Canada and Canadians nowadays have a reputation as being one of the nicest countries and people in the world. You would not know it though, from the behavior of Canadian soldiers in World War I. In that conflict, soldiers of the Canadian Corps earned a reputation as the war’s most bloodthirsty and ferocious fighting men. Below are nineteen fascinating facts about the not so nice Canadians of WWI.
19. Why Were WWI Canadian Soldiers So Vicious?
Both friend and foe were confused by why Canadian WWI soldiers were so ferocious, brutal, and vicious towards the Germans. French soldiers had seen their country invaded, and a significant portion of their land conquered and devastated. The British endured German zeppelin raids that bombed their cities, German warships that bombarded their coastal communities, and the depredations of German U-boats that tried to blockade their island nation and starve them into surrender. The homes and families of Canadian soldiers, by contrast, were far away, safe, sound, prosperous, and did not experience any German aggression. A commonly accepted explanation is that Canadians were constantly trying to avenge the “Crucified Canadian”, a battlefield rumor about a captured Canadian supposedly crucified by the Germans. It was a rumor with no basis in reality.
