First World War 3-Pack version 2

First World War 3-pack-version-2 includes:

• Passchendaele special issue
• Vimy: The birth of a nation special issue
• War Stories: True stories from the First World War special issue

Passchendaele

In the fall of 1917, three years into the First World War, the front was a ruined and shattered battlefield of endless craters and mud that trapped both the living and the dead. The Canadian Corps was thrust into this menacing warscape to help Britain, France and Belgium achieve a long-sought goal to destroy the enemy’s will to fight. That did not happen, but the battle of Passchendaele was Canada’s third major victory of 1917.

Written by award-winning author and historian Tim Cook

 

Vimy: The birth of a nation

Nations choose symbols, and Vimy is an important one for Canada. Tens of thousands have returned to the site of the battlefield in formal and informal pilgrimages. To stand at the memorial on Vimy Ridge in France, is to feel the weight of history, the echoes of the clash of battle and the spirit of those who served and sacrificed.

The hard-fought battle of Vimy Ridge is sometimes called “the birth of the nation.” It was there in April 1917 that the Canadian Corps fought together for the first time in the First World War and achieved success where others had failed.

Written by noted military historian J.L. Granatstein

 

War Stories: True stories from the First World War

Once the First World War bogged down in static trench warfare, life on the front was a series of daring trench raids, terrible losses in ill-conceived battles and constant torment from snipers, rats and lice. Yet throughout, the men could somehow find humour in it for themselves. As historian Jonathan F. Vance notes in his introduction, “There is a cliché that old soldiers never like to talk about their wartime experiences–unless it is to other old soldiers. These stories are just that–First World War veterans talking to each other.”