1. The Beginning of the End
Passchendaele and Canada’s Hundred Days

2. Passchendaele
The Canadian Corps, a 100,000 strong fighting formation, was ordered to the Passchendaele front, east of Ypres, in mid- October 1917.

3. Horrible Conditions
Launched on 31 July 1917, the British offensive in Flanders had aimed to drive the Germans away from the essential Channel Ports and to eliminate U-Boat bases on the coast.
However, unceasing rain and shellfire reduced the battlefield to a vast bog of bodies, water-filled shell craters, and mud in which the attack ground to a halt.

4. Horrible Conditions
After months of fighting, Passchendaele ridge was still stubbornly held by German troops.
Sir Douglas Haig, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, ordered the Canadians to deliver victory.

5. Deliberate Preparation and Attack
Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps, objected to the battle, fearing it could not be won without a terrible expenditure in lives
But Haig was desperate for a symbolic victory and insisted on the effort

6. Deliberate Preparation and Attack
Having no choice but to attack, Currie prepared carefully for the fight, understanding that deliberate preparation, especially for his artillery and engineers, was the key to advancing.

7. Deliberate Preparation and Attack
The Canadians arrived in Flanders in mid-October to relieve Australian and New Zealand troops and were shocked by the terrible battlefield conditions.
Currie ordered the construction of new roads, the building or improvement of gun pits, and the repair and extension of tramlines (light railways).

8. Deliberate Preparation and Attack
Horses and mules transported hundreds of thousands of shells to the front to prepare for the artillery barrage that would prepare for the infantry’s attack.
The Germans atop Passchendaele ridge fired continuously on these efforts, killing or wounding hundreds.

9. Deliberate Preparation and Attack
Once his preparations were ready, Currie launched a deliberate or ‘set-piece’ attack on 26 October
The first of four phases in a battle he estimated might cost 16,000 Canadians killed or wounded.
By mid-November, having captured the ridge, his estimate proved eerily accurate, with 15,654 Canadian fallen.

10. The Legacy of Passchendaele
The British lost an estimated 275,000 casualties at Passchendaele to the German’s 220,000, making it one of the war’s most costly battles of attrition.
The Allies could better afford the losses, especially with the recent entry of the United States on their side
Passchendaele is often remembered as the low point of the British war effort

11. The Great War – Battle of Passchendaele

12. The Russian Revolution
Czar Nicholas of Russia
King George V of Britain
Due to massive casualties from the war and an economy that couldn’t feed its people or support the military, the people of Russia rose up against Czar Nicholas on march 8, 1917
Czar Nicholas abdicated the throne on March 12. A new government was formed in his place

13. The Russian Revolution
Due to the new governments continued involvement in World War I and a lack of food, a second revolution occurred on November 6, 1917
This second revolution lead to the worlds first Communist government under Vladimir Lenin.
He reached an agreement with Germany to pull Russia out of the war on March 3, 1918

14. The 1918 German Spring Offensives
Early in 1918, Germany began launching a series of major offensives in March that pushed the Allied lines back, advancing to within 70 km of Paris.
Despite these successes, this was to be Germany’s last major effort to win the war as they had overextended their army.

15. The 1918 German Spring Offensives
After years of war, their resources of men and supplies were dwindling.
Meanwhile, the Allied forces were being reinforced by American troops after the entry of the United States into the war in
The Allies regrouped and stopped the enemy advance, then set about to make their own major push to finally end the war.

16. Canada’s Hundred Days
The Canadian army had earned the reputation for being the best-attacking Allied troops on the Western Front.
When the Allies planned the offensives that would ultimately win the war, Canada’s soldiers were given the responsibility of being at the forefront of the attacks.

17. Canada’s Hundred Days
The Canadian Corps’ reputation was such that the mere presence of Canadians on a section of the front would warn the enemy that an attack was coming.
This meant that great secrecy would be involved in the movements of the Canadian Corps.

