North Bay teacher John Hetherington commemorating 100 years since Canada's first battle in WW I
Second Battle of Ypres, Apr. 22 1915, first time German army used chlorine gas — left 2,000 Canadians dead
A history teacher in North Bay says Apr. 22 is a day Canadians should observe and commemorate as the day Canada first entered battle in World War I — and met the dawn of modern warfare.
A century to the day after the Second Battle of Ypres, John Hetherington, who also makes regular trips to Europe as a battlefield guide, spoke about the sombre anniversary on CBC Sudbury's current affairs radio show Morning North.
Though the Canadian First Division arrived in England in late Oct. 1914, Hetherington said it was early April 1915 before 18,000 Canadian soldiers — "novice and green troops never before bloodied in battle" — were sent close to the Belgian border.
On Apr. 22, "they were in position for the first time in a front section of trenches in Flanders between Ypres and Passchendaele," he wrote in an email.
Chemical warfare
That day, the German army launched an offensive using chlorine gas for the first time. The hope was to "punch a hole through the lines," said Hetherington.
"[The Germans] released 160 tonnes of chlorine gas against French-Algerian troops beside the Canadians, and of course, they were dispersed very, very quickly," he said. "But the Canadians plugged the holes and saved the day."
The human cost of that two-day-long effort was high.
According to the Canadian War Museum, the gas was "a lethal, green-yellow cloud" that "drifted over the battlefield, " and exposure to it was excruciating if not fatal.
"The Canadians fell to the ground ... and soaked their rags in water and different fluids and solutions and basically held off until the gas had dissipated," said Hetherington. "To the amazement of the Germans, [they] proved to be very formidable."
Formidable, but not invincible. While the territory remained in Allied hands, the Second Battle of Ypres left many soldiers wounded or dead.
"Of the 18,000 Canadians of the First Division that were marched into action ... there were 6,000 casualties. Among those 6,000 casualties were included 2,000 dead," Hetherington said.
"You can imagine that if the papers were to display those sort of numbers today, the outcry that there would be."
Hetherington will be visiting battlefields in Europe again this summer. He said in August, he and a group will go to the Flanders area to learn more about the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Passchendaele.