This movie was based on a book that speculated that the Halifax Explosion was a deliberate attack by the Germans on Halifax Harbour. Nobody really knows if that's true: some people believe it was an extremely unfortunate accident.
share[deleted]
On a bit of the sauce I see, are we?
Well, sorry to burst your bubble but pretty much everyone, outside of you and whatever group you fancy of course, knows that the explosion was a result of an accident. Actually the more I type the more I begin to think you don't even nkow waht you're on about. I'm going to stop now because I think I'm going to hemmorage attempting to comprehend your daft ways.
ní dhéanfaidh ach Dia breithiúnas orm
okay im from Halifax so believe me when i say it was an accident when i was in Elementry i went to the same musaem every year and learned about that same thing...The Halifax Explosion i saw the same video like 4 or 5 times soo i would no if it was an accident or not...it was just an extremly unforfunate accident..like the last thing you said
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I am also from Halifax. My grandfather was in downtown Halifax when the explosion happened. He was visiting his doctor for a stomach wound he received in the war. He assisted his doctor with aiding the injured after the explosion. He said it was definitely an accident. According to him, two ships collided in the harbour, and an ammunitions ship caught fire and exploded. He said the site of the city near the waterfront looked just like so many of the battlefields that he saw.
shareim also from halifax, and this in no way was an attack by the germans *laughs*
shareMe too, twas an accident :)
shareI'm also from halifax. Everyone here is lying... its all a big cover-up.
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What really Pissed me off is the Fact that coward "Le Medic" really got away with the whole thing.
The French Government demanded his return and said they would prosecute him for the whole disaster but they didn't he walked away a free man.
And it pissses me off even more that Canadian judges are still letting Murderers go. Ie: the man responsible Air India Bombing got away with mass murder.
something has got to be done about all these crimes.
Actually, I thought that the movie's depiction of LeMedec was rather unfair. In reality, LeMedec waited on deck until he was certain every one of his crew members were in the lifeboat, before joining them. His primary concern really was for the safey and well-being of his crew.
But yes, he should have done more to prevent the ship going up. Although, he probably thought that they did not have as much time as they actually had
SUPPOPT OUR POOPS
Hello. I just watched a rebroadcast of, "Shattered City..." on APTN this evening and read your comment. There's a remote possibility that my grandfather, Dr. J.R. Corston, may have tended to your grandfather's wounds following the explosion. He lived on Brunswick Street and had an office in his home. His wife, my grandmother, was a nurse and once told me of the hectic days following the disaster. Everything was done on a makeshift basis, with many wounded being triaged and tended to on the Halifax Commons. There were four groups of doctors set up to look after the injured, so it may well NOT have been my grandfather who looked after yours, but it's a small world, and it's funny how such tragedies bring people together. If you Google: CBC Archives - One doctor's gruesome first hand account of the Halifax disaster, you'll hear a brief radio interview with him some time prior to his death in 1963, and broadcast in 1967. Cheers.
Hugh Corston
It *was* an accident... The French and Belgian ships couldn't agree on their courses, and they collided.
I've lived in Halifax for 45 years, and I've *never* heard the "German attack" hypothesis.
Wikipedia notes the following...
"However the film was panned by critics and criticized by historians for distortions and inaccuracies. One aspect which was criticized was the representation of German spies in the city; Jim Lotz's The Sixth of December (1981) also toys with the fictional idea Halifax was home to a network of enemy spies during the war."
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Popular_culture>;
I could have ranked the show higher BUT for the inaccuracies and Hollywood type liberties the producers took with the script. When I watch an historical show, I want to see it being faithful to the facts or at the very least, faithful to the situation.
shareCouldn't agree more with roarmeister2, either make it a documentary or a work of fiction but combining the two distorts what really happened.
shareFrom what I've read, you are absolutely correct. Virtually all experts say that it was an accident caused by two ship colliding. That caused flammable liquids to spill in the ammunition ship, emitting fumes that was ignited by sparks from the two ship's metal hulls rubbing against each other. There was little German activity in North America, especially Halifax.
Also, the miniseries had an original screenplay, and was not based on a book. There was a 1989 non-fiction book by Janet Kitz with a similar name, Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery, but it had nothing to do with the show. That book was acclaimed while the miniseries was panned for using too much fiction.