18. Canada’s Hundred Days
A large offensive was planned in France in August 1918 and some Canadian troops were shifted north to Ypres, Belgium.
This made the Germans think a major attack was coming there before the Canadians secretly hurried back to the Amiens sector for the real attack.

19. Canada’s Hundred Days
On August 8, Canada led the way in an offensive that saw them advance 20 km in three days.
This offensive was launched without a long preliminary artillery bombardment as was usually done and the Germans were taken totally by surprise.
This breakthrough devastated enemy morale, with the German high commander calling it “the black day of the German Army.”

20. Canada’s Hundred Days
With Allied leaders’ hopes now high for an end to the war in 1918, they kept up the pressure on the Germans.
There would be little rest for the victorious Canadians.
They were moved back north to the Arras sector and tasked with helping break the Hindenburg Line—now the enemy’s main defensive line.

21. Canada’s Hundred Days
After a week of fierce fighting against some of Germany’s finest troops, the Canadians broke the Drocourt-Quéant Line in front of the Hindenburg Line by September 2.

22. Canada’s Hundred Days
Next up was the Canal du Nord, which formed part of the main Hindenburg Line.
The canal’s was a tough position to attack
The Canadians, along with a British division, planned to cross a 2,500m wide dry section of the canal.
However, this was a bottleneck that could cause Allied troops and equipment to bunch up and become easy targets.

23. Canada’s Hundred Days
To cover the advance, Currie unleashed the heaviest single-day bombardment of the entire war and the September 27 attack was a stunning success.
The Canadians broke through three lines of German defenses and pressed on to capture Bourlon Wood.
Combined with other successes along the British front, the Hindenburg Line was now breached.

24. Canada’s Hundred Days
With German resistance crumbling, the Armistice was finally signed on November 11,
Canadians fought to the very end with the war’s last Canadian combat death— Private George Lawrence Price—happening just two minutes before the fighting officially ended.

25. Canada’s Hundred Days
On November 11th the Canadians entered Mons, Belgium—a place of great symbolic meaning.
This was where the British Army had its first significant battle against the invading Germans in the summer of 1914.

26. Canada’s Hundred Days The war was finally over.
More than 100,000 Canadians advanced 130 km, and took approximately 32,000 prisoners and captured nearly 3,800 artillery pieces, machine guns and mortars.
Much of the captured pieces of equipment was sent back to Canada as trophies of war.

27. Sacrifice
The triumphs during Canada’s Hundred Days were impressive, but came at a high price.
More than 6,800 Canadians and Newfoundlanders were killed and approximately 39,000 wounded during the last three months of fighting.

28. Sacrifice
By the end of the First World War, Canada—at the time a country of less than 8 million citizens—would see more than 650,000 men and women serve in uniform.
The conflict took a great toll, with more than 66,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders dying and over 170,000 being wounded.

29. Legacy
After more than four years of fighting, the war was finally over.
Many of Canada’s soldiers would serve as part of an occupation force in Germany, however, before finally being sent home in 1919.
Canada’s accomplishments had earned it a newfound respect and a recognition—both at home and around the world—that it was an independent country in its own right

30. Legacy
This earned Canada a separate signature on the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the First World War.
The war also served as an example of the country’s commitment to defend peace and freedom.

31. Canada’s Hundred Days

32. Ending the War (1918)
Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates on November 9th 1918
11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in Germany agrees to a cease-fire
Cost of 338 billion dollars (5.8 Trillion today)
10 Million Soldiers dead
9 Million Civilians dead

33. Total Casualties Country Total Mobilized % of Population KIA Wounded
Russia
10%
90%
Germany
20%
81%
British Empire
21%
46%
France
89%
Austria-Hungary *
19%
93%
Italy
17%
51%
USA 6%
11%
Turkey 9%
Bulgaria
32%
87 500
30%
Canada
12%
67 000
39%
Approx. Totals
62.9 million
7.84 million
35.9 million
70%
Total Casualties