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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

13. The No Chill Canadians

Sir Arthur Currie, who led the Canadian Corps in WWI. Imgur

As seen above, throughout much of the Great War, numerous sectors of the Western Front, at least some of the time, observed an unofficial “live and let live” policy between Germans and their French or British enemies. Understandably, many war-weary soldiers reasoned that war was already hard, so why make it harder that it need be? It was tacitly agreed along stretches of the frontline that neither side would attack the other unless ordered. There were even small gestures such as scheduling local ceasefires so both sides could eat their meals and use the latrines in peace. Such behavior was almost unheard of where Canadians were present. Canadian Corps commander Arthur Currie boasted after the war that his men prided themselves on slaughtering their foe the enemy wherever and whenever they could. As he put it in 1919, “[w]e tried to make his life miserable“.

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.