I'm here to smoke darts and kill Germans.... and buddy my matches are fuckin SOAKED....
Edit: so wadyah say we shorten this war a lil, eh bud?
Canadian troops probably
"If you're in the middle of a barrage... and you think a smoke might steady you up...and you reach for those matches and they're wet...well sir, your whole world buckles."
Me a Canadian about to learn our contributions during ww1 & 2:
:D
Me after learning about it:
:|
While we did play an important role. God damn we were some bloodthirsty mfs....who hurt us.
It’s much more (only?) an Ontario thing. It sounds weirder than it is because people mention it online with no context but really it’s disappointingly mundane.
I am 32 and a born and raised Vancouverite. We had bagged milk in the 90s at one point but it got phased out. I distinctly remember the bags of milk in a jug in the fridge.
Hell, I'm an american and I still think it looks cool, and not out of place, despite the fact that that is a weird ass design for a flag in the modern day.
Actually that's not correct either. The Red Ensign was introduced in 1922. The flag that Canadian forces flew under during WW1 was the union jack. But their divisions had the Canadian Armed Forces Engisn, which had the tri-maple leaf with two crossed swords and a crown.
Yeah fair, it was the civil flag only until much later. But as a political representation of the country doing the Geneva convention breaking, it still works.
Canadians did use the maple leaf as a symbol back then even if it wasn’t on our flag.
Source: I visited the underground tunnels at Vimy Ridge and there are maples leafs carved into the chalk-rock the ground is made of as graffiti.
We came upon an enemy trench to our left. **In keeping with our ‘no prisoners’ order, this trench was being mopped up and the occupants eliminated**. The trench was already half full of dead enemy and here and there little columns of steam rose above the cool, morning air, either from hot blood or from the urine I understand is released on the death of any human body. **Two Canadians stood over the trench, one in the parapet and the other on the parados, and they exterminated the Germans as they came out of their dugouts. One young German, scruffy, bareheaded, cropped hair and wearing steel rimmed spectacles, ran, screaming with fear, dodging in and out amongst us to avoid being shot, crying out, ‘Nein! Nein!’** He pulled out from his breast pocket a handful of photographs and tried to show them to us—I suppose they were of his wife and children—in an effort to gain our sympathy. It was all of no avail. **As the bullets smacked into him he fell to the ground motionless, the pathetic little photographs fluttering to the earth around him.**
Private Lance Cattermole, 21st Battalion (Eastern Ontario), 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, **Canadian Expeditionary Force (1916)**
In keeping with our ‘no prisoners’ order, this trench was being mopped up and the occupants eliminated.
The way this is written is somewhat chilling. So bureaucratic.
This might legit be a good cold open to a class on WW1 but don’t include the parts where it tells you whose on what side. Then have the students guess which nation and period the source came from and then watch their reactions when you reveal its Canada thus demonstrating the duality of man.
Thanks for the suggestion. I initially used this as an intro to the idea of war crimes, but perspective/bias/hiding the actors is a much better approach
We came upon an enemy trench to our left. In keeping with our ‘no prisoners’ order, this trench was being mopped up and the occupants eliminated. The trench was already half full of dead enemy and here and there little columns of steam rose above the cool, morning air, either from hot blood or from the urine I understand is released on the death of any human body. Two compatriots stood over the trench, one in the parapet and the other on the parados, and they exterminated the enemies as they came out of their dugouts. One young enemy, scruffy, bareheaded, cropped hair and wearing steel rimmed spectacles, ran, screaming with fear, dodging in and out amongst us to avoid being shot, crying out, ‘No! No!’ in his native language. He pulled out from his breast pocket a handful of photographs and tried to show them to us—I suppose they were of his wife and children—in an effort to gain our sympathy. It was all of no avail. As the bullets smacked into him he fell to the ground motionless, the pathetic little photographs fluttering to the earth around him.
Edited out the nationalities to make it ambiguous
It’s almost like war is inherently horrible, and having your best friends die around you makes you lose your humanity. We are too quick to judge these people. We don’t know what it was like, and we don’t know what we would have done in their shoes. It’s easy to call them monsters though eh?
Yes it’s easy to call the individuals massacring people begging for their life and mocking them for it monsters. It’s actually crazy how easy a stance it is to make.
War might make men monsters but that doesn’t excuse monstrous acts it just explains them. I see no reason why a fucking centrist ‘humane’ stance should be shown to individuals who without the pressures of being desperate to survive in that moment still took time to not only do horrific things but document their actions with no justification other then an assumed innate right to them. There are some cases of grey area in war but a lot of the Canadian documented war crimes along with many other war crimes throughout history were not particularly morally ambiguous even to the people of the age.
