Cost of the war

The Paris peace conference

In my Mind the cost of war was absolutely devastating. First of all The amount of men that died while in the trenches were absurd it seem like every day there would atleast be two people dead in my trench due to fire fights or sickness. And in total this can surpass a number of more than 37 million almost 7 million of those are just civillian deaths just innocent people that were trying to make the best out of the war were dying because of who knows what. And 10 million military personnel had fought and died, and for what a war that could have easily been avoided and instead there could have been peace. there were even an approximate of 6 million men just went missing it makes the mind wonder how some bodies were treated so badly that they could not have been recognized or some bodies would have just been blown up to bits, and how their loved ones must feel at home wondering where they are when deep inside they know they are dead. And even after the war there was the spainish flu which killed one third of the people surviving the war. But it was not only the brave men who's lives were lost, it was the amount of money. 4 trillion dollars were spent on that war my mind cannot even think about what that money could do if it was spent on helping the world and help develop cities.And because they spent 4 trillion dollars on war  they say the economy is going straight down the drain and also most of the money that people spent on war bonds are not even bieng paid back which is outrageous.But also the cost of the war politicly will be severely damaged especially towards the German government because they are being blamed for everything. They are even forced to pay for all of the damage that was inflicted to every country. which is absolutely unfair because they were not the instigator of the war if anything it should be all the central European allied powers that need to pay for the damage.And also socially I think the German people are going to have to deal with alot of racism from other nationalities because they are being seen as the people who started the war. But no matter what the cost of the war is the only thing we trul know is that it will be a long time before any of the issues above are going to be resolved.

Battle of Vimy ridge

When I heard of the battle of Vimy ridge I was absolutely amazed at the amount of bravery that it took those men to take the ridge in three days and it also made me proud to be a Canadian. it was the first tie I actually felt the need to tell everyone in my trench that I was a proud Canadian. And that victory came a t a perfect time In our trench and our morale was low so when we heard of this it brought back our spirits and made us realize that if we put our minds to it we could take on the enemy with no fear and win the war. But all that victory came with a price especially at vimy ridge where 10,000 of our men were either dead battling for our colony or wounded trying to fight there in just three days. But I feel like that was possibly one of the most important battles for Canada because it proved that us Canadians or not just some colony but that we are a strong independant force that could do anything and better if we put our minds to it. And the Canadians were not the only ones with loses The German position over there took a loss of 20,000 men and we were able to take 4000 POW's.

Survivor

When news of the allied force was surrendering first fell upon our ears some of us did not even belive it. THe trouble we had gone through to defend this position was immense. I slowly started to realise That I could go home back to my family and friends and rejoice to the fact that we finally won. Although it is not like the war left me unharmed I have lots of wounds physicaly and psychologicaly. I have taken quite a few bullets but some how survived and I have seen many of my friends blown to bit and those scars are the ones that will never leave me. But I still was happy to be able to go home. Although dude to a disasterous disease  called the Spainish flu we were not truly able to rejoice going home until 2 years after. Even some people from my platoon died of that disease before we were able to go home. I can only imagine the pain of their family. But once we were shipped back off to home from Europe I was 20 where as I was 16 when I first joined. When I reached home I was so happy to see my family waiting for me by the port that I could barely even speak.But even though I was home and safe and coping well I would never forget all the pain of that war.

Medical Treatment

We would only have a single field hospital outside our our reserve trenches. Each field hospital was just a simple medium to large sized huts where they could hold an approximately 1000 people. each one was run by a matron and a certain amount of nurses to help. Our medical treatment in the trenches were very low grade. I can understand this because its hard to get the medical supplies in but sometimes it would be so bad that we wouldnt get treated because the hospitals and reserve trenches were already filled up. But most of the time if someone was extremely hurt the hospital or reserve trenches would take them in and give them large amounts of morphine to compromise with the pain. They would also have opium to make the patient sleep when they needed to perform surgerys. If there ever was an infected wound the hospital would often put on Iodin as a powerful disinfectant. There were tons of other medicine but most were just herb medical mixtures and were very primitive. Out on the trenches when we could not get to the reserve trenches easily we had only two small bottles of rubbing alchaol to treat our wounds and often times the applying the medicine would be more painful than the wound its self .

Meeting Arthur Currie

When I met Arthur Currie It was near the end of the war he was there to congratulate us about our victory because he heard that the triple alliance was running out of resources and that they will be surrendering soon. When we lined up to meet him everyone was dead silent. We saw him come up the hill on horse back with the cavalry the amount of prestige that he carried with him while riding his horse. He looked so brave and fearless like if he was facing 100 German troops he could kill them all within seconds. As he left his horse he saluted our lieutanant and then went down the line to shake our hands and congratulate us. When he got to me I shook his hand and he smiled and moved on, even though it was just a two second meeting of Currie I was amazed at the amount of excitement I got the way he carried himself gave me the energy to pick myself up and continue on this war. When he was done congratulating us he made a short but admiring speech about honour and commitment and how we will be celebrated after the war. And as he left back with his cavalry we were cheering at the though of this war almost being over and us being able to go home.

Womens role

When the men were fighting off the German in the war and got injured. They would be sent to the field hospital or reserve trench and who would treat them it would be women. Many of the women that were in Europe during the war were ambulance drivers to quickly get wounded men into hospitals or nurses to help the patients get back to regular health and keep them fighting.But these women were just as brave as the men they would volunteer from home where they were safe all the way to Europe where it would be dangerous but they knew what they were going to sign up for and did it anyway for the better of their country. But it was not only the nurses and ambulance drivers that made a difference it are the Women back at home who are working multiple jobs to serve their children properly and work a "mans" job at the same time. Also the women who work at the ammunition factories are giving up countless numbers of hours to make ammunition and weapons for us just to make sure were doing good.

