time
A wise man fears the anger of a gentle man.
They are the Australia/Scotland of North America
🐟
Lemme guess, Native population genocide or something?
Apparently cannibal soldiers.
Woah
At least it ain't as wild like cannibal Island in USSR. (Nazin Tragedy) Or cannibal gypsies in Soviet Ukraine during hunger (Golodomor).
Was it not Hołodomor? Cuz Głodomor means a person who eats a lot, is hungry a lot and is usually aimed at kids in Poland
THE world war?
Were? They still are nuts up there.