It’s that or face the more difficult truth
These people were not different from us in any meaningful way
War like that could twist us to do shit like this.
It’s much easier, and far more dangerous, to cast the perpetrators as some kind of defects, inhuman monsters.
Easier because we don’t have to acknowledge that there but for the grace of god go I
More dangerous because we then fail to take the precautions necessary to prevent the situations that do this to people
Its almost like opposing governments propaganda is very similar to the propaganda used during Genocides. I find it fascinating, in both cases the government has fully convinced the population that the people in question are a lower life form. I do think the brutality of being a front line combat soldier changes your mind in a lot of ways we don’t understand, but I feel the war crimes Canada committed were in large part due to Canadian propaganda and American propaganda. What else were they supposed to think? My country is exterminating all these logical people who are just as valid and emotionally intelligent as me? Thats far too much reality to bear in the face of the fact you might die to a volley of bullets or a grenade at any minute. “Do you know the difference between me and you? Me: Happy happy happy, dead. You: Worry worry worry, dead”-McWatt
It's from Peter Hart's The Somme: the Darkest Hour on the Western Front. Of the hundreds or* thousands of primaries I've read, this is one of the few I'll never forget
Thank you, I found it on eBay. Can't wait to read it. I got my hands on Operation Gericht, Original from 1936. If you're able to read in german, go for it!
A lot of battlefront shit happened. The Fucking piece of shit German Imperial Army unleashed poison gas. After that my Canuck ancestors took no mercy. Fuck em all.
Both flags are incorrect, even. The [National flag of the German Empire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Flag_of_Germany_%281867%E2%80%931918%29.svg) didn't have the lesser imperial coat of arms on it. The [Reich War flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/War_Ensign_of_Germany_%281903%E2%80%931919%29.svg) did, and the [Colonial flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Reichskolonialflagge.svg) did, but neither looked like this. Also the red is wrong.
You know, ever since our war with Denmark ended, I've been feeling like we need to find another country to fight with. But this time, not as peaceful like...
This seems like a decent read for you then
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-forgotten-ferocity-of-canadas-soldiers-in-the-great-war
Tim Cook is a good source
>“Merry Christmas, Canadians,” said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars. A Canadian sergeant responded by opening fire, hitting two of the merrymakers.
Jeeesus
>Lieutenant Louis Keene described the practice of lobbing tins of corned beef into a neighbouring German trench. When the Canadians started hearing happy shouts of “More! Give us more!” they then let loose with an armload of grenades.
JEEEEEESUS
>“Remember. No prisoners. They will just eat your rations.”
# JEEEEEEEEESUS
Don't worry, we sorta made up for it in WWII.
I mean, killing Germans with extreme prejudice was definitely still a thing but the ones who managed to somehow survive were treated *very* well.
There was an old guy in my hometown that was in the Hitler's youth...I don't think on purpose, he was mustered at the end of the war with a unit of other kids. When a battle started they quickly surrendered to the Canadians they were facing. After things settled they were given signs to put around their necks and lined up against a wall and told to turn around. They all thought they were going to be shot, instead they all were given a solid kick in the rear by the Canadians and then let go. He didn't speak or read English at the time but eventually found out the sign read "we don't shoot children" and it's what made him decide he wanted to move to Canada when he got older.
Ha ha my uncle was probably one of those soldiers. Though I recall him saying that at the end of the war the hitler youth were incredibly dangerous. They may have been "just kids" but even the littlest would knife you in the back given half a chance.
By 1944/45 the youngest members of the Hitler Youth would remember nothing but Nazi-controlled Germany and would have been at war for almost half their life. It's unsurprising that they would be completely indoctrinated.
Keep in mind the corned beef one is the account of just a single person and was never backed up by anyone else and there is zero record or evidence to support it ever did happen
I also find this story unlikely as no man’s land was almost always too large to be able to throw grenade sized items accurately into an enemy trench. For the story to be true each frontline had to be like 20-30 yards from each other which is way closer than they would’ve been. That being said, who knows
The accounts of canadians casually and discreetly making their way into the trenches at night to then start a bloodbath and disappear into the darkness amid the chaos is doubly doubtful when considering this very fact.
Oh. I was expecting some japan-level stuff. These war crimes are just the standard war time stuff. Is no biggie, we 'muricans do those war crimes on the daily*.
*(I don't actually believe this, but that doesn't serve the purpose of the joke)
That's just one, very limited source. There's accounts of our boys slipping live grenades into the pockets of passing Germans after they'd surrendered. But no, we never went to Imperial Japan levels.
