Forged in Fire: The Canadian Expeditionary Force and the Birth of a Nation

The inheritance of freedom, as we understand it in Canada, was not a gentle transition. It was a baptism by fire, a sudden and violent coming-of-age in the mud and chalk of the Western Front. When Great Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, Canada, as a dominion, was automatically at war. There was no debate in Parliament, no question of obligation. Yet the response was not one of mere duty; it was an explosion of patriotic fervour. From a nation of fewer than eight million, over 30,000 men volunteered within the first month. They came from farms, factories, and offices, assembling at Valcartier in a flurry of chaotic enthusiasm.

They went to war as subjects of an Empire, but they would return, those who did, as citizens of a nation. Canada's contribution to the Great War was a crucible of staggering sacrifice, battlefield brilliance, and profound national transformation.

The First Canadian Division arrived in France in early 1915, and their illusions of a short, glorious war were immediately shattered by the grim reality of trench warfare. Their trial by fire came that April at the Second Battle of Ypres. It was here that the Germans unleashed a new and terrifying weapon: chlorine gas. As clouds of yellow-green poison rolled over the battlefield, the French and Algerian troops on the Canadians' flank broke and fled, tearing a gaping hole in the Allied line. Into this breach, the Germans advanced. The 1st Canadian Division, many of them citizen-soldiers who had been civilians months earlier, were ordered to hold the line. Inhaling through urine-soaked handkerchiefs—the only crude defence against the gas—they held. For days, they faced relentless shelling and infantry assaults, refusing to break. This stand prevented a German breakthrough and bought the Allies precious time, but at an astronomical cost.

The Canadians suffered over 6,000 casualties, a third of their division. In one battle, they had proven their mettle, earning a reputation for resilience that would define them for the rest of the war.

That reputation was paid for again and again. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916, a campaign that has become synonymous with futile slaughter, the Canadian Corps, now numbering four divisions, was thrown into the meat grinder. While the horrific first day belonged to the British and the tragic decimation of the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel, the Canadians' contribution came later in the offensive. At Courcelette, they demonstrated a tactical prowess that set them apart, meticulously planning and executing a "creeping barrage" that saw artillery fire move just ahead of the advancing infantry. It was a partial success in a failed campaign, but it showed the Canadians were learning, adapting, and innovating amidst the horror.

This capacity for innovation culminated in their greatest victory: Vimy Ridge. The ridge, a seven-kilometre-long escarpment, was a heavily fortified German stronghold that had repelled numerous French and British attacks, costing them over 100,000 casualties. In April 1917, the Canadian Corps, under the command of British General Julian Byng and his brilliant Canadian subordinate, Sir Arthur Currie, was tasked with the "impossible." What followed was a masterpiece of meticulous planning.

For the first time, all four Canadian divisions were brought together to fight as one.

Extensive tunnels were dug to move troops secretly, models of the battlefield were built for rehearsals, and every soldier was given a detailed map and told his specific objective—a revolutionary concept at the time. At 5:30 a.m. on Easter Monday, April 9th, the attack began. Preceded by a deafening creeping barrage, 100,000 Canadian soldiers advanced through snow and sleet. They achieved in hours what others had failed to in years. By April 12th, the ridge was in Canadian hands. It was a stunning tactical victory, but its significance was far greater. It was a symbol of Canadian identity, efficiency, and courage—a moment, as one general observed, where the nation "was born."

This victory was the sum of countless individual acts of bravery. Among them was Private Thomas William Holmes of the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles. During the brutal slog for Passchendaele in October 1917, Holmes, a 19-year-old from Owen Sound, Ontario, saw his company pinned down by a German pillbox. On his own initiative, he dashed forward, bombing the machine gun crew from the rear. Seeing another pillbox holding up the advance, he attacked it as well, single-handedly capturing its 19 occupants. His "conspicuous bravery and resource," as his Victoria Cross citation reads, saved his comrades and shattered a key enemy position.

Holmes's action exemplifies the soldier's courage: a willingness to run toward the danger that paralyses others, a sense of duty to the men beside him that overrides all instinct for self-preservation.

But the war was not just fought by those who took lives; it was fought by those who saved them. At the Second Battle of Ypres, amidst the chaos and the first gas attacks, Captain Francis Alexander Caron Scrimger, a medical officer with the 14th Battalion, was in charge of an advanced dressing station. When the station was forced to retreat under intense shellfire, one of his patients, a badly wounded captain, was left behind. Scrimger refused to leave him. He stayed with the man under heavy fire, tending his wounds and even holding a respirator to his mouth. When he was finally able to get assistance, he carried the wounded officer to safety. For this, Scrimger was awarded the Victoria Cross.

His bravery was not of the assault, but of compassion; a profound honour that demanded he protect his patient, even at the cost of his own life.

The Canadian Corps' reputation was sealed in the war's final months. During "Canada's Hundred Days," from August to November 1918, they served as the "shock troops" of the Allied army, spearheading the offensive that would finally break the German army. In a relentless series of victories at Amiens, Arras, and Cambrai, the Canadians smashed through the most formidable German defences. Their advance was relentless, their planning meticulous, and their fighting spirit unmatched.

On November 11th, 1918, as the Armistice took effect, Canadian troops marched into the Belgian city of Mons—the very place where the British had first engaged the enemy in 1914.

Canada's contribution came at a terrible price: over 66,000 dead and 172,000 wounded. For a young nation, this was a devastating scar. But from that sacrifice, Canada emerged as a distinct nation, no longer just a colony, but a country that had earned its seat at the table. The freedoms we enjoy today were secured by their sense of duty, their honour, and their unimaginable bravery.