THE GREAT WAR SHAPED OUR WORLD DECISIVELY, AND THAT STILL MATTERS A GREAT DEAL.
This spring, a new monument in France will be unveiled to commemorate the Canadian victory in capturing Hill 70 in August 1917. But it’s been 100 years since the First World War, so they’d all be dead any way and it was a stupid war, right? So who cares?
The short answer is that a lot of Canadians care, and have donated much of the funding for the monument, as well as an accompanying book and educational materials. It even has the backing of the governor general. The long answer is that the deeds of 1917 matter enormously.
They matter partly because the First World War shaped the modern world decisively, far more than the second. As I have argued in my documentary on the subject and in the forthcoming companion book that the Second World War heroically contained some of the damage from the first, as did the Cold War. But without the first, we would not have had Nazism, Bolshevism or the moral relativism that helped paralyze the West in responding to both challenges.
Such reflections tend to underline the notion that the Great War was a shameful venture, fought stupidly for stupid reasons, with gratuitously disastrous results. But, in fact, the war was necessary because Germany was trying to take over not just Europe, but the entire world; its geopolitical ambitions included defeating Britain at sea for goals so expansive, and aggressive, that the security of North America was directly imperilled. The United States was not wrong to get into the war; it was wrong to get into it so late and so ill- prepared. And Canada was right to stand shoulder- toshoulder with Britain, France, Australia and others from the outset.
Seen from that perspective, the accomplishments of the Allied armies, including extraordinary Canadian victories in 1917 and 1918, look very different. The Great War was a bloody shambles. But given the technology of the late 19th century, it is hard to see how it could have been otherwise, unless the Germans had won quickly in the fall of 1914, as they very nearly did. And while that outcome would have spared us from Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, I shudder to imagine the world that would have resulted.
Once the Germans were stopped at the gates of Paris, driv- ing them from Belgium and the occupied regions of France was going to be horribly difficult and costly, given the killing power not just of machine guns behind barbed wire, but of artillery, as well as the lack of offensive options that better tactics, tanks and other technical changes had created by 1940. But even by 1917, things had changed in significant part thanks to Canadian efforts.
We do tend to remember the April 1917 victory at Vimy, where Canada “became a nation,” even while i nsisting we are peacekeepers, not warriors. But Vimy not only had a huge effect on the Canadian psyche, but also on the outcome of the war. Pioneering tactics, from advancing troops “leaning in” behind a creeping barrage to leapfrogging to sophisticated counter- battery work against German artillery, were used there in ways that pointed forward to the 1918 war of movement that brought the Germans to the brink of victory in the spring, then thrust them over the brink of defeat in the summer and fall.
They were employed again with dramatic effect at Hill 70 in August, a largely diversionary attack to draw off German troops from Passchendaele and pin down potential reinforcements. And it worked superbly. Gen. Arthur Currie, who was commanding the Canadian corps, did a wonderful job planning the battle in detail. But to praise him is not to overlook the determination, courage and imaginative improvisation of ordinary soldiers who we remember not only because they succeeded, but because they fought so valiantly for such a worthwhile cause.
It’s odd to look at Great War pictures, including Canadians at Hill 70, and see that under such awful conditions, the troops often appear resolute, even cheerful. It reminds us how surprisingly well humans can respond to adversity, while failing when not being tested. And it shows that in a very real sense, the passage of time changes nothing. Indeed, if worthy deeds a century ago mean nothing today, worthy deeds today will mean nothing tomorrow and hence are futile in our own time. But we know they are not.
So we care about the Great War because it shaped the modern world. But we also care because those who fought it on our behalf did deeds that set a timeless example for us and our posterity. That is why Australians still flock to Villers- Bretonneux, why the Last Post sounds every evening at the Menin Gate and why the monument to Hill 70 to be dedicated in France next spring will draw visitors 100 years hence.
WE CARE BECAUSE THOSE WHO FOUGHT IT ON OUR BEHALF DID DEEDS THAT SET A TIMELESS EXAMPLE.