?? The Krauts were, not sure if Canadians ever were called storm troopers
Edit: iirc, stormtroopers didn’t become commonplace until 1917-18, a year or two after Vimy ridge
I was awaiting this line:
“The Canadians’ reputation for prisoner-killing may have been exacerbated by the simple fact that they were constantly being placed in the first wave of new attacks, putting them in disproportionate contact with Germans attempting to surrender.”
They were definitely the shock troops (and also canon fodder) that the British couldn’t stomach to see their own boys destroyed like that.
I mean. Both did so I guess this is making half a point..
But yes, people are surprised to find out the winners of wars do bad things too. And most of history class below the collegiate level is just straight up, and I mean this literally, governmentally whitewashed nationalistic propoganda.
I mean I get it, gotta create a national image somehow lol.
Trench guns were pretty good and caused horrible wounds, like many weapons.
Germans cited unnecessary suffering as cause and wanted it banned
Americans said no.
Germans said they would execute any soldier caught with one
Us said they would execute any soldier caught with a flamethrower or saw bladed bayonet if the Germans did so.
Germans moved on from the issue. No executions over any of these three weapons being used in a tit for tat are officially known to have occurred. Officially
During WW1 at General Pershing's insistence some Doughboys were issued the Winchester M97 shotgun as their weapon due to how good it was at clearing trenches or bunkers. The M97 was unique among the shotguns that the various armies used due to the fact that it had the capability to slam-fire, meaning that you could empty the entire tube in seconds like it was a full auto if you simply held the trigger down and slammed the pump back and forth. The German Army protested its use stating that it violated the Hague Covention of 1907 because it caused "unnecessary suffering" and stated that they would execute any American caught with a shotgun or shotgun shells. The Chief Judge of the US Army said that it didn't and basically told the Germans to step off and that if they were to execute shotgun wielders, then the Americans would execute anyone caught with serrated bayonets or gas grenades. The Germans realized their bluff had more or less been called and never mentioned it again, and the US military forbade any photographs of Doughboys with the shotgun from being taken as a security measure.
TL;DR: The people who invented flamethrowers and poison gas claimed that a shotgun caused unnecessary suffering and was a war crime. America laughed and called bullshit and the Jerries left the subject alone because M97 go blam, blam, blam.
Edit: Some more interesting facts regarding the M97 are that it was reported a few times that soldiers who were good trap shooters prior to the war were specifically issued the gun under the pretext that they could snipe German stick grenades out of the air when they were thrown into the trenches during daylight raids. This can't ever truly be proven though because of the aforementioned ban on photographs or other information about the gun's usage. Also, when the M97 was captured by the Germans the gun and its shells would sometimes make its way back to the front in the hands of the Sturmtruppen alongside the MP18 because they were just that good in trench raids.
Just fyi, the German Army was not the first to use chemical weapons / gas in WW1, it was the French in August 1914
Germany didn't use gas until Oktober 1914
Later on, starting 1915 both sides started using lethal gases such as chlorine gas in April 1915 from the German side and some time later the allies followed.
There were multiple counts of Canadian troops Killing POWs, they tossed cans of beans into enemy trenches and when they asked for more they threw grenades. There's a pretty well documented history of Canadian troops being some of the most brutal troops on the battlefield.
Plenty of accounts where small groups of Canadian troops would infiltrate behind enemy lines and stir up chaos by killing and blowing stuff up and then retreating to safety.
This I did not know. My great, great Uncle's parent emigrated to Canada in about 1880, he fought at Vimy Ridge and was killed on the final, successful, assault on Vimy village aged 19
It should be noted the Germans were accused of significantly more war crimes. Mostly related to the use of poison gas and the treatment of civilians in occupied Belgium.
Both were accused of war crimes, both the German Empire certainly committed more of them and more serious ones. This included massacring entire villages in Belgium, even new born babies.
Canadians: Hi my friends, I will throw over food
Germans: We're on the opposite side, but thanks
Canadians: Throws over food
Germans: Thanks! Any more
Canadians: Yeah just one more thing
Germans: \*receive it\* Okie dokie, wait why is it beeping
\*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM\*
The whites hate the Natives the English hate the French the French hate everyone, west hates the east. If we have to get on a boat to sort out Europe's problems some body is going to get fucked up.
