Sergeant Billy the Goat

Sergeant Billy: The True Story of the Goat Who Went to War

Sergeant Billy the Goat

Sergeant Bill was a Canadian goat from Saskatchewan who served as the mascot of the 5th Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

Bill was able to hear and warn soldiers of incoming shell explosions, pushing 3 soldiers into a trench within seconds of an incoming shell.

In another instance, he cornered 3 enemy guardmen.

 He also assisted in guarding prisoners.

Bill survived being wounded and gassed on multiple occasions.

For his actions, he was awarded the 1914 Star, the General Service Medal, and the Victory Medal.

He faced courts martial on two occasions, once for eating his battalion’s personnel roll and the other time for an altercation with another sergeant. He lived the remainder of his life in Winnipeg

“In Flanders Fields”

“In Flanders Fields”

“In Flanders Fields” is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.

He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of a friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres.

According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it.

“In Flanders Fields” was first published on December 8 of that year in the London magazine Punch.

It is one of the most quoted poems from the war.

As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in efforts and appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling war bonds.

Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world’s most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in the conflict.

The poem and poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Canada, where “In Flanders Fields” is one of the nation’s best-known literary works.

The poem is also widely known in the United States, where it is associated with Veterans Day and Memorial Day

In Flanders Fields, and Other Poems: Gold Deluxe Edition

Battle of Hill 70

 

The Battle of Hill 70

The Battle of Hill 70 took place in the First World War between the Canadian Corps and four divisions of the German 6th Army.

The battle took place along the Western Front on the outskirts of Lens in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France between 15 and 25 August 1917.

The objectives of the assault were to inflict casualties and to draw German troops away from the 3rd Battle of Ypres and to make the German hold on Lens untenable.

The Canadian Corps executed an operation to capture Hill 70 and then establish defensive positions from which combined small-arms and artillery fire, some of which used the new technique of predicted fire, would repel German counter-attacks and inflict as many casualties as possible.

The goals of the Canadian Corps were only partially accomplished; the Germans were prevented from transferring local divisions to the Ypres Salient but failed to draw in troops from other areas.

A later attempt by the Canadian Corps to extend its position into the city of Lens failed but the German and Canadian assessments of the battle concluded that it succeeded in its attrition objective.

The battle was costly for both sides and many casualties were suffered from extensive use of poison gas, including the new German Yellow Cross shell containing the blistering agent sulfur mustard (mustard gas).

Capturing Hill 70: Canada’s Forgotten Battle of the First World War (Studies in Canadian Military History)

Canada

Canada during World War 1

The military history of Canada during World War I began on August 4, 1914, when the United Kingdom entered the First World War (1914–1918) by declaring war on Germany.

The British declaration of war automatically brought Canada into the war, because of Canada’s legal status as a British Dominion which left foreign policy decisions in the hands of the British parliament.

However, the Canadian government had the freedom to determine the country’s level of involvement in the war.

On August 4, 1914, the Governor-General declared war between Canada and Germany.

The Militia was not mobilized and instead, an independent Canadian Expeditionary Force was raised.

Canada’s sacrifices and contributions to the Great War changed its history and enabled it to become more independent, while also opening a deep rift between the French and English speaking populations.

For the first time in Canadian military history, Canadian forces fought as a distinct unit, first under a British commander but ultimately under a Canadian-born commander.

The highpoints of Canadian military achievement during the Great War came during the Somme, Vimy, and Passchendaele battles and what later became known as “Canada’s Hundred Days”.

Canada’s total casualties stood at the end of the war at 67,000 killed and 173,000 wounded, out of an expeditionary force of 620,000 people mobilized (39% of mobilized were casualties).

Canadians of British descent—the majority—gave widespread support arguing that Canadians had a duty to fight on behalf of their Motherland.

Indeed, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, although French-Canadian, spoke for the majority of English-Canadians when he proclaimed: “It is our duty to let Great Britain know and to let the friends and foes of Great Britain know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart and that all Canadians are behind the Mother Country.”

However, this did not stop Laurier along with Henri Bourassa from leading the opposition to conscription three years later in 1917.

The Story of the Great War, Volume VIII (of VIII): Victory with the Allies; Armistice; Peace Congress; Canada's War Organizations and vast War ... (The Story of the Great War (Set of 8 Vols))