Remembrance Day: the Eleventh Hour

The contribution and loss of Canadian soldiers

Canadian soldiers at The Battle of Vimy Ridge

“We are the dead. Short days ago

    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

       Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

                              In Flanders fields.” - John McCrae 

By

James Pew

For the first time ever, on November 11th, 1919 at precisely 11am, the entire island of the United Kingdom (and many other countries in the British Empire called on by King George V) came to an abrupt stop. For two full minutes even the horses who had pulled the carts of people and supplies through the streets, took part in the collective silence that had fallen over the cities and countryside. A sacred tradition began, performed by nations across the modern West, thenceforth committing the “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" as a solemn communal moment for reflection on soldiers who lost their lives in The Great War.

The next day, the popular British daily, The Manchester Guardian (changed to The Guardian in 1959) made a report of the novel event. After describing the “magical effect” of the city of London coming to a halt - trains and cars and “mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads” simultaneously ceasing action, shutting down, and remaining still - the author illustrates the unfolding of a surreal scene:

“Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.”¹

Originally called Armistice Day, after the 1918 armistice agreement between Germany and the Allies, which ended the fighting in World War I, Remembrance Day expands the concept of recognizing fallen soldiers to include all past wars. Today, in recognition, and in honour of those killed in past battles, we wear the Remembrance Poppy - an artificial flower with a very real significance: a symbol for the commemoration of lost soldiers. 

A citizen who pins a poppy to their coat, on and during the days leading up to Remembrance Day, understands that the freedom, prosperity and safety we enjoy in the West was bequeathed to us through the sacrifices of past generations. It is also understood that the greatest of those sacrifices was the sending of soldiers to war, because it has never been misunderstood that some, often many, never come back. 

Remembrance Day ceremonies are usually held at cenotaph war monuments. The most popular and often-recited war poem at these events is “In Flanders Fields,” written by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae during the first world war. It describes a war cemetery with “red poppies” blowing in the wind, “between the crosses row on row,” which mark the graves of fallen soldiers.

However, the sentiment heard most often at Remembrance Day ceremonies, “lest we forget,” was inspired by a poem written in 1897 by Rudyard Kipling to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Although the Jubilee was a celebratory occasion, Kipling’s Recessional was somber and melancholic with its allusions to “far-flung battle lines”, “ancient sacrifice”, “reeking tubes and iron shards”, and the “drunkenness” which results from the “sight of power.” The poem’s refrain, “lest we forget,” was taken from Deuteronomy 6, verse 12 - "Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt” - offers an important homage to the Christian roots of British Liberty, the thing Kipling understood was well worth fighting for:

“The tumult and the shouting dies;

  The Captains and the Kings depart:

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

  An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!” - Recessional (2nd verse), Rudyard Kipling

Canadian Soldiers at War

The Nile Expedition

The first post-confederation military campaign in which Canada took part was the inconsequential Nile Expedition of 1884-1885. Sixteen Canadian soldiers were lost in a failed effort to aid the British evacuation of Egyptians from Sudan - caused by an uprising led by Mahomed Ahmed (a Sudanese religious and political leader who claimed to be the Mahdi, or final Islamic leader). 

The South African War

The first overseas war that involved Canada was the South African War of 1899, also known as The Second Boer War (or just, The Boer War). Even though the conflict in colonial South Africa was primarily between the British and the Boer Republics (two factions of Dutch descendants known as the Boer), there was a deployment of 7,000 allied Canadian troops to the region.

Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier initially did not want to involve Canada in the conflict. Public opinion was split between those with strong loyalties to the British, and those who saw no sense in embroiling Canada in a dispute located half-way around the world. In the end, public pressure led Laurier to send a battalion of volunteers to South Africa. The conflict ended in May of 1902, two-hundred and sixty seven volunteer Canadian soldiers were lost.²

World War I 

Twelve years later, the world would be forever changed with the outbreak of The Great War. This time 650,000 Canadian soldiers would serve.³ The war initially escalated quickly due to complex military alliances between the European powers that divided much of the continent. These alliances often meant if one country went to war, the others would likely go too. This extended to the dominions of the British Empire, like Canada. When Britain declared war, Canada was automatically at war too.

A catastrophe on a grand scale, The Great War saw the death of over nine million soldiers. The Entente or Allied powers of France, Russia, and Great Britain engaged in the most consequential and obscenely bloody struggle the world had ever seen, against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey).

Canada made an enormous contribution to the war effort in Europe. They fought many historic battles and played a key role in advancing the aims of the allies. However, Canada sustained horrendous heart-breaking losses.  In the 1915 Battle of Second Ypres, outnumbered Canadian soldiers were attacked with chlorine gas. Even though they achieved their objective and kept the Germans from advancing, 6,000 Canadian soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured. The poorly planned battle in 1916 at Beaumont Hamel, saw the “Blue Putties” or soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (Newfoundland was an independent colony at the time, not yet part of Canada) advancing through an area of uncut barbed wire under heavy machine gun fire. Within 30 minutes, almost half of the 800 soldiers in the regiment were dead or missing, while most of the other half were wounded.