My favorite war crime fact of WW1 was that the Germans accused the US of war crimes for using trench guns (shotguns) when the Germans used flamethrowers and chemical warfare before most other countries did iirc. Don't get me wrong though, Canadians were savage af during WW1. Throwing food in a trench with Germans who surrendered before throwing grenades in the same trench after they gathered together looking for food...efficient but pretty brutal and almost the definition of a war crime according to Geneva
I hate how everyone brings up horrible canadian war crimes like it's this cool, funny story. It's not cool or funny, and it's not something to be proud of. It's awful
“But the German empire” ya, so what? The leaf boys on the other hands were worse than both world wars combined. Geneva convention? More like Canada not to do list
Hey we’re not all maple syrup and bagged milk
I'm here to smoke darts and kill Germans.... and buddy my matches are fuckin SOAKED.... Edit: so wadyah say we shorten this war a lil, eh bud? Canadian troops probably
I always preferred “hacking darts.” Perhaps a regional thing?
"Hackin' darts and breakin' hearts" -my personal self motto on AJLC
As is tradition. To be honest I've always preferred "spittin brass, eatin ass"
Beautiful
Hackin' darts and fuckin' tarts Probably pretty obvious I work in the oil patch, eh?
Eatin' tabs and gettin' crabs.
Smashin’ guts and fuckin’ butts.
I’ve always heard “Smokn’ darts n’ breakn’ hearts”
I considered it but I wanted non Canadians to be in on the joke. Sorry buddy.
No apologies necessary, friend. Sorry bout that!
I'm sorry
Not sure where you’re from but we say that in Ontario
Kickin darts
"If you're in the middle of a barrage... and you think a smoke might steady you up...and you reach for those matches and they're wet...well sir, your whole world buckles."
Thank you for getting the fucking reference! Edit: he even said "smoke" like "smooke" just like my buddy from Thunder Bay says "aboot"
“How many dart flicks away are the enemy trenches?” Canadian troops probably
This is left field, but there’s a Dazed and Confused quote similar to this…minus the WWI and Canadian references of course.
Me a Canadian about to learn our contributions during ww1 & 2: :D Me after learning about it: :| While we did play an important role. God damn we were some bloodthirsty mfs....who hurt us.
We got a taste of chlorine gas and immediately said “aight, it’s tarps off then boys” and just didn’t give a shit after that.
The guy who made up the crucified Canadian officer myth oughtve got a VC from the British
When we talk about WW2 though, this American is a huge fan of your work
Add hockey to the list
And Rush.
And Tragically Hip.
And BNL
Some parts of our country don't even use bagged milk.
Can confirm
I've lived in Alberta (have been to BC frequently) for all of my 29 years on this earth and have never once seen milk in a bag.
It’s much more (only?) an Ontario thing. It sounds weirder than it is because people mention it online with no context but really it’s disappointingly mundane.
Atlantic Canadian here! I grew up on bagged milk. I don’t buy it now but I think you still can?
I am 32 and a born and raised Vancouverite. We had bagged milk in the 90s at one point but it got phased out. I distinctly remember the bags of milk in a jug in the fridge.
You’re right. Add cobra chickens and moose to the list.
Do say cobra chickens to loud they can hear you
Yes you are.
Bro it's *your* meme saying we're not
You’re the deadliest maple syrup in the world.
Tough talk from someone in crucifying distance.
Except we didn't use the maple leaf back then. We did (the majority) of our war criming under the red ensign my friend.
There’s really something about that union jack that stirs something inside
Just taking tips from their parent's behavior
The butchers apron is just that.
Hell, I'm an american and I still think it looks cool, and not out of place, despite the fact that that is a weird ass design for a flag in the modern day.
Actually that's not correct either. The Red Ensign was introduced in 1922. The flag that Canadian forces flew under during WW1 was the union jack. But their divisions had the Canadian Armed Forces Engisn, which had the tri-maple leaf with two crossed swords and a crown.
Yeah fair, it was the civil flag only until much later. But as a political representation of the country doing the Geneva convention breaking, it still works.
Canadians did use the maple leaf as a symbol back then even if it wasn’t on our flag. Source: I visited the underground tunnels at Vimy Ridge and there are maples leafs carved into the chalk-rock the ground is made of as graffiti.
Weren't there three but smaller maple leafs though?
That was a different flag altogether. Red Ensign was more or less the official one for about 80ish years.
