00:00:02
wave after wave of
00:00:05
Europeans have migrated to our Shores
00:00:07
since Champlain's
00:00:11
arrival now nearly half a million
00:00:15
Canadians including thousands of
00:00:17
indigenous
00:00:18
soldiers travel to Europe to serve
00:00:21
beside our allies in the first world
00:00:25
war bravery and sacrifice defines our
00:00:29
new nation
00:00:34
we are
00:00:35
explorers Risk
00:00:39
Takers and
00:00:41
dreamers fighting the
00:00:44
odds in a Land of
00:00:47
extremes across a vast continent we
00:00:50
build a
00:00:52
[Applause]
00:00:54
nation truly strong and free
00:01:03
August
00:01:05
1914 War erupts across Europe as a
00:01:08
British Dominion Canada automatically
00:01:11
joins in the
00:01:12
fight a young country seeking to find
00:01:15
its place on the world
00:01:18
stage within 6 weeks 33,000 Canadians
00:01:27
volunteer few of them with any military
00:01:30
training for the violence they would
00:01:32
soon
00:01:34
face they were farmers and fishermen and
00:01:37
teachers and bus drivers and you know
00:01:40
and suddenly they were called upon with
00:01:44
relatively short
00:01:47
training um to be killing
00:01:50
machines and they did it not for a
00:01:52
couple of weeks they for
00:01:55
years only 8 months into the war Germany
00:02:00
controls more than 95% of Belgium the
00:02:03
first Canadian division is about to face
00:02:05
its first major engagement joining the
00:02:08
Allied line to stop the enemy from
00:02:11
claiming the rest of
00:02:12
Belgium the battle will unfold near the
00:02:15
town of
00:02:16
[Music]
00:02:19
e the untested Canadian troops are
00:02:23
outnumbered
00:02:25
outgunned the German machine
00:02:28
gun and SP out 400 bullets a
00:02:34
minute of course they were scared to
00:02:36
death all of them just scared to death
00:02:39
nobody who went into World War I on
00:02:40
either side was experienced or had had
00:02:42
any experience to that level of
00:02:44
mechanization of
00:02:46
warfare among those braving the
00:02:49
horror is Francis pegam
00:02:53
magabo a 25-year-old annabi from wasaki
00:02:57
Nation on georan Bay Ontario
00:03:01
Pega magabo volunteers just days after
00:03:04
war is
00:03:06
declared he carries a medicine bag meant
00:03:09
to protect him a gift from an
00:03:13
elder he met a medicine man not long
00:03:17
before he joined the army and joined the
00:03:19
war who told
00:03:21
him your life is going to change soon
00:03:24
you're going to become something great
00:03:32
you know if you grow up hunting you grow
00:03:33
up trapping you grow up shooting you're
00:03:36
going to be good at this thing called
00:03:39
War fast and agile he's assigned the job
00:03:43
of
00:03:45
messenger pegam magabo must relay
00:03:47
Battlefield tactics from Central Command
00:03:50
to the most vulnerable soldiers at the
00:03:52
front CRI CR FR Lin yes sir thank you
00:03:56
it's a had telephone lines but of course
00:03:57
artillery bombardments tore up all the
00:03:59
telephone wires they had rudiment
00:04:02
Wireless they used signals they used
00:04:05
lights but nothing was as effective of
00:04:07
course as the human
00:04:11
Runner as a
00:04:13
runner pegam magabo is an open Target
00:04:16
for enemy fire running through the
00:04:19
trenches while everyone else is taking
00:04:21
cover takes a tremendous amount of
00:04:23
Courage where's the colonel down that
00:04:25
way very few of those soldiers survived
00:04:29
Peg magabo was one of
00:04:31
them get this back to command as fast as
00:04:34
you
00:04:34
can soon pegam magabo will run into the
00:04:38
most horrifying weapon of World War
00:04:43
I April 22nd
00:04:47
[Music]
00:04:49
1915 the Germans launched the world's
00:04:51
first large-scale gas
00:04:54
attack that death Cloud about 6 km long
00:04:58
of uh of Choke gas rolled through two
00:05:01
French divisions to the north of the
00:05:03
Canadians and those two divisions
00:05:07
fled pegam magabo and the first Canadian
00:05:12
division are engulfed by 160 tons of
00:05:16
deadly chorine
00:05:18
gas gas changes everything chemical
00:05:22
warfare changes
00:05:23
[Music]
00:05:26
everything soldiers gasp for breath as