Perhaps the most defining moment in the history of the Canadian forces took place in 1917 at the momentous Battle of Vimy Ridge, where Canadian soldiers won a stunning victory which earned them a reputation as effective formidable soldiers. Even so, losses were immense with 10,000 killed or wounded.⁴ During the Battle of Passchendaele (also in 1917), in spite of treacherous weather conditions, Canadian soldiers again achieved their objective, but at a cost of 16,000 dead or wounded.⁵

With the signing of the Treatise of Versailles in June of 1919, six months after the armistice agreement, and five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the event which catalyzed the war), The Great War was officially over. The Entente Powers lost 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost approximately four million.⁶ 68,000 of the dead were Canadian soldiers.

World War II

Germany invaded Poland in 1939 beginning six brutal years of war in Europe and East Asia. The second such military conflict involving the principal powers of the globe, very much a continuation of residual Great War hostilities. The war ended in September of 1945, after two atomic bombs were dropped by American forces on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

From 1933 until the end of the war, the Nazis government of Germany engaged in genocide, the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were murdered.  Liberated by soldiers of the allied forces, many Jews miraculously survived the Nazis death camps and were able to share the details of the atrocities they witnessed. From their eye-witness accounts, and the scholarly work of writers like Hannah Ardent, the world would learn of the “banality of evil.”⁷

World War II saw the loss of 15 million soldiers world wide.  47,000 of them were Canadian. 

While the roots of many of the traditions associated with Remembrance Day can be found in The Great War, the legacy of World War II resonates just as strongly. If World War I forever changed the world, World War II confirmed it.

The Korean War

The Cold War between America and the Soviet Union involved a number of hot wars waged between various satellite states. The Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, was one such proxy war that took place during this period. Communist North Korea, with the backing of the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea, who were supported by the United States and its allies.

The 27th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade, along with a Canadian contingent, were involved in The Battle of Kapyong. In late April of 1951, retreating Chinese and North Korean forces regrouped and counter-attacked the western front. The South Korean forces were overwhelmed and made vulnerable by these attacks from the communists which forced them to pull out of the area. The British and Canadians provided vital cover for the withdrawing South Koreans.

At one point during the battle the Canadians found themselves exposed and under attack from the communists. In a brilliant but risky maneuver the Canadians called in an artillery strike on their own location in an attempt to hit the enemy soldiers amongst them. The Canadians took cover while the communists were effectively dissuaded from further attacks. The chaotic ordeal was described by Canadian Veteran Gerald Gowing:⁸

"We were surrounded on the hills of Kapyong and there was a lot of fire. We were pretty well out of ammunition and out of food too. We did get some air supplies dropped in, but we were actually surrounded."

Can you imagine what that must have been like? Trapped in a valley in a foreign country with machine gun fire reigning down on you and your regiment from the hills above from all directions.

In total, 26,791 Canadian soldiers were deployed in the Korean War, and 516 were killed in combat.

The War in Afghanistan

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York city, Canada joined a multinational force led by the United States that invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government (who were sheltering terrorists). In addition, Canadian soldiers provided security to the replacement Afghan government, and aided in fighting back Taliban insurgents.⁹ 

30,000 Canadian soldiers were deployed, and 158 were killed during the Afghanistan War.

Conclusion

The highest honour must be given to those who paid the ultimate price so that people they will never know can live in peace. They did not sacrifice their lives, as is often said, they risked their lives, for the benefit of all, and in so doing, many of those lives were tragically cut short. Many soldiers found themselves in situations where the much-romanticized notion of sacrifice was imposed, rather than volunteered for, even if faced heroically.

When a soldier is cut-off from any possible mode of escape or wounded irrecoverably, and knows there is no hope, no way out, but stands fast in his commitment and service until the very end, this is the acceptance of an imminent sacrifice that was never requested. Many such sacrifices were made in the fog of war, but no patriotic young man of the Western world ever enlisted in his nation's military with the hopes of being blown to bits overseas.

These men, gallant soldiers they were, knowingly risked their lives. The ones who never made it back, did not plan in that way. I see the tragic death of every soldier as theft, not sacrifice. And I vow, for as long as I live, to honour those fallen soldiers who carried out that awful but essential service which can never be remunerated. 

Glory to the warriors who, in protecting the peace and prosperity of the free loving world, did not give, but lost their lives. Lest we forget.

___

Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read The Most Important Story to Teach Children: The rich mythology of British Liberty

Also, for more evidence of the ideological indoctrination in Canadian education, read Yes, schools are indoctrinating kids! And also, Yes, The University is an Indoctrination Camp!

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1. Barrow, Mandy. "Remembrance Day in Britain". Woodlands Junior School. Archived from the original on 10 November 2011.

2. WarMuseum.ca - Canada and the South African War (Boer War) - 1899-1902

3. First World War (1914 – 1918) - Veterans Affairs Canada

4. The Battle of Vimy Ridge | Canadian War Museum

5. Introduction - Key Canadian Events | Canada and the First World War (warmuseum.ca)

6. census.gov/history/pdf/reperes112018.pdf

7. Eichmann in Jerusalem—I | The New Yorker

8. Battle of Kapyong - Veterans Affairs Canada

9. Canada and the War in Afghanistan | Learn | Canadian War Museum