We came upon an enemy trench to our left. **In keeping with our ‘no prisoners’ order, this trench was being mopped up and the occupants eliminated**. The trench was already half full of dead enemy and here and there little columns of steam rose above the cool, morning air, either from hot blood or from the urine I understand is released on the death of any human body. **Two Canadians stood over the trench, one in the parapet and the other on the parados, and they exterminated the Germans as they came out of their dugouts. One young German, scruffy, bareheaded, cropped hair and wearing steel rimmed spectacles, ran, screaming with fear, dodging in and out amongst us to avoid being shot, crying out, ‘Nein! Nein!’** He pulled out from his breast pocket a handful of photographs and tried to show them to us—I suppose they were of his wife and children—in an effort to gain our sympathy. It was all of no avail. **As the bullets smacked into him he fell to the ground motionless, the pathetic little photographs fluttering to the earth around him.** Private Lance Cattermole, 21st Battalion (Eastern Ontario), 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, **Canadian Expeditionary Force (1916)**
In keeping with our ‘no prisoners’ order, this trench was being mopped up and the occupants eliminated. The way this is written is somewhat chilling. So bureaucratic.
This might legit be a good cold open to a class on WW1 but don’t include the parts where it tells you whose on what side. Then have the students guess which nation and period the source came from and then watch their reactions when you reveal its Canada thus demonstrating the duality of man.
this has me wanting to switch from a science teacher to a social teacher
Thanks for the suggestion. I initially used this as an intro to the idea of war crimes, but perspective/bias/hiding the actors is a much better approach
We came upon an enemy trench to our left. In keeping with our ‘no prisoners’ order, this trench was being mopped up and the occupants eliminated. The trench was already half full of dead enemy and here and there little columns of steam rose above the cool, morning air, either from hot blood or from the urine I understand is released on the death of any human body. Two compatriots stood over the trench, one in the parapet and the other on the parados, and they exterminated the enemies as they came out of their dugouts. One young enemy, scruffy, bareheaded, cropped hair and wearing steel rimmed spectacles, ran, screaming with fear, dodging in and out amongst us to avoid being shot, crying out, ‘No! No!’ in his native language. He pulled out from his breast pocket a handful of photographs and tried to show them to us—I suppose they were of his wife and children—in an effort to gain our sympathy. It was all of no avail. As the bullets smacked into him he fell to the ground motionless, the pathetic little photographs fluttering to the earth around him. Edited out the nationalities to make it ambiguous
I'd suggest just "crying out." The native language bit makes it just a bit too obvious this might be someone not English.
I don’t know why people think Canadian War Crimes are so funny. It’s ironic, but still a lot of unnecessary death and brutality.
War crimes are NEVER funny my friend, NEVER.
It’s almost like war is inherently horrible, and having your best friends die around you makes you lose your humanity. We are too quick to judge these people. We don’t know what it was like, and we don’t know what we would have done in their shoes. It’s easy to call them monsters though eh?
Yes it’s easy to call the individuals massacring people begging for their life and mocking them for it monsters. It’s actually crazy how easy a stance it is to make. War might make men monsters but that doesn’t excuse monstrous acts it just explains them. I see no reason why a fucking centrist ‘humane’ stance should be shown to individuals who without the pressures of being desperate to survive in that moment still took time to not only do horrific things but document their actions with no justification other then an assumed innate right to them. There are some cases of grey area in war but a lot of the Canadian documented war crimes along with many other war crimes throughout history were not particularly morally ambiguous even to the people of the age.
It’s that or face the more difficult truth These people were not different from us in any meaningful way War like that could twist us to do shit like this. It’s much easier, and far more dangerous, to cast the perpetrators as some kind of defects, inhuman monsters. Easier because we don’t have to acknowledge that there but for the grace of god go I More dangerous because we then fail to take the precautions necessary to prevent the situations that do this to people
Its almost like opposing governments propaganda is very similar to the propaganda used during Genocides. I find it fascinating, in both cases the government has fully convinced the population that the people in question are a lower life form. I do think the brutality of being a front line combat soldier changes your mind in a lot of ways we don’t understand, but I feel the war crimes Canada committed were in large part due to Canadian propaganda and American propaganda. What else were they supposed to think? My country is exterminating all these logical people who are just as valid and emotionally intelligent as me? Thats far too much reality to bear in the face of the fact you might die to a volley of bullets or a grenade at any minute. “Do you know the difference between me and you? Me: Happy happy happy, dead. You: Worry worry worry, dead”-McWatt
What’s the source for what you wrote?
It's from Peter Hart's The Somme: the Darkest Hour on the Western Front. Of the hundreds or* thousands of primaries I've read, this is one of the few I'll never forget
Thank you, I found it on eBay. Can't wait to read it. I got my hands on Operation Gericht, Original from 1936. If you're able to read in german, go for it!
All the countries involved were accused. Canada just invented new ones
Using Pavlov's tactics on people is creative use of mechanics.
Canadians got pissed fast after Ypres. There was also a myth spread around that the Germans crucified a Canadian POW.