00:05:29
the gas reacts with the moisture in
00:05:31
their lungs and transforms to flesh
00:05:34
eating hydrochloric
00:05:38
acid nine Canadian troops die
00:05:42
instantly we s people in with 19th
00:05:45
century
00:05:46
formation and 19th century Battle
00:05:51
Tactics into a 20th century
00:05:55
hell it was ironic cuz it was the
00:05:57
gentleman's War supposed L and it turned
00:06:01
into this real blood bath those who are
00:06:05
not killed are disabled easy
00:06:08
Targets in The Barrage of German
00:06:15
bullets pegam magabo
00:06:17
survives and he gets a critical field
00:06:20
reassignment got a job for you what have
00:06:23
you got for me sir his new mission is to
00:06:26
Target German Gunners plaguing Canadian
00:06:28
troops
00:06:32
pegam magabo is an uncommonly good shot
00:06:35
sniper
00:06:41
material he dashes through no man's
00:06:44
land eluding enemy
00:06:53
Gunners
00:06:57
patient focused
00:07:02
motionless he waits for just the right
00:07:08
shot you have to have a completely
00:07:10
different psyche to be a
00:07:12
sniper they will go to extreme lengths
00:07:15
climbing inside the carcass of a dead
00:07:17
horse and waiting for two days to to
00:07:18
make that one kill not every Soldier
00:07:21
wants to do that not every Soldier can
00:07:23
do that I think that's what sets him
00:07:25
apart
00:07:36
the Battle of second era claims 2,000
00:07:39
Canadian soldiers more than 4,000 are
00:07:43
wounded but in a stunning reversal the
00:07:46
rookie Canadians hold the Germans
00:07:49
back prevailing against the first major
00:07:52
gas attack in the history of
00:07:55
Warfare for the first time a colonial
00:07:59
Force triumphs against a European power
00:08:03
on European
00:08:04
[Music]
00:08:09
soil the Canadians made their name
00:08:12
forged their reputation and one that
00:08:14
they would carry forward into the
00:08:16
fighting over the next three and a half
00:08:20
years Pega magabo establishes his
00:08:23
reputation as a formidable
00:08:26
warrior in the next four years he racks
00:08:29
up 378 sniper kills more than any other
00:08:34
Allied or German
00:08:36
Soldier the average lifespan of a sniper
00:08:39
in World War I was about 6 weeks if
00:08:41
you're lucky Fran has survived the whole
00:08:43
not just survived the whole War but
00:08:45
became the W sniper of that
00:08:48
war his courage at U earns him the
00:08:51
military medal an honor he's awarded
00:08:55
twice more during the war making him the
00:08:58
most decorated indigenous soldier in
00:09:00
Canadian military
00:09:03
history when he returns home pegam
00:09:06
magabo turns his fighting Spirit to the
00:09:08
battle for indigenous
00:09:09
[Music]
00:09:11
rights becoming chief of
00:09:15
Wasing he helps establish a National
00:09:17
Organization to focus the many voices of
00:09:20
indigenous peoples across
00:09:24
[Music]
00:09:25
Canada today we call that organization
00:09:29
the Assembly of First
00:09:31
[Music]
00:09:37
Nations the success at era emboldens
00:09:40
other Canadians to volunteer within 2
00:09:43
years of the battle 300,000 new recruits
00:09:46
ship
00:09:49
overseas in the early days you could not
00:09:52
sign up people fast enough they could
00:09:54
not get Uniforms on them fast enough so
00:09:58
that the enlistment rat were
00:09:59
extraordinarily
00:10:01
high it was a national
00:10:05
project our grit and determination to
00:10:08
serve makes for fearsome and fearless
00:10:12
soldiers Canadians raise trench rating
00:10:15
to a grim
00:10:16
[Music]
00:10:22
art sneaking into enemy dugouts across
00:10:26
the front line
00:10:29
their
00:10:31
mission capture German prisoners and
00:10:34
secret documents to reveal enemy
00:10:42
plans Canadians prove to be very good at
00:10:45
creeping through no man's land raiding
00:10:47
the German trenches and and if they were
00:10:49
lucky getting back okay the intelligence
00:10:52
these soldiers bring
00:10:56
back is crucial to the greatest Canadian
00:10:59
general of the war Arthur William
00:11:04
Curry Curry's genius will emerge when
00:11:07
four Canadian divisions fight as one in
00:11:11
