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The Not-So-Nice Canadians of World War I

Khalid Elhassan December 9, 2024 15 min

Canadian - A WWI Canadian recruitment poster — A WWI Canadian recruitment poster. Library and Archives, Canada

17. Origins of a Deadly Beef: The Crucified Canadian

Canadian - The Crucified Canadian as the central figure in a 1918 bronze sculpture, 'Canada's Golgotha' — Canadian – The Crucified Canadian as the central figure in a 1918 bronze sculpture, ‘Canada’s Golgotha’. Canadian War Museum

The Canadian forces’ path to becoming WWI’s meanest warriors began with an atrocity story that made the rounds in 1915. Witnesses at the frontline near Ypres, Belgium, reportedly saw the corpse of a Canadian soldier who had been crucified, his limbs pinned to a tree or barn door with bayonets. The story of the “Crucified Canadian” infuriated Canada’s fighting men. They developed a vendetta against Germans that lasted through war’s end and well beyond. In reality, none of the “Crucified Canadian” account was true. However, that did not matter. What mattered was that Canadian soldiers believed that it was that true, were convinced that it had actually happened, and acted accordingly.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.