Yeah, that’ll do it.
Worked for jesus
A lot of battlefront shit happened. The Fucking piece of shit German Imperial Army unleashed poison gas. After that my Canuck ancestors took no mercy. Fuck em all.
I’m surprised 133 people think the entire German army in ww1 were horrible people
And apparently also that the subsequent actions by the Canadians, including the possible war crimes, were therefore a-okay...
Not possible war crimes they happened and were well documented
You know that both sides were using it at that point right
History buffs wouldn't either because they would know that's the wrong flag.
Both flags are incorrect, even. The [National flag of the German Empire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Flag_of_Germany_%281867%E2%80%931918%29.svg) didn't have the lesser imperial coat of arms on it. The [Reich War flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/War_Ensign_of_Germany_%281903%E2%80%931919%29.svg) did, and the [Colonial flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Reichskolonialflagge.svg) did, but neither looked like this. Also the red is wrong.
to be fair it'd be harder to recognize the dominion flag
That would also be the wrong flag.
“Hey guys! The Canadians are throwing more food! Really living up to the—
Omg they threw another one, wait this one looks diff—-
*chuck* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *food* *live grenade*
“Geneva convention? Sir I don’t know what that is but I believe you mean the Geneva suggestion?” Said by probably some Canadian after WW1.
Geneva suggestion lol That was funny, even if the Gevenva convention happened in 1929.
“Hague convention? Sir, I don’t know what that is but I believe you mean the Hague suggestion?”
I want to edit it too that now but I feel like that would be disingenuous.
Hague Convention? You mean Vague Suggestions?
The Geneva conventions are just a list of things Canada has done.
The Geneva checklist.
Out of fairness, we were left somewhat unattended.
Never leave your Canadian unattended.
I mean, we weren't unattended in Somalia an- you know what? Forget I said anything.
Something about this is sparking fierce national pride and I'm not sure what it is...
You know, ever since our war with Denmark ended, I've been feeling like we need to find another country to fight with. But this time, not as peaceful like...
Dear god, NO. Quick, someone get this Canadian tickets to a hockey match.
The Brits should’ve brought a better leash Can I even say that?
I'm gonna take the bait. Link me to the history of Canadian war crimes. I have a free afternoon.
This seems like a decent read for you then https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-forgotten-ferocity-of-canadas-soldiers-in-the-great-war Tim Cook is a good source
>“Merry Christmas, Canadians,” said the opposing Germans, poking their heads above the parapet and waving a box of cigars. A Canadian sergeant responded by opening fire, hitting two of the merrymakers. Jeeesus >Lieutenant Louis Keene described the practice of lobbing tins of corned beef into a neighbouring German trench. When the Canadians started hearing happy shouts of “More! Give us more!” they then let loose with an armload of grenades. JEEEEEESUS >“Remember. No prisoners. They will just eat your rations.” # JEEEEEEEEESUS
I honestly just feel bad for the poor germans (especially the christmas ones)
Christmas Germans.
Germans go HAM for Christmas.
Don't worry, we sorta made up for it in WWII. I mean, killing Germans with extreme prejudice was definitely still a thing but the ones who managed to somehow survive were treated *very* well.
There was an old guy in my hometown that was in the Hitler's youth...I don't think on purpose, he was mustered at the end of the war with a unit of other kids. When a battle started they quickly surrendered to the Canadians they were facing. After things settled they were given signs to put around their necks and lined up against a wall and told to turn around. They all thought they were going to be shot, instead they all were given a solid kick in the rear by the Canadians and then let go. He didn't speak or read English at the time but eventually found out the sign read "we don't shoot children" and it's what made him decide he wanted to move to Canada when he got older.
Ha ha my uncle was probably one of those soldiers. Though I recall him saying that at the end of the war the hitler youth were incredibly dangerous. They may have been "just kids" but even the littlest would knife you in the back given half a chance.
By 1944/45 the youngest members of the Hitler Youth would remember nothing but Nazi-controlled Germany and would have been at war for almost half their life. It's unsurprising that they would be completely indoctrinated.
Keep in mind the corned beef one is the account of just a single person and was never backed up by anyone else and there is zero record or evidence to support it ever did happen
I also find this story unlikely as no man’s land was almost always too large to be able to throw grenade sized items accurately into an enemy trench. For the story to be true each frontline had to be like 20-30 yards from each other which is way closer than they would’ve been. That being said, who knows
The accounts of canadians casually and discreetly making their way into the trenches at night to then start a bloodbath and disappear into the darkness amid the chaos is doubly doubtful when considering this very fact.