the most famous battle of our nation's
00:11:15
history vimi
00:11:21
rid in northern
00:11:23
France Rising above fields of Wheat and
00:11:26
potatoes the 7 km VI Bridge offers a
00:11:30
clear view of the surrounding
00:11:34
terrain early in the war the Germans
00:11:37
captured the
00:11:38
Ridge and turned it into a strategic
00:11:41
stronghold riddled with barbed wire
00:11:45
connected by 16 km of tunnels and
00:11:49
defended by dozens of machine gun posts
00:11:52
French and British troops have tried for
00:11:55
3 years to recapture the
00:11:58
ridge now it's the Canadians
00:12:01
turn taking VII Ridge was very important
00:12:04
as long as the Germans were there they
00:12:05
had an unparallel vantage point over the
00:12:08
Allied
00:12:11
line 5 km behind
00:12:14
viim the four divisions of the Canadian
00:12:17
Corps rehearse their attack for the
00:12:20
first time 100,000 men from across our
00:12:23
nation will fight as a unified Force up
00:12:27
to that point we've been filling in in
00:12:30
British battalions and filling in in
00:12:31
British divisions and for the Canadians
00:12:34
to fight as a single unified
00:12:38
Force I think imbued everybody with a
00:12:41
sense of purpose that they otherwise
00:12:42
might not have had a driving force
00:12:45
behind these training sessions is first
00:12:47
division Commander Arthur Curry that's
00:12:50
what I want that's much better Curry has
00:12:52
pushed for new Battlefield tactics he
00:12:55
uses intelligence
00:12:57
reports captured by TR raiding parties
00:13:01
to construct detailed Battlefield
00:13:04
mockups this way common soldiers know
00:13:07
exactly where German defenses are
00:13:09
located when they
00:13:13
attack unlike other Generals in the
00:13:15
first world war Curry has no
00:13:18
professional training some of the best
00:13:20
Generals in the world came from
00:13:22
non-military backgrounds I mean Arthur
00:13:24
Curry had been an insurance salesman and
00:13:26
not a very successful insurance salesman
00:13:28
at that before before the first world
00:13:29
war as an outsider Curry brings
00:13:32
unconventional thinking to the deadly
00:13:35
challenges at vimi he had a good mind
00:13:37
for Warfare he studied the lessons of
00:13:40
battle what worked what had
00:13:45
failed previous Allied attacks relied on
00:13:48
frontal
00:13:49
assault waves of infantry charging on
00:13:53
mass with catastrophic
00:13:56
results 150,000
00:13:59
dead and
00:14:01
wounded Curry advances a different plan
00:14:04
arur Curry understood that you did did
00:14:08
not just throw men into that sort of
00:14:11
chaos and expect to achieve
00:14:13
anything it's called the creeping
00:14:18
barrage first artillery troops shell
00:14:21
German defenses
00:14:25
Advance then oh infantry move in
00:14:34
Advance artillery and infantry will
00:14:37
attack the ridge in
00:14:39
Tandem and push the Germans back too
00:14:42
slow do it again bring it back
00:14:48
down it was extraordinar important that
00:14:50
it succeed for all sorts of different
00:14:53
reasons militarily yes but also just for
00:14:55
us we had to have we had to stand on our
00:14:58
own two feet Fe out from under the
00:14:59
shadow of the of the colonial
00:15:04
power in another break from tradition
00:15:07
battle plans are reviewed by everyone as
00:15:10
you were from senior officers down to
00:15:12
platoon and section commanders if they
00:15:15
are one minute too late the objective is
00:15:18
lost Curry believes even privates should
00:15:21
understand the details of the attack so
00:15:23
they are empowered to make decisions if
00:15:26
their commanding officer is lost in
00:15:28
battle
00:15:29
he believed that the individual Soldier
00:15:31
was important and that it'd be important
00:15:34
that he understand his role in that so
00:15:35
that if something goes wrong he can also
00:15:38
fill in that
00:15:39
Gap and it made our fighting unit
00:15:42
extremely
00:15:43
tight April 9th
00:15:47
1917 5:30
00:15:49
a.m. the Canadian battle plan goes into
00:15:53
effect the fury of 983 artillery
00:15:57
guns is Unleashed on the Germans forcing
00:16:01
them into their dugouts and
