MovieChat Forums > Passchendaele (2008) Discussion > 'Canadians' at Paschendaale, Vimy etc

'Canadians' at Paschendaale, Vimy etc

posted 13 years ago by Knickebein
10 replies | jump to latest

Seems to be a fair amount of Canadian chest-thumping on this board, which is understandable I suppose. However whilst Canadians should certainly be proud of the Canadian Corps during the First World War, as it was one of the best fighting formations of the war(on any side). It should be pointed out that the makeup of the Canadian Corps was around two-thirds British born men and only the rest were actually Canadian. It wouldnt be until the end of the war that the numbers evened out and the total of British born soldiers dropped to 50%.

So by all means be proud of what your ancestors went through and what they achieved but given the makeup of the soldiers that fought it seems quite pointless to say that Canadians were somehow superior.

[–] mooney_man 13 years ago

When you move to Canada you are Canadian. Don't try and sneak around it. Canada was a young country at the time, and a lot of expansion had been going on in the west so it would be understandable that we were getting a lot of immigrants.

[–] Knickebein 13 years ago

I'm not sneaking around anything. I'm just pointing out that a massive proportion of the soldiers that made up the Canadian Corps were actually British born and for all intents and purposes were actually British people living in Canada. It should be glaringly obvious as to why so many of these men enlisted to fight.I'm not talking about 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants i'm talking about men who were actually born in Britain and in many cases had spent most of their lives in Britain. Thus its pointless to say that as individuals the "Canadians" had superior fighting skills to the French or the British. That somehow their nationality made them superior. Do you see what i'm getting at?

Take for example a man called John Skelthwhaite who was born in County Durham, England and then moved to Canada in 1911. He would have spoke a Northern English dialect that would have been almost unintelligible to most English speaking Canadians. Then in 1914 he returned to England.

Is he English or Canadian?

[–] sweiland75 13 years ago

I see what you're getting at. You're afraid to acknowledge that, during the time of World War 1, Canada had one of the strongest militaries in the world. Why are you so determined to undermine what Canada did? Where are you from?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5GZIDnMzZQ Why does Canada need a queen?

[–] Knickebein 13 years ago

Im not undermining what the Canadian Corps achieved, on the contrary ive said repeatedly that it was one the best fighting units of the war. I'm just irritated by seeing so many messages lauding the Canadian fighting man as being somehow superior to a French or British soldier just because he was Canadian. That somehow his nationality made a difference, which when you take into account the massive proportion of British men in the Canadian Corps is absolute nonsense.

Also Canada almost certainly did NOT have one of the strongest militaries in the world during World War One. The Canadian Corps was part of the British Army. It was a superb fighting formation but compared to the British, French, or German armies it was tiny, as was the Australian Imperial Force and the New Zealand Division.

[–] Thanato26 13 years ago

One of the main reasons why the Canadians achieved what they did, and they were Canadians, was their leadership.

You may say that they were British born by they were Canadian Trained and Fought. They decided to join up with the Canadian Military instead of transiting the atlantic and joining the British Military.

Once the war was over they came back to Canada.

~Thanato

[–] Knickebein 13 years ago

>One of the main reasons why the Canadians achieved what they did, and they were Canadians, was their leadership.<

Yet two of the three commanders of the Canadians during the war were British and many of the officers were British. The men were trained in Britain too, under British supervision. Indeed the first commander of the Canadians, Edwin Alderson, is often cited as one of the main reasons they became such an effective fighting force. He was British.

It makes no sense to say that they joined the Canadian military instead of the British one. The Canadian Corps formed part of the British Army. It wasnt independant from it. It was part of the British Army. In the end, the men knew that they would be fighting for Britain. Thus why such a large proportion were British born. True, many men did return to Canada, though some returned home to Britain.

[–] illbeoneasystreet 12 years ago

I don't see why you are so offended by Canadians showing a bit of pride for once. Every other country on earth does it. I have seen no one claiming that our troops were inherently better then all the others because they were Canadians. People are proud of what the Canadian Corps achieved because many of us had relatives who fought in that war. Oh and by the way I had many and their is no British blood in me what so ever I am French and Swedish. If anything Canadians don't show enough pride. Sure you have the loud we are different then Americans spiel every once and while but that isn't true pride. I think its a good thing when Canadians start recognizing the mass amount of history and culture and things we have to be proud of.

Its something you'll get used to a mental mind *beep* can be nice!

[–] max-silver 13 years ago

The Citizens for a Canadian Republic are a bunch of idiots. Do yourself a favour and don't listen to them.

[–] SFSorrow66 12 years ago

The 2/3rd ratio is too high. It was closer to 50/50 at the start of the war but that's irrelevant as the vast majority of those British born soldiers came to Canada in the 1890's as children. They weren't a bunch of grown up guys who showed up in 1911. Canada was there home.

And as for the CEF's Generals, Alderson was good, Byng was great and Currie was one of the best in the war, and born in Napperton Ontario.

"Make it so."

[–] max-silver 12 years ago

That's all well and good, but why are you telling this to me?