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Tragic Discoveries from the Canadian Indigenous Schools and other Events

Khalid Elhassan July 27, 2021 37 min

Painting by Kent Monkman of the tragic seizure of Indigenous children by the RCMP to place in mandatory boarding schools. Pintrest

Australian soldiers make their way over the muddy terrain during the tragic Battle of Paschendaele — Australian soldiers make their way over the muddy terrain during the tragic Battle of Passchendaele. Wikimedia

14. Mud Made the Already Tragic and Miserable Conditions of WWI Trenches Even More Miserable and Tragic

Stuck in the mud of Flanders amidst the Battle of Passchendaele, it often took six men to stretcher a single casualty over the muck. Men stumbled through glue-like mud that sucked the boots from their feet, and that was often as deep as their waists or deeper. Soldiers no longer thought of those in different uniforms as the enemy: that honor, or dishonor, went to the deep and all-devouring mud. Wounded men often faced a tragic end when they were swallowed up by the slime, and hale men were frequently buried when sodden trench walls collapsed around them.

Soldiers came to fear the mud even more than they feared their opponents’ shells, bullets, and bayonets. As a British officer described his men’s suffering: “Covered with mud, wet to the skin, bitterly cold, stiff and benumbed with exposure, cowed and deadened by the monotony of 48 hours in extreme danger and by the constant casualties among their mates, they hung on to existence by a thin thread of discipline rather than by any spark of life. Some of the feebler and more highly strung deliberately ended their lives.”

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.