00:16:04
bunkers the shelling is so loud it's
00:16:07
heard in England 200 km
00:16:10
away the Germans are being torn up by
00:16:12
artillery shells it's a cacophony of
00:16:15
explosions the soldiers talk about this
00:16:17
uh almost pure wall of
00:16:20
[Music]
00:16:22
sound moments
00:16:24
later an initial wave of 20,000
00:16:27
Canadians
00:16:30
set out to reclaim Bim
00:16:37
Ridge they head straight into the deadly
00:16:40
sights of enemy snipers and machine
00:16:48
Gunners the Canadians are being punched
00:16:50
down by sniper
00:16:52
fire as they March and fight their way
00:16:55
up the ridge
00:17:00
among those storming the ridge is Junior
00:17:03
officer Captain th
00:17:05
McDow a star athlete at the University
00:17:08
of Toronto he's brought strength and
00:17:11
courage to the
00:17:14
battlefield in the chaos McDow and two
00:17:17
privates are separated from the rest of
00:17:20
their
00:17:21
Battalion McDow doesn't falter he is
00:17:24
determined to reach the German
00:17:27
bunkers Junior office officers officers
00:17:29
like f McDow were told to keep going
00:17:33
take whoever you've got and get to that
00:17:36
final objective he leads his soldiers
00:17:40
forward tracking down a group of
00:17:43
Germans who seek cover in a bunker from
00:17:46
the artillery
00:17:47
barrage most people will walk in the
00:17:50
opposite direction of something that can
00:17:53
hurt them and I think a soldier even if
00:17:55
he's scared he believe what he's about
00:17:57
to do is going to change the course of
00:17:59
the history we call that
00:18:04
courage McDow goes in after them
00:18:09
alone privates Arthur Haye and James Kus
00:18:13
wait
00:18:14
[Music]
00:18:23
outside McDowell comes face to face with
00:18:26
75 enemy soldiers
00:18:32
[Music]
00:18:34
private have the Battalion make ready to
00:18:37
receive
00:18:39
prisoners he concocts a daring deception
00:18:42
yes Sir Balan ready sir acting as if
00:18:45
there's an entire Canadian Battalion
00:18:48
waiting to take the Germans
00:18:51
[Music]
00:18:52
prisoner all right all right let's go
00:18:54
you three come on let's go move move
00:18:56
move let's go
00:19:12
go go go McDow sends the Germans out in
00:19:15
groups of
00:19:16
12 so hay and kis can keep them
00:19:21
subdued move go go go come on let's go
00:19:25
move move move
00:19:30
go go come on let's go guys come on on
00:19:34
the hill on the
00:19:39
[Music]
00:19:45
hill we were the most feared of the
00:19:49
Allied Forces that they went up against
00:19:51
there are lots of stories of German
00:19:53
resistance but then seeing our patches
00:19:54
that it was Canadian troops that throw
00:19:56
their guns down and put their hands up
00:19:59
we were
00:20:00
ferocious let's go guys come by
00:20:03
Nightfall on April 12th Canadian
00:20:05
soldiers take the entire Ridge finally
00:20:08
seizing strategically crucial viim from
00:20:11
the
00:20:12
Germans the Canadians uh under the
00:20:15
command of probably the most Innovative
00:20:17
General in World War I Sir Arthur Curry
00:20:19
our general took vimi Ridge in three
00:20:22
days a feat that had defied the French
00:20:24
and the British for 3 years
00:20:29
and all of a sudden here are the
00:20:30
Canadians standing on VII
00:20:32
Ridge Standing Tall and proud and the
00:20:36
rest of the world looked around and saw
00:20:38
Canada as capable of accomplishing
00:20:40
things that nobody else
00:20:43
could McDow is one of four Canadians at
00:20:47
vimi to be awarded the Victoria Cross
00:20:50
the Commonwealth's most prestigious
00:20:52
award for
00:20:54
Valor but he's the only one of those
00:20:56
four men to survive the war
00:21:02
War General Curry is promoted to
00:21:04
commander of the entire Canadian Corp
00:21:07
this was the commander of Canada's
00:21:09
primary fighting force 100,000 Soldier
00:21:12
strong where he is widely regarded as
00:21:15
one of the finest generals on the
00:21:17
Western
00:21:20
Front the Canadian Victory boosts Allied
00:21:25
morale but it comes at Great cost
00:21:29
7,000
00:21:31
wounded 3600
00:21:36
dead in gratitude France gives 100
00:21:39