Propaganda

The only reason I had ever joined the war was because of those posters that were always hanging around town. They were everywhere in the stores,schools, almost anywhere you could look there were these posters about the war. whether it was fighting in the war or working in an ammunition factory or buying victory bonds there were posters every where. They all presented ideas that the war was some sort of respectful and honourable fight and most of us believed it. It was not only the posters that made me go to that war it were also the television. I had seen multiple commercials of victory bonds and brave men jumping in the middle of no mans land and shooting all the Germans. But glory was not the only the propagandists used there was also posters that made you feel guilty. Much like the poster I had always seen in the local corner store it said "The men are fighting why arent you" and displayed a picture of a lone man fighting the Germans. It were these types of posters that made me feel like I was not doing my part in order to stop the war.And also the propaganda posters were able to make my friends and family join the war so then it made me feel even more guilty that my friends were fighting the war and I was sitting at home doing nothing.

Weapons

The weapons of this war are absolutely powerful that it seems like every moment there is a chance of you dying, due to the advancement of technology. Of course the most obvious one is the invention of the machine gun. This weapon single handedly changed warfare forever. for example wars cannot be fought traditionally in an open field otherwise we would all be mowed down by its 500 rounder per minute terror. Even when we adapted trench warfare it still cause major casualties especially when people have to go "over the top" where they are completely vulnerable. I experinced this weapon first hand when it would fire at us sometimes some of the bullets would make it through the mud and the wood which we made a barriers.The biggest draw back to this weapon was that it was not portable and it was a mounted weapon  . The second devastating weapon was the modern mortar, this weapon is able to carry out explosive rounds from miles away with almost perfect accuracy I also experinced this first hand in the trenches when sometime the rounds would drop very close to me I am very lucky of not being struck by its shrapnel which would often blow off some peoples limbs. The biggest draw back to this weapon was that it was extremely  hard to move and in times of needing to move quickly and far it would be difficult to take it with you . But prehaps the most devastating of all weapons to have ever been used in warfare was the poison gas. This weapon is possibly one of the most devastating weapons of all time able to clear out whole trenches of people easily. This gas had a amazing reputation of being called "creeping death" because I heard stories where when the enemy released it, it would look like a fog slowly advancing towards the enemy and when it got to the trenches it would slowly dip into the trenches and everyone in the trenches would feel like they were drowning inside of themselves. There is only one known way to counter this which was the gas mask. luckily I never encountered this weapon. The major drawback with this is that they could only use this weapon when the wind was facing the enemy and any change in wind could make it devastating to the people using the weapons.

Life on the front lines

When I reached the trenches at around 4:00 after getting of  the troop train I saw an immense field with burnt trees and mortar shells just lying around. My seargent told us to get into the trenches that were about 50 feet away from us as we quickly got into the trenches he told us that we are going to be rotating into the "front line" trenches. When the day had past we had to wake up early in the morning and quickly get into the front line trenches because of surprise attack, I scurried through through the support trenches and into the communication trenches. The second I was out of the communication trenches I was horrified at the site of dead bodies, blood,mortar shells. It was probably one of the most vile things I had seen. But it was not only the sight the sound of the artillery fire and mortar rounds were deafening and the smell was indescribable. But before I knew it my seargent forced me to get up against the trench wall and shoot, but during half way through the fire fight a mortar shell was able to get into a part of the trench about 60 feet from me and when it landed I heared all the screams of the men crying in agony. And when the dust cleared up I could easily see the remains of disembodied people I nearly fainted but somehow I kept fighting because of instinct. In the absence of time when the fire fight was over I looked around and realized The amount of destruction after only one day of fighting. But then I spotted something rather strange lots of the soldiers were taking off there clothes and gear and checking it for something, when I asked them they told me they wee looking for any type of flees, bugs and getting them off my shirt. I then followed to do what they were doing because if I did not it would be extremly discomforting and could lead to death if any of the bugs or flees had a virus with them. After a couple of hours I saw men taking a pack of cards and playing setting up some card games they were all playing card games and having laughs all around, but I would not play with them after what I had seen there was no way I could just let it all go and just start to have fun. And while I was sitting alone I saw a few people getting carried of by stretchers two of them had a strange type of fungus on there feet called trench foot and the other one was wounded. I then started to realize that this is what I was going to go through until my next rotation.

Enlistment

On the day of June,27,1914 the Canadian military enlisting men for a war in Europe they said it was something of  honour and glory and respect but as I soon found out it was nothing of the sort, but that is besides the point. While pondering  the decision to join the army I was confounded by the fact that my fellow relatives and friends had joined the war effort despite them being under the legal age, their reasons were varied from "It is a mans duty to be fighting this war" and "if I don't fight this war then who will". It were these very same statements which in the end enforced my decision to join the army,and at the same time my familly was very short on the money and could use some money to pay off some of the bills. I never told my mother that I was leaving because she was always telling me to keep away from the war even though I felt likeit was my duty as a man to be fighting this war. Shortly after I went to the enlistment station by my school, I was told that I would first be with the a Infantry unit consisting of 6 men and that I was with the twenty first infantry battalion.They told me I was going to be sent off to Europe on July,19,1914. But first I had to sty at a training camp which was at the enlistment station the training there was very challenging we had crawl under barbed wire and learn  how to shoot rifles it may have been tough but it gave me a sense of duty just like the people back at home used to talk about how the war is about honour and respect. But as I soon found out the reality was much farther from the truth than anyone could have imagined.