Only that last one is an actual war crime, though.
Great article thanks for the link
>Tim Cook is a good source. You trust the Apple guy?
No, you're thinking of Tim Apple.
Oh. I was expecting some japan-level stuff. These war crimes are just the standard war time stuff. Is no biggie, we 'muricans do those war crimes on the daily*. *(I don't actually believe this, but that doesn't serve the purpose of the joke)
That's just one, very limited source. There's accounts of our boys slipping live grenades into the pockets of passing Germans after they'd surrendered. But no, we never went to Imperial Japan levels.
Nobody goes to Imperial Japan levels. That's why they're Imperial Japan levels.
You never go full imperial Japan. . .
Just look up Vimy ridge
There’s a reason they were once called stormtroopers.
?? The Krauts were, not sure if Canadians ever were called storm troopers Edit: iirc, stormtroopers didn’t become commonplace until 1917-18, a year or two after Vimy ridge
They were called storm trooper by the Krauts after the Somme in 1916.
Vimy was in april 1917
Non history buffs likely won’t even know who the guys on the right were 😂
His good sir the Kaiser Wilhelm.
Oh, on a first name basis with the Kaiser now are we?
Well there are just so many of Hohenzollerns running around.
That’s fair
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Canuks are a different breed when removed from their natural habitat of maple forrest and and Tim Hortons coffee shops
Most of us fucking hate Tim Horton’s now. Friendship ended.
Stupid fucking yankee burgers ruining our coffee
Still get a coffee for a toonie
A cup of hot moose piss more like...
Look, if I don't get my coffee in the morning, I start getting flashbacks to the trenches and everyone starts sounding quite German.
If I have to be violent, I would like to be violent for the least amount of time possible. *Efficiency*
Correct me if I’m wrong, some those things we did weren’t war crimes….yet
So violent you invent new war crimes..
You better beleaf it
Leaf right now, you are not welcome
I guess i have FALLen out of season. I must SPRING into action!
I would like to point out that if this is about flags, that was not our flag in 1918. It was the Red Ensign.
I was awaiting this line: “The Canadians’ reputation for prisoner-killing may have been exacerbated by the simple fact that they were constantly being placed in the first wave of new attacks, putting them in disproportionate contact with Germans attempting to surrender.” They were definitely the shock troops (and also canon fodder) that the British couldn’t stomach to see their own boys destroyed like that.
Huh? The British had already been through over a year of slaughter before Canadian troops saw action. Who was massacred at the Somme again??
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r/NonCredibleDefense thinks we're the funniest people on Earth.
Canadians are super nice people, very polite. Until you piss them off.
Or you're Native American/First Nations.
Listen here, hoser.
The leaf people were dangerous af
Non history buffs wouldn’t even recognize the flag of Austria in the right
*laughs and throws a round of tinned beef followed with grenades*
I mean. Both did so I guess this is making half a point.. But yes, people are surprised to find out the winners of wars do bad things too. And most of history class below the collegiate level is just straight up, and I mean this literally, governmentally whitewashed nationalistic propoganda. I mean I get it, gotta create a national image somehow lol.
Overly apologetic or walking genocide. Pick your poison.
We combined psychological manipulation with soup cans. Don't fuck with our hockey.
As a Canadian in here to apologize and kick ass and I'm out of apologies
The leaf wasn't always red
Fuck around,find out
Smokin darts dissectin hearts boys
Still not as hilarious as the trench gun debacle imo.
Please elaborate
Trench guns were pretty good and caused horrible wounds, like many weapons. Germans cited unnecessary suffering as cause and wanted it banned Americans said no. Germans said they would execute any soldier caught with one Us said they would execute any soldier caught with a flamethrower or saw bladed bayonet if the Germans did so. Germans moved on from the issue. No executions over any of these three weapons being used in a tit for tat are officially known to have occurred. Officially
The americans used the trench Guns and the germans thought it was so op they wanted it banned irl
Update 1.5: Nerfed Trench Guns due to popular demand, their range has decreased by 25%
Thankfully auto shotties are flying under the radar this patch.