hectar of its land to
00:21:41
Canada as the sight of a VII
00:21:52
Memorial but the war is far from over
00:21:56
and by 1918 the Allied Power face a new
00:22:00
enemy
00:22:02
starvation the Farms of Europe are Blood
00:22:04
Stained and battle scarred after 4 years
00:22:08
of
00:22:09
fighting but often we only focus on the
00:22:11
front lines but of course the war had a
00:22:13
tremendous impact on Canada's home front
00:22:17
and we were um playing a absolutely
00:22:20
crucial role in feeding the Western
00:22:22
armies we are an agricultural
00:22:25
nation in April the British ministry of
00:22:28
food food sends a cable can Canada
00:22:30
please send more
00:22:34
wheat but with
00:22:36
250,000 men on the battlefield there are
00:22:39
fewer hands to work the land back
00:22:43
home Britain's call for help will be
00:22:46
answered by a brand new group of
00:22:48
recruits teenage school
00:22:55
boys spring 1918
00:22:58
Kelvin Technical High School Winnipeg
00:23:01
all right gentlemen quiet down we' got a
00:23:03
very important guest speaker today ninth
00:23:06
grader Jerry Andrews has uncles and
00:23:08
cousins fighting in
00:23:10
Europe he's too young to enlist but he's
00:23:14
about to be offered the chance to do his
00:23:16
part at home Britain asks Canada to
00:23:20
increase wheat shipments but Allied
00:23:22
commanders are also desperate for
00:23:24
reinforcements on the
00:23:26
battlefield Canada's e8th prime minister
00:23:29
Robert bordon has made a controversial
00:23:32
decision that will divide the country in
00:23:35
late
00:23:36
1917 Borden's conscription law drafts
00:23:39
Canadian men into the
00:23:44
army Farmers feel they're already
00:23:46
serving by feeding the
00:23:49
troops they win an
00:23:52
exemption but in the spring of 1918 the
00:23:55
war machine needs soldiers more than
00:23:57
wheat
00:24:01
over 40,000 Canadian Farmers must leave
00:24:04
their fields
00:24:06
behind and join the fight in
00:24:08
[Music]
00:24:14
Europe now school boys are being
00:24:16
recruited as Farm hands to replace
00:24:19
them soldiers of the soil who will keep
00:24:23
Canadian grain flowing
00:24:25
overseas who will do their bit
00:24:34
14-year-old Andrews is one of 22,000
00:24:38
teenagers who sign
00:24:40
[Music]
00:24:43
up there was a glamour of sorts for
00:24:45
soldiers of the
00:24:46
soil their fathers their older brothers
00:24:50
their teachers they had gone off to war
00:24:53
they had
00:24:55
enlisted and here was an opportunity for
00:24:57
these teen ders on the home front to uh
00:25:00
also contribute to the war
00:25:04
effort Andrews finds himself in a
00:25:06
strange tough World far from Comfort it
00:25:10
was my first experience away from home
00:25:12
among strangers the Andrews boy yes sir
00:25:17
his boss Frank grain must teach this
00:25:20
city boy in mere weeks let's go what
00:25:22
most Farm hands spend their whole lives
00:25:25
learning
00:25:29
[Music]
00:25:32
my introduction to work began at 6:00
00:25:34
a.m. the day after
00:25:37
arrival out to the barn sharp keep those
00:25:40
rains tight feed and water the animals
00:25:43
clean out the
00:25:48
Stalls Andrews Works 15-hour days
00:25:52
planting and harvesting wheat for just
00:25:54
$30 a month
00:25:58
his biggest challenge the
00:26:01
elements Southern Manitoba is part of
00:26:03
Canada's Tornado
00:26:06
Alley day turned to
00:26:09
night flying gravel stung like
00:26:16
Buckshot violent storms dump torrential
00:26:18
rain and hail the size of baseballs
00:26:37
as suddenly as it started the wind debit
00:26:41
the dust settled daylight
00:26:46
returned like a bad dream the storm
00:26:53
[Music]
00:26:55
receded his work is a direct direct
00:26:59
benefit to the soldiers who are fighting
00:27:02
and who are just trying to keep Body and
00:27:03
Soul together the wheat Andrew helps
00:27:06
grow will be loaded onto a cargo ship in
00:27:09
Port Arthur more than 29 million bushels
00:27:12
are shipped down the Great Lakes through
00:27:14
the Welland Canal out the St
00:27:19
Lawrence and across the Atlantic to feed
00:27:22
our Hungry
00:27:23
Allies they're dependent on produce from
00:27:27
Canada and so this kid can know that's
00:27:30
going into somebody's stomach and that
00:27:32
is marching so he's making a direct
00:27:37
difference most soldiers of the soil
00:27:40
head home after a 3mon term you're doing
00:27:43
it but Jerry stays on for six good
00:27:49
job wartime wheat production helps
00:27:52
transform the fledgling Canadian wheat
00:27:54
industry into a global Force
00:27:58
today Canada is one of the world's top
00:28:01
exporters of
00:28:02
wheat $6.2 billion
00:28:06
[Music]
00:28:09
annually the farway war brings
00:28:11
unexpected changes to life in Canada and
00:28:15
for no one more than
00:28:17
women women shed domestic roles for paid
00:28:20
positions in factories and
00:28:22
[Music]
00:28:24
shops World War I was enormously
00:28:27
important important in terms of the
00:28:29
evolution of women's roles in Canadian
00:28:31
society and for many women it spelled
00:28:35
emancipation our thriving Munitions
00:28:38
industry employs more than 30,000
00:28:42
women women got a chance to enter the
00:28:45
labor force in a way they had never been
00:28:47
able to do before it didn't just change
00:28:50
their own perspective of themselves it
00:28:53
changed the way Society viewed them and
00:28:55
viewed what they were capable of doing
00:29:02
When The War begins only five nurses
00:29:05
serve in the Canadian
00:29:07
Forces by 1918 2500 Canadian women have
00:29:12
signed on as nursing sisters
00:29:15
overseas as a young woman can you
00:29:17
imagine the opportunity to really go to
00:29:21
the front lines to prove your metal to
00:29:24
test yourself to court danger it's not
00:29:27
so
00:29:28
from that which would motivate a young
00:29:32
Soldier Elanor Thompson enlists shortly
00:29:36
after nursing training in
00:29:39
Montreal metah hodj also signs up
00:29:43
motivated after her two brothers are
00:29:45
killed on the
00:29:47
front as part of the Canadian Army
00:29:49
Medical Corps they earn the rank and pay
00:29:52
of a left tenant a privilege not shared
00:29:55
by other Allied nurses meta can you give
00:29:58
give me a hand with
00:29:59
this Thompson and hodj have come to the
00:30:02
battlefield to save
00:30:05
lives they'll be lucky to escape with
00:30:15
theirs May 1918 at number three Canadian
00:30:19
stationary Hospital in duance France
00:30:22
Eleanor Thompson and meta Hodge tend to
00:30:25
the Daily flood of injured soldiers
00:30:30
desperate and determined the Germans
00:30:33
have launched a series of aggressive
00:30:36
attacks Thompson and hodj hear German
00:30:39
bombs falling in the nearby Village
00:30:41
almost
00:30:43
nightly Allied casualties have
00:30:46
skyrocketed in a single day Thompson and
00:30:49
hodj care for hundreds sometimes
00:30:52
thousands of
00:30:54
wounded skin seared by gas attacks
00:30:59
bodies
00:31:01
bullet-ridden studded by
00:31:04
shrapnel limbs blown
00:31:11
off the fighting on the Western Front
00:31:14
was industrialized Warfare of a whole
00:31:16
new scale and
00:31:18
magnitude soldiers were being killed and
00:31:22
injured and maimed uh in ways that they
00:31:24
had never seen
00:31:26
before our nurses they are dealing with
00:31:30
physical and mental and spiritual trauma
00:31:33
they're improvising
00:31:34
constantly they are soldiers in their
00:31:37
own
00:31:39
right and then they're a
00:31:45
Target just past midnight on May
00:31:49
[Music]
00:31:51
30th the quiet is broken by the wine of
00:31:54
a military aircraft Ro flying core
00:31:58
I don't think so for 50 years the Geneva
00:32:03
Convention has outlawed any attack on
00:32:05
hospitals that's a German plane a flare
00:32:09
dropped by the pilot should illuminate
00:32:11
the large red crosses making it off
00:32:15
limits Germans get inside quick
00:32:28
a bomb strikes the hospital dead
00:32:31
on an operating theater is
00:32:35
obliterated Thompson is hit by
00:32:41
debris P's leg is torn
00:32:45
open their Ward is on fire and threatens
00:32:48
to
00:32:49
collapse and a thousand helpless
00:32:52
patients are trapped inside the burning
00:32:54
building
00:33:00
this calls upon every level of their
00:33:03