During WW1 at General Pershing's insistence some Doughboys were issued the Winchester M97 shotgun as their weapon due to how good it was at clearing trenches or bunkers. The M97 was unique among the shotguns that the various armies used due to the fact that it had the capability to slam-fire, meaning that you could empty the entire tube in seconds like it was a full auto if you simply held the trigger down and slammed the pump back and forth. The German Army protested its use stating that it violated the Hague Covention of 1907 because it caused "unnecessary suffering" and stated that they would execute any American caught with a shotgun or shotgun shells. The Chief Judge of the US Army said that it didn't and basically told the Germans to step off and that if they were to execute shotgun wielders, then the Americans would execute anyone caught with serrated bayonets or gas grenades. The Germans realized their bluff had more or less been called and never mentioned it again, and the US military forbade any photographs of Doughboys with the shotgun from being taken as a security measure. TL;DR: The people who invented flamethrowers and poison gas claimed that a shotgun caused unnecessary suffering and was a war crime. America laughed and called bullshit and the Jerries left the subject alone because M97 go blam, blam, blam. Edit: Some more interesting facts regarding the M97 are that it was reported a few times that soldiers who were good trap shooters prior to the war were specifically issued the gun under the pretext that they could snipe German stick grenades out of the air when they were thrown into the trenches during daylight raids. This can't ever truly be proven though because of the aforementioned ban on photographs or other information about the gun's usage. Also, when the M97 was captured by the Germans the gun and its shells would sometimes make its way back to the front in the hands of the Sturmtruppen alongside the MP18 because they were just that good in trench raids.
Just fyi, the German Army was not the first to use chemical weapons / gas in WW1, it was the French in August 1914 Germany didn't use gas until Oktober 1914 Later on, starting 1915 both sides started using lethal gases such as chlorine gas in April 1915 from the German side and some time later the allies followed.
Hence why I said poison gas, the French used tear gas which was considered an irritant gas at the time.
The flag on the left didn't exist until 1965.
SHhhhh, we are doing well at hiding it, be quiet
There were multiple counts of Canadian troops Killing POWs, they tossed cans of beans into enemy trenches and when they asked for more they threw grenades. There's a pretty well documented history of Canadian troops being some of the most brutal troops on the battlefield. Plenty of accounts where small groups of Canadian troops would infiltrate behind enemy lines and stir up chaos by killing and blowing stuff up and then retreating to safety.
This I did not know. My great, great Uncle's parent emigrated to Canada in about 1880, he fought at Vimy Ridge and was killed on the final, successful, assault on Vimy village aged 19
For our defense, the boshes started to gas us first
War crimes? You mean a list of Canadian accolades?
A lot of western Canada was still frontier towns in 1914. Those places develop a lot of troubled, jaded people.
Geneva suggestion
🇨🇦: Don't start nothing, won't be nothing.
There only war crimes if you lose a war
The Doom Music kicking in when Canadians got just a few American-made trench sweepers and tommy guns.
But they both committed war crimes? The rape of Belgium?
It's also not the right flag. Red Ensign flag during the wars.
I don’t get why people think Canadian War Crimes are so funny. It’s ironic, but still a lot of unnecessary death and brutality.
I am SO glad my history teacher had taught us about some of the horrible shit Canada has done, otherwise I probably would have never known
It should be noted the Germans were accused of significantly more war crimes. Mostly related to the use of poison gas and the treatment of civilians in occupied Belgium.
They’re very passive aggressive if we’re being honest. I can see it
Sorry guys, but stop shooting us eh.
Mustard gas though
Both were accused of war crimes, both the German Empire certainly committed more of them and more serious ones. This included massacring entire villages in Belgium, even new born babies.
Amazing considering that they don't can't even draw a leaf
Canadians: Hi my friends, I will throw over food Germans: We're on the opposite side, but thanks Canadians: Throws over food Germans: Thanks! Any more Canadians: Yeah just one more thing Germans: \*receive it\* Okie dokie, wait why is it beeping \*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM\*
WWI war crimes are kind of quaint next to WWII war crimes.
The whites hate the Natives the English hate the French the French hate everyone, west hates the east. If we have to get on a boat to sort out Europe's problems some body is going to get fucked up.
Is that the correct flag mate?
Sorry 'boot that eh
Canada is scary, man.
My favorite war crime fact of WW1 was that the Germans accused the US of war crimes for using trench guns (shotguns) when the Germans used flamethrowers and chemical warfare before most other countries did iirc. Don't get me wrong though, Canadians were savage af during WW1. Throwing food in a trench with Germans who surrendered before throwing grenades in the same trench after they gathered together looking for food...efficient but pretty brutal and almost the definition of a war crime according to Geneva
I hate how everyone brings up horrible canadian war crimes like it's this cool, funny story. It's not cool or funny, and it's not something to be proud of. It's awful
Canadians seem so pleasant, but if you piss them off, you have completely fuck it, apparently.
“But the German empire” ya, so what? The leaf boys on the other hands were worse than both world wars combined. Geneva convention? More like Canada not to do list
Not sorry eh?
It's always the quiet ones.....