education their personal metal their
00:33:05
vocation and their courage and their
00:33:08
ordinary Humanity Thompson and hodj work
00:33:11
through the night fighting fires and
00:33:14
guiding panic-stricken patients through
00:33:15
the wreckage to safety the nurses gave
00:33:19
everybody hope and that took tremendous
00:33:21
courage in times when it seemed
00:33:23
absolutely improbable that you would
00:33:26
survive
00:33:28
32 men and women are killed by the
00:33:30
initial blast but no other lives are
00:33:33
lost thanks to the nurse's heroic
00:33:39
efforts Thompson and hodj are awarded
00:33:42
the military
00:33:44
medal the first Canadian women to
00:33:47
receive a wartime decoration for
00:33:50
Valor we recognize their actions not
00:33:54
only as women but as persons you know
00:33:57
equal to everybody else so we should
00:34:00
celebrate heroic actions so that they
00:34:03
can become models for the Next
00:34:07
Generation the war helps change Canada's
00:34:09
perception of
00:34:11
women by the time Thompson and hodj
00:34:13
return home women will have the
00:34:17
vote 3 years later the country will
00:34:20
elect its first female Member of
00:34:23
[Music]
00:34:24
Parliament but first the war has to be
00:34:28
won a war that started on
00:34:31
Horseback is now being fought in the
00:34:35
skies the Wright brothers flew their
00:34:37
first aircraft in 1903 15 years later
00:34:41
the airplane has become a deadly and
00:34:43
feared
00:34:45
weapon the master of this aerial Mayhem
00:34:49
is Germany's legendary flying ace the
00:34:52
Red
00:34:52
Baron he prowls the skies hunting Allied
00:34:56
Airmen
00:34:58
he has 80 kills Baron V rck toffen the
00:35:02
German Ace was the highest uh scoring
00:35:04
Ace on the Western Front he was widely
00:35:07
feared he and his German Fighters
00:35:10
wrecked Havoc among the Allied Flyers
00:35:15
April 21st
00:35:18
1918 24-year-old Edmonton native Wilfred
00:35:21
W May joins the fight in Europe with
00:35:25
dreams of becoming an air ace the day
00:35:27
marks his second mission in the
00:35:30
air the average lifespan of a new pilot
00:35:33
is 11
00:35:35
days May knows the odds are stacked
00:35:37
against
00:35:39
him within 30 minutes of takeoff May
00:35:42
finds himself in the sights of the Red
00:35:45
Baron this is almost a death sentence
00:35:47
for
00:35:49
anybody BME is trying to shake the Red
00:35:53
Baron who's firing at him
00:35:59
and it really looks like wat May is
00:36:01
going to be killed
00:36:03
here in a death defying move which may
00:36:06
later claims was
00:36:09
inexperienced he nose Dives and loses
00:36:11
the
00:36:14
baron seconds
00:36:16
[Music]
00:36:19
later the Red Baron is shot
00:36:23
down who killed him nobody knows
00:36:28
Germany's hero is
00:36:34
dead May flies away
00:36:37
unscathed and an instant
00:36:40
Legend I mean almost nobody survives an
00:36:44
encounter with the Red
00:36:45
Baron wme's tour is almost over but his
00:36:50
greatest act of Courage lies ahead of
00:36:52
him in the Skies over Northern Alberta
00:37:00
on the 11th
00:37:02
Hour of the 11th
00:37:05
day of the 11th
00:37:07
month
00:37:09
1918 the guns on the Western Front
00:37:12
finally fall
00:37:14
silent Across the Nation our Collective
00:37:17
sacrifice turns into Mass Jubilation the
00:37:21
Vanguard of the Allied assault that won
00:37:24
that war in the fall of 1918 was Canada
00:37:28
every day we fought a battle and in the
00:37:31
end we carry the day survivors like WAP
00:37:34
May are given a hero's
00:37:39
welcome over 60,000 Canadians have lost
00:37:42
their lives in Europe
00:37:45
172,000 are wounded and over 9,000
00:37:49
suffer from Shell Shock what today is
00:37:52
called PTSD that war blew a hole through
00:37:55
this country and then we had to stitch
00:37:57
it back up together again as
00:38:01
Canadians and I think it as awful as it
00:38:04
was there had an awful lot to do with
00:38:05
making us what we
00:38:07
are we are proud of our role in securing
00:38:11
Victory and our new recognition as a
00:38:14
nation of
00:38:16
Heroes Heroes like Wilfred W
00:38:20
May in Edmonton he and his brother set
00:38:23
up Canada's first licensed Airline
00:38:27
May stages air shows and high flying
00:38:30
stunts then establishes the country's
00:38:33
first bush plane
00:38:36
service 10 years after the war the
00:38:39
nation's beloved flying ace makes
00:38:41
history a second
00:38:43
time in the Skies over
00:38:47
Canada New Year's Day
00:38:50
1929 Little Red River Alberta has been
00:38:53
hit with a deadly disease
00:38:56
defia the the disease is spreading
00:39:00
fast one man is already
00:39:04
dead a doctor sends an SOS to the only
00:39:08
man who can deliver a life-saving serum
00:39:10
in time Wilfred W May accepts the
00:39:14
mission prepare to serve his country
00:39:17
once
00:39:18
again there is that basic
00:39:21
inherent
00:39:23
social sense that we have which is that
00:39:27
we are all
00:39:29
connected we we simply are responsible
00:39:33
for one another and I think that kicks
00:39:35
in for most of us Conta May and co-pilot
00:39:41
Vic Herer embark on a virtual suicide
00:39:43
mission a 900 km flight in the dead of
00:39:48
winter in the unprotected open cockpit
00:39:51
of an Avro
00:39:55
Aven it's mind 30°
00:40:01
C when they hit gusting winds and snow
00:40:07
[Music]
00:40:08
squalls within hours the cockpits
00:40:11
instruments freeze
00:40:14
over May keeps flying blind on sheer
00:40:20
Instinct he felt compelled to bring this
00:40:24
medicine to this community he had to fly
00:40:27
and he found ways to do
00:40:31
[Music]
00:40:34
it reports of May's flight reach radio
00:40:37
station cjca in
00:40:40
Edmonton Wilfred walk May World War One
00:40:43
vet and local pilot is in the air as we
00:40:46
speak the station dubs his mission the
00:40:48
race against
00:40:50
death stay tuned for updates listeners
00:40:53
as we learn more we'll be right back
00:40:55
after these mess The Story Goes Coast to
00:40:57
Coast broadcast into kitchens and living
00:41:00
rooms
00:41:02
Nationwide radios used for strategic
00:41:05
Communication in World War I are now
00:41:09
widespread what's absolutely fundamental
00:41:12
to Canadian identity was was how radio
00:41:16
became so Central as a way to try to
00:41:20
connect this vast geography this this
00:41:24
community of communities
00:41:27
May doesn't know it but the nation is
00:41:30
following his every move a caller
00:41:32
reports seeing the plane just south of
00:41:34
Beast River W May is on his way rooting
00:41:37
for a beloved war hero to survive the
00:41:40
journey and save the people of Little
00:41:43
Red River I think W May made that
00:41:46
Journey because people needed help and
00:41:50
he cared but also he did it because he
00:41:54
believed he could do it that it was an
00:41:56
incredible Challenge and he was probably
00:41:58
one of the few that was able to accept
00:42:01
it and to meet it
00:42:04
headon one day after
00:42:07
takeoff flying ace WAP May and co-pilot
00:42:10
Vic
00:42:11
Herer achieve the
00:42:14
impossible they touch down in Fort
00:42:17
Vermilion do you have the Ser for here
00:42:20
doctor and deliver the life-saving serum
00:42:23
Little Red River will be inoculated
00:42:27
and a community will be
00:42:30
saved people live because of that what
00:42:33
an incredible act what a heroic act and
00:42:36
it's a Canadian
00:42:40
[Music]
00:42:43
act once again May is given a hero's
00:42:47
welcome
00:42:48
home a Canadian is someone who cares
00:42:52
they actually really care not just about
00:42:55
themselves and their family but they
00:42:57
care about their neighbors whether those
00:43:00
neighbors are across the street across
00:43:02
the country or the other side of the
00:43:03
world Canada's accomplishments in World
00:43:06
War I leave us transformed we are
00:43:10
competent self-reliant ready to take our
00:43:13
place on the world
00:43:16
stage in the post-war era new Industries
00:43:20
will create seemingly Limitless
00:43:23
opportunity growing cities will generate
00:43:26
unprecedented wealth
00:43:28
but Canada will unexpectedly face new
00:43:31
challenges economic collapse chronic
00:43:35
poverty and how to care for those left
00:43:38
behind
00:43:41
[Music]
00:43:57
l
00:44